What to do if a visually impaired woman wants a guide dog and her husband has an allergy to dog hair? "No problem," thought Wally Conron, head of the breeding division of the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia in the early 1980s, "we just take a poodle". Two years and 33 disappointments later, he was ready for a new path. He mated his best Labrador bitch with a King Poodle. This resulted in three puppies, one of which was nonshedding.  

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But nobody wanted to have the hybrids. Shortly Wally gave the little ones the name "Labradoodle" and described them in 1989 as the new allergy-friendly guide dog puppies. This got the stone rolling. A new world opened up for many people with dog hair allergy. The demand for such dogs escalated. Within a short time the market was flooded with groodles, spoodles, caoodles or snoodles.

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  Out of the 31 Labradoodles born at the Royal Guide Dog Center, 29 could be used as guide dogs. An excellent result! Unfortunately only a small part of the puppies were nonshedding. Wally quickly realized that it was still a long way. Some breeders were ready to face this task with great dedication. Other breeds were tentatively crossed, with only the Cocker Spaniel proven. Today's Australian Labradoodles are no longer crossed. To protect this extraordinary breed clubs were founded in Australia, America and Europe. The members of these clubs are carefully selected and may only use registered, tested breeding animals. This is not to be compared with the Labradoodles known in Switzerland, which are direct descendants of matings of Labrador and Poodle. This breed is the result of decades of selection for character, health and coat quality.