As Conron told
ABC Australia this week, the hybrid breed is one of his greatest regrets. He originally developed Labradoodles 30 years ago, when he was working as the breeding manager for the Royal Guide Dogs Association of Australia, after a blind woman in Hawaii contacted the association asking if they could breed a dog that could serve as her service animal, but without triggering her husband’s dog allergies. Conron found a suitable standard poodle, bred it with a guide-dog Labrador bitch, and in 1989, the first litter of Labradoodles was born. One of the three puppies, Sultan, went to work with the woman in Hawaii.
Soon, Labradoodle popularity skyrocketed, but Conron quickly saw that other breeders were not as scrupulous about breeding as he was.
“I realized what I had done within a matter of days,” he told ABC. “I realized the reason for these unethical, ruthless people [was] to breed these dogs and sell them for big bucks.”
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