What is a Golden Sheepadoodle? Here’s everything you need to know. A Golden Sheepadoodle is a canine hybrid of hybrids. One of its parents is a Sheepadoodle, and the other is either a Golden Retriever or Goldendoodle. Both of the Doodle breeds are Poodle hybrids themselves.
How big do golden Sheepadoodles get?
The other parent for a Sheepadoodle is an Old English Sheepdog. For a Goldendoodle, the other parent is a Golden Retriever. These Golden Retriever and Sheepadoodle mixes or Sheepadoodle Goldendoodle mixes are rare and relatively unknown for several reasons.
Doodles themselves are of a new mixed breed. Their invention dates back to around the 1960s. This hasn’t given humanity much time to learn about them or create many breed members.
What Is The Golden Sheepadoodle?
However, what experts know about Doodles can help you learn about the Golden Sheepadoodle. By looking at the traits of this hybrid doodle’s parents, experts can infer or predict its traits. This will help explain some terms that you will find later in the article.
How Heredity Works For Golden Sheepadoodles
Any living creature inherits genes from its parents. These genes mix and create traits. These include eye color, hair texture, personality, and so on. However, the mere mixing of genes is not what causes certain traits to appear over others.
Instead, the building blocks of specific genes, called alleles, cause this to happen. Each gene has alleles. An offspring inherits half of its genes from one parent. It inherits the other half from the other parent.
Alleles can either be dominant or recessive. A dominant allele will usually overpower a recessive one when both are present. This causes the trait attached to the dominant allele to activate in the gene. Two dominant alleles will cause the same.
The gene with this combination will then cause the dominant trait to appear, or it will be a part of a string of genes that lead to a trait. However, if there are two recessive alleles, their traits will activate.
Then the single gene will cause the recessive trait to appear or be a part of a string of genes that cause a trait. For instance, dominant alleles cause a curly coat in dogs. More specifically, the C² or C variant allele causes a curly coat, while two n alleles cause a straight coat.
Size of a Golden Sheepadoodle
Doodles are not all one size. This is because Poodles come in three sizes: Toy, Miniature, and Standard. Toy Poodles have a maximum height of 10 inches. Miniature Poodles have a height of around 11 to 15 inches. Standard Poodles are around 15 to 22 inches in height.
Breeders can breed Doodles from every size of a Poodle. However, Standard Poodles are the popular parent choice for Sheepadoodles. This is because sheepdogs are enormous dogs, and it’s difficult to breed them with dogs many times smaller than them. Therefore, Sheepadoodles measure around 17 to 20 inches tall. Breeders breed Goldendoodles with all sizes of poodles.
A Miniature Goldendoodle (a Retriever bred with a Toy or Miniature Poodle) is 13 to 20 inches tall. Small and large-sized Standard Goldendoodles are 17 to 24 inches tall. Scientists haven’t quite learned what controls the size of dogs.
They have only recently determined that different variations in the gene IGF-1 cause dogs to be large or small. Therefore, the parents’ heights are our only clue to Golden Sheepadoodle possibilities. A Miniature should stand around 15 to 20 inches tall. A Standard should stand around 17 to 24 inches tall.
Golden Sheepadoodle Traits
Humanity has been learning about dogs through centuries of breeding and scientific study. On top of humanity’s experience with selective breeding, scientists have also learned a bit about dog genetics.
They now know somewhat about which genes cause certain traits in dogs. For example, they know which traits are recessive or dominant and need multiple genes and alleles to appear.
This, along with their genetic knowledge, can help determine which traits puppies are more likely to have. Therefore, by knowing the traits of Golden Retrievers, Goldendoodles, and Sheepadoodles, we can predict the traits of a Sheepadoodle and Goldendoodle mix.
How Dog Breeders Use Genetics For Breeding
Dog breeders use a method known as selective breeding. They take two dogs with specific traits and breed them together. Usually, if both dogs have the same characteristics, their offspring will inherit these.
For example, two black dogs are more likely to produce black puppies than a black dog and a white dog. This isn’t 100% certain, though. A puppy can inherit recessive alleles from both their parents even if the parents show dominant traits.
However, this chance becomes less likely as breeders breed multiple generations of dogs with similar traits together. All this breeding has resulted in the purebred dogs that we see today. Breeders also prefer to use these, as the traits of their offspring are easier to predict.
The Personality of a Golden Sheepadoodle
Personality is difficult to determine in Golden Sheepadoodles. This isn’t just because multiple genes determine canine personality. It’s also because Doodles are hybrids and not purebred dogs.
It’s easier to predict personality traits in purebreds because these dogs all have similar traits. Two dogs of different breeds have unique traits. It’s uncertain which of these genes the offspring will receive.
The best thing to do is use the specific personalities of each parent to predict the personality of the offspring. Then, experts can use the average personality to predict each offspring’s personality better across all members of the two Doodle hybrids.
Goldendoodles are, on average, quiet dogs who are affectionate to all kinds of humans, even strangers and other dogs. They need to spend a lot of time outside, have high energy levels, and love to play. They are also very intelligent and can somewhat tolerate being alone.
Sheepadoodles are also, on average, quiet, affectionate to everyone, and playful. They also lean more towards having high intelligence, high energy levels, and a great need for exercise.
A significant difference is that they can tolerate indoor living much better than a Goldendoodle. They also have less tolerance for being alone. As a Goldendoodle Sheepadoodle mix, the Golden Sheepadoodle will probably take the most similar traits between both parents.
Therefore, a member of the mixed breed will at least likely be quiet, playful, intelligent, and affectionate to all. There’s one last thing to consider about personality, though.
Owners can control at least part of a dog’s personality by being raised. An owner should treat a dog with love and socialize it properly. This will best help their dog to have a preferable personality.
Color and Coat Texture of a Golden Sheepadoodle
As mentioned earlier, one of two dominant traits often causes curliness in a dog’s coat. However, the genes controlling dog coat colors are a bit more complex. As shown here, different variations of multiple genes cause different black, red, brown, and cream colors to appear in the coat.
Beyond that, many color patterns (such as spots) appear on dogs. Another thing to consider is that all Doodles (Sheep and Golden) come in a wide range of colors. For example, Sheepadoodles can range from black to white and all black and all gray.
Goldendoodle’s coat colors range from white to apricot to dark black. Therefore, it’s not a great idea to expect a particular color coat on any Doodle. However, you can expect the dominant curly coat trait to appear.
Health
Experts don’t understand the genetic causes of most canine diseases just yet. However, just as with personality and appearance, a puppy will probably have the traits of similar parents. Therefore, reputable dog breeders will do what they can to breed these diseases.
There are also different health certifications that they can get for the dogs they breed. However, they can still appear even when parents don’t appear to have them. This happens even more often in hybrid breeds.
It’s best to be aware of different diseases that the parent dogs are predisposed to. Goldendoodles can experience such conditions as bloat, ear infections, patellar luxation, and hip and elbow dysplasia. Sheepadoodles can experience bloat, hip dysplasia, joint issues, skin disorders, and Addison’s disease.
A Golden Sheepadoodle can inherit any of these health issues. You can get a puppy checked with a reputable vet for some of them after they’re born. Most veterinarians, however, cannot determine certain diseases until the animal is much older.
One positive health trait of hybrid dogs is that they are healthier than their purebred cousins. Similar traits between purebreds can apply to diseases as well. Thus, it’s less likely that the same conditions will show up in the offspring of two different purebred dogs in hybrids.
Final Thoughts
Goldendoodles and Sheepadoodles are popular hybrids for a reason. They have far more good traits than bad ones. These are what make them wonderful pets. These traits they share are also similar to each other, mainly because they share a dog breed between them.
For this reason, as a Sheepadoodle and Goldendoodle mix, each Golden Sheepadoodle is more likely to inherit each parent’s beneficial traits. That said, future owners should know that they can have downsides.
