SOME things simply go together. Cheese and wine. Fish and chips. Torvill and Dean. The most successful pairings are the ones where each side brings out the best in the other, the combination of two separate entities creating an arguably superior whole.
In the world of dog breeding, the pedigree has always been the pinnacle: the pure bloodline, the refined heritage, the breed standard. Take the labrador—few would dispute its universal appeal and pre-eminence in the canine world. The breed is consistently voted number one in this country and across the world. This is a dog that is so, well, dog-like, that it’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to tamper with it, bar the elimination of any hereditary health concerns.
Yet, a little over three decades ago, when a blind woman in Hawaii was in need of a guide dog that didn’t aggravate her husband’s allergies, the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia decided to pair a labrador with a standard poodle to solve the problem. It was an unprecedented, but enterprising alchemy that raised more than a few purists’ eyebrows at the time. Service dogs were categorically pedigree, preferably labradors, and this creation was consequently seen as little more than a mutt.
However, the mutt in question, Sultan, not only matched the working and social skills of the labrador, he also retained the intelligence, agility and low-shedding coat of the poodle and turned out to be an exemplary guide dog. He was an outright success and, with the help of judicious rebranding, it wasn’t long before labradoodles became a big hit. They have been climbing the popularity charts ever since, alongside other hybrids such as the cockapoo, puggle, sprocker and schnoodle, thanks to the gradual recognition that two halves can sometimes make an enhanced whole.
This story is from the March 04, 2020 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 04, 2020 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
