Our young kids love our Goldendoodle dog! His name is Levi, and he is now just over a year old. The four kids were constantly asking for a pet. Years ago, before children, we had both a black Labrador Retriever and a Golden Retriever. We remembered them both as nice dogs, and also the amazing amount of hair they shed. When looking for a new dog, we heard about the breeds that were a cross between full size poodles, who don’t shed, and the popular retriever dogs like we had before.
We found a number of Goldendoodle breeders online in our area. In doing my research, I found out the difference between different Goldendoodle breeds. The one I wanted was an F1B Goldendoodle, which is a Golden Retriever crossed with a Poodle, bred back to a Poodle. This is important, because the F1B Goldendoodles are the ones that don’t shed! They look a little more poodly, but that’s ok.
The Goldendoodle breeders that seemed most conscientious about their dogs and reasonable about prices were a few hours drive out of town in the country, but it was worth the trip. We found a great breeder whose dogs had recently had a wonderful litter of Goldendoodle pups! The price was good, and I picked up a 10-week old Goldendoodle boy dog to bring home.
On my way to the breeder, I had stopped by a local pet supply store, and bought a couple of things so I would be ready. I bought a wire training crate with an insert that could make the crate temporarily smaller, but I should have bought a few more things…
As I was driving home, I realized just how many years it had been since we had had dogs, and how completely unprepared we were. The puppy got car sick, pooped all over the crate, then rolled in it. I had to stop and buy some paper towels just to clean up the inside of my car!
Luckily, I was able to get the puppy in to see the veterinarian by calling on an old friend, since I had not even set up an appointment. After getting the Goldendoodle puppy cleaned up, dewormed, and some basic shots, I brought him home to the kids. They were thrilled!
After getting home, I realized a few more things. We did not have a place for the Goldendoodle to sleep, he was starting to chew on everything, and he did not even have a name yet. The name part was taken care of the next day, since after I got home, I found out his name was Levi, but no one could tell me where that name came from.
After a few weeks, things were not going so well. Levi had chewed up all sorts of things in the house, the potty training was going poorly, and the training that I was doing was inconsistent, since I was at work all day. If the kids had been older, either my wife or I would have been able to get the training done, but we did not have time. Reluctantly, even though we knew training him ourselves was the best, we sent Levi to a two week boot camp.
He came back like a new dog! No more chewing on things, and no running away. We still had to work on the potty training, but with some good odor eradicators we were able to get that under control as well. If I had a little more time, or could not afford the boot camp, I would have gotten a good training program and gotten it done myself.
When our Goldendoodle was four months old, we moved to a new house. I was excited, and put a doggy door into the basement door so Levi could go in and out, and we walked him around the neighborhood on a leash. Unfortunately, since we did not have a fence up in our yard, he kept running away! I met a number of new neighbors when they brought Levi back or called to let me know he was in their yard. Something had to change.
Just as I was resigned to putting in an electric in-ground dog fence, and was at the local hardware store buying the parts, I saw something new. There was a radio controlled dog fence, with a perimeter radius that could be tuned by a dial. The collar was the same kind of shock collar as in the fenceless dog border, and the price was less. I bought it and put it in place right away. No digging!
After a couple days of training with the shock collar, our dog was no longer running out of our yard. I tuned the radius so he could get close to the sidewalk, but not close enough to lick, or bite, anyone. In testing it, I got shocked a few times myself, and even on the highest setting, it was uncomfortable, but not painful.
A year later, we are a happy family. The kids adore our Goldendoodle dog. In the summertime, I keep him groomed short so he does not overheat. I usually take him to the groomer, but last time I was too busy to get that done, so I used some clippers and trimmed him myself. Not too bad, and now he has no tangles.
Whenever the kids are playing in the front or back yard, he is out there with them. He has a big, mean-sounding bark, but he is so friendly I really can’t imagine him hurting anyone except by accident. Levi gets so excited when he meets a new person, his sixty pounds of exuberant dog sometimes knocks them back a bit.
Goldendoodle dogs really are wonderful. If you are considering getting a Goldendoodle puppy, first off get a good training program! Then check out some of the categories of the things I recommend you get for your new dog, based on our experiences of the past year 
