1
00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:07,200
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

2
00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:20,680
Speaker 2: Hi, I'm so nice to meet you and you're Sarah.

3
00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:20,960
Speaker 3: Yes.

4
00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:26,119
Speaker 4: A few days ago, our producer David Fox and I

5
00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:29,400
Speaker 4: drove to the suburbs of New Jersey to meet Lauren

6
00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:32,040
Speaker 4: Houston and her dogs.

7
00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:36,960
Speaker 5: This is Skyle, she turned eleven in September. And this

8
00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:41,320
Speaker 5: is Vippy. Here. Vippy is VIP, which stands for a

9
00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:45,600
Speaker 5: very Important puppy. She was my is my first reading

10
00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:48,720
Speaker 5: mama in the program and she just had her retirement litter.

11
00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:54,280
Speaker 5: This is Gavin. He is one of my stud dogs.

12
00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:57,680
Speaker 5: He just started reading. And then Navy.

13
00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:03,200
Speaker 4: Vippy and Skye and and Navy aren't just any old ducks.

14
00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:13,039
Speaker 4: They're labradoodles. Labradoodles are a mix between a Labrador Retriever

15
00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:16,800
Speaker 4: and a poodle. They're just one branch of the doodle

16
00:01:16,880 --> 00:01:21,280
Speaker 4: family tree. And Lauren is a labradoodle breeder. In twenty

17
00:01:21,319 --> 00:01:24,240
Speaker 4: twenty one, she started a company called Sunny Heart Doodles.

18
00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:27,559
Speaker 4: Now she breeds and raises doodle puppies out of her home.

19
00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:35,160
Speaker 5: I breed exclusively many multi generational Australian labradoodles who are

20
00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:39,679
Speaker 5: health tested and have lineage dating back to the original

21
00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:41,800
Speaker 5: lines of Australian labradoodles.

22
00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:45,480
Speaker 4: Since the first labradoodle was born in Australia in nineteen

23
00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:49,720
Speaker 4: eighty nine, doodles of all kinds have exploded in popularity,

24
00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:53,720
Speaker 4: but Lauren was an early adopter. She got a couple

25
00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:57,440
Speaker 4: cockapoos in the late nineties that's a cocker spaniel poodle

26
00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:01,480
Speaker 4: mix for the uninitiated. And then in the early two thousands,

27
00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:04,040
Speaker 4: when Lauren was looking for a new dog to take in,

28
00:02:04,600 --> 00:02:07,520
Speaker 4: she discovered the world of labradoodles.

29
00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:11,320
Speaker 5: I wound up connecting with a bunch of these different

30
00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:15,359
Speaker 5: doodle clubs, and I thought, Okay, I've met like thirty

31
00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:17,880
Speaker 5: forty of these dogs and they've all been amazing. I

32
00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:20,160
Speaker 5: would love any one of them.

33
00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:21,679
Speaker 1: What was special about them?

34
00:02:21,919 --> 00:02:26,040
Speaker 5: I think they're muppet like, bouncy, flouncy, happy, go luckiness.

35
00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:30,440
Speaker 5: I naturally gravitate towards them. They're just so humanesque in

36
00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:34,040
Speaker 5: their expressions and even in their eyes. They're just kind

37
00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:34,799
Speaker 5: of captivating.

38
00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:38,400
Speaker 4: Fast forward to twenty twenty five and Lauren has raised

39
00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:42,640
Speaker 4: dozens of doodle puppies for other families to adopt. Meanwhile,

40
00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:45,160
Speaker 4: people around the country have fallen in love with the

41
00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:45,760
Speaker 4: dogs too.

42
00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:48,760
Speaker 5: Look how cute they are. You cannot find a coat

43
00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:50,600
Speaker 5: anywhere like this in the animal kingdom.

44
00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:53,520
Speaker 1: It's a live human, a live teddy bear.

45
00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:57,400
Speaker 4: They're sweet, they're smart, they're cudly, and you'll never go

46
00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:01,280
Speaker 4: to the bathroom alone. Doodles have become a big business,

47
00:03:01,600 --> 00:03:04,799
Speaker 4: one that could be worth more than a billion dollars.

48
00:03:05,200 --> 00:03:08,120
Speaker 3: I'll be walking my dogs down the street and like downtown,

49
00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:10,840
Speaker 3: and somebody from across the street will be like, doodle,

50
00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:13,960
Speaker 3: and I'll be like, yeah, doodle, and you know, it's

51
00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:15,959
Speaker 3: kind of like, you know, thumbs up, because they have

52
00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:16,520
Speaker 3: a doodle too.

53
00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:20,799
Speaker 4: But the ubiquity of these muppet like hoodle mixes has

54
00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:23,240
Speaker 4: also come with some puppy drama.

55
00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:25,880
Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say that there is a

56
00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:29,639
Speaker 1: little bit of disagreement between sort of like the institutional

57
00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:33,280
Speaker 1: gatekeepers and who have four centuries had the final say

58
00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:35,880
Speaker 1: over what is considered and is not considered a dog.

59
00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:39,600
Speaker 4: That's Ali Conti, a journalist who recently wrote a story

60
00:03:39,640 --> 00:03:41,680
Speaker 4: about doodles for Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

61
00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:44,120
Speaker 1: And then these women who have you know, started their

62
00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:47,640
Speaker 1: own small businesses sort of breeding dogs, saying you know, wait,

63
00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:50,640
Speaker 1: I don't need your permission to say that I've created

64
00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:51,040
Speaker 1: a dog.

65
00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:55,240
Speaker 4: So will these pups stay on top? Or has America

66
00:03:55,400 --> 00:04:01,680
Speaker 4: reached peak doodle? Sarah Holder And this is the big

67
00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:05,280
Speaker 4: take from Bloomberg News today. On the show Welcome to

68
00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:09,280
Speaker 4: doodle Mania, we go inside the biology and the business

69
00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:16,040
Speaker 4: behind the doodles rise to fame. I'm gonna give you

70
00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:19,600
Speaker 4: thirty seconds and you need to or you you are

71
00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:23,599
Speaker 4: welcome to name as many doodle breeds as you can.

72
00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:24,120
Speaker 4: Are you down?

73
00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:26,760
Speaker 1: Yes? I think I might embarrass myself, but let's go

74
00:04:26,839 --> 00:04:27,880
Speaker 1: for it. It's gonna be great.

75
00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:33,960
Speaker 4: Okay, stop watch and putting thirty seconds in the clock.

76
00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:39,160
Speaker 1: Ready go well? Golden Doodle, burn a doodle, Labordoodle. That's

77
00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:43,360
Speaker 1: like the Holy Trinity, so to speak. She poo multi

78
00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:54,480
Speaker 1: poo ca a poo shnoodle U Golden Mountain Doodle, double doodle,

79
00:04:56,440 --> 00:05:00,480
Speaker 1: great noodle. That was the one that I love. I'm

80
00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:01,919
Speaker 1: glad I got that in before the clock.

81
00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:06,280
Speaker 4: How many of those doodles did you know about before reporting?

82
00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:06,440
Speaker 5: This?

83
00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:10,760
Speaker 1: People? One? Which one? The Golden doodle, the ubiquitous one.

84
00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:15,080
Speaker 4: Back in twenty twenty four, reporter Ali Conti started looking

85
00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:20,400
Speaker 4: into a strange phenomenon why doodles seemed to be everywhere

86
00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:25,279
Speaker 4: on sidewalks with their owners, in cafes, breweries, on TikTok

87
00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:28,680
Speaker 4: in her editor's neighborhood in New Jersey. Ali set out

88
00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:32,120
Speaker 4: to find out just how big the doodle biz had gotten.

89
00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:35,719
Speaker 1: This is like super back in the Nappian. But I

90
00:05:35,760 --> 00:05:37,960
Speaker 1: think it is just north of a billion dollars.

91
00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:38,440
Speaker 4: Wow.

92
00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:41,760
Speaker 1: And what goes into that calculation the number of dogs,

93
00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:44,520
Speaker 1: then the mouth that they cost, and then how much

94
00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:47,400
Speaker 1: it costs to maintain them. So like golden doodles, for instance,

95
00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:50,880
Speaker 1: actually costs more to maintain than other dogs because they

96
00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:54,760
Speaker 1: need more grooming, so that factors in as well. But

97
00:05:54,839 --> 00:05:56,360
Speaker 1: it's just just north of a billion.

98
00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:01,159
Speaker 4: There are no official doodle population figure, but for the

99
00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:04,240
Speaker 4: past several years, the PetCare site rover dot com has

100
00:06:04,279 --> 00:06:07,160
Speaker 4: found that doodles are among the most popular dogs on

101
00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:11,800
Speaker 4: their platform. The Pet Insurance division of Nationwide has reported

102
00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:15,000
Speaker 4: that from twenty thirteen to twenty twenty one, the number

103
00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:18,159
Speaker 4: of doodles they were ensuring had increased one hundred and

104
00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:22,520
Speaker 4: sixty percent. Each of these dogs can cost thousands of

105
00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:25,680
Speaker 4: dollars a year. Doodle breeders charge an average of two

106
00:06:25,720 --> 00:06:28,839
Speaker 4: thousand dollars per dog and there are higher end options too.

107
00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:32,840
Speaker 4: A company called Pride and Prejudoodles asks for more than

108
00:06:32,920 --> 00:06:36,920
Speaker 4: fifteen thousand dollars for a fully trained dog. Then there's

109
00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:41,839
Speaker 4: about three thousand dollars a year in maintenance costs think grooming, feeding,

110
00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:42,640
Speaker 4: and healthcare.

111
00:06:43,279 --> 00:06:43,920
Speaker 1: It adds up.

112
00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:48,680
Speaker 4: So how did the doodle market get so big? To

113
00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:52,719
Speaker 4: understand that, you have to begin far away from New Jersey.

114
00:06:53,800 --> 00:06:57,000
Speaker 1: So the doodle origin story is that in nineteen eighty nine,

115
00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:01,400
Speaker 1: a man named Wally Conran in Australia bred this dog

116
00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:05,000
Speaker 1: that was supposed to be for this blind woman with

117
00:07:05,120 --> 00:07:10,560
Speaker 1: an allergic partner. So he combined a lab and a

118
00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:13,440
Speaker 1: poodle and you know, after like I think it was

119
00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:17,480
Speaker 1: like thirty three different trial runs of this, he found

120
00:07:17,560 --> 00:07:20,360
Speaker 1: like the magic sort of combination of dogs that could

121
00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:23,200
Speaker 1: like you know, be like the seeing eye dog for

122
00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:26,400
Speaker 1: this person. So you know, obviously very intelligent and you know,

123
00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:29,239
Speaker 1: listens to people and can be taught, and then also

124
00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:32,520
Speaker 1: didn't trigger the partner's allergies. So that was sort of

125
00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:36,160
Speaker 1: how this started. It was to fill a very specific need, ironically,

126
00:07:36,200 --> 00:07:38,640
Speaker 1: and now the dog has become like the dog of

127
00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:40,560
Speaker 1: choice for all different kinds of people.

128
00:07:40,920 --> 00:07:43,040
Speaker 4: The doodle began to take off in the US in

129
00:07:43,080 --> 00:07:46,400
Speaker 4: the late nineties when a couple of American breeders started

130
00:07:46,440 --> 00:07:47,920
Speaker 4: marketing them widely.

131
00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:50,520
Speaker 1: And then once one person got one, they would tell

132
00:07:50,520 --> 00:07:53,239
Speaker 1: their friends, and then you know, the friends would want

133
00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:56,120
Speaker 1: the sibling dog, and then that kind of grew from there.

134
00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:59,800
Speaker 4: That word of mouth reached Lauren Houston. She got her

135
00:07:59,800 --> 00:08:02,480
Speaker 4: f doodles straight from Australia in two thousand and four

136
00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:06,560
Speaker 4: and joined a passionate and growing community of doodle lovers.

137
00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:11,000
Speaker 5: While I was waiting for this puppy, I was on

138
00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:14,440
Speaker 5: the breeder's chat page like every day, looking at photos

139
00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:20,120
Speaker 5: and connecting with people. So when I got Reagan, I

140
00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:22,480
Speaker 5: felt like I kind of knew this whole group of

141
00:08:22,520 --> 00:08:25,560
Speaker 5: people and it was pretty It was a pretty extensive network, actually,

142
00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:28,080
Speaker 5: I have to say. So we would do plate eights,

143
00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:31,640
Speaker 5: birthday parties for the dogs and stuff like that.

144
00:08:32,960 --> 00:08:36,720
Speaker 4: And as labradoodles became more and more popular, breeders tried

145
00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:39,960
Speaker 4: to ride the wave and come up with new variations.

146
00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:44,520
Speaker 4: They were making all kinds of poodle mixes, cockapoos, multipoos,

147
00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:50,000
Speaker 4: golden doodles, miniature golden doodles. The dog's popularity grew to

148
00:08:50,040 --> 00:08:52,320
Speaker 4: the point that by the end of the decade, a

149
00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:55,480
Speaker 4: doodle nearly reached the highest office in the land.

150
00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:59,079
Speaker 1: So another inflection point would be two thousand and nine

151
00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:02,760
Speaker 1: Obama famously I say famously, but like it's only because

152
00:09:02,760 --> 00:09:06,880
Speaker 1: I know, sorry, it's when Obama famously was like considering

153
00:09:06,920 --> 00:09:07,640
Speaker 1: getting a doodle.

154
00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:10,240
Speaker 4: It was a milestone that caught the attention of the

155
00:09:10,280 --> 00:09:13,760
Speaker 4: American Kennel Club, a group founded in the nineteenth century

156
00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:17,439
Speaker 4: that registers purebred dogs and advocates for dog health.

157
00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:22,160
Speaker 1: And the AKC like released a statement being like, oh, well,

158
00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:24,360
Speaker 1: he should really think twice about this. You never know

159
00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:26,560
Speaker 1: what you're getting into. Like they clearly had like this

160
00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:29,319
Speaker 1: like pr crisis, where like, oh my god.

161
00:09:29,160 --> 00:09:31,160
Speaker 4: Like and is that why he went with the Portuguese

162
00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:31,600
Speaker 4: water dog.

163
00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:34,240
Speaker 1: I would imagine that it probably gave him pause or

164
00:09:34,520 --> 00:09:37,080
Speaker 1: you know, we've all seen deep I feel like there

165
00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:37,800
Speaker 1: was a conversation.

166
00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:42,200
Speaker 4: The doodle may have come short of being America's first pup,

167
00:09:42,679 --> 00:09:46,880
Speaker 4: but people like Lauren were already hooked. In twenty fourteen,

168
00:09:47,280 --> 00:09:50,679
Speaker 4: Lauren got another pet doodle named Skylee. She made her

169
00:09:50,760 --> 00:09:54,240
Speaker 4: an Instagram account. Within a year, it had twenty five

170
00:09:54,360 --> 00:09:59,400
Speaker 4: thousand followers. In twenty sixteen, Lauren started working for Skye's breeder,

171
00:09:59,679 --> 00:10:04,440
Speaker 4: running their social media accounts. Then COVID hit and doodle

172
00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:06,480
Speaker 4: demand reached new heights.

173
00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:09,840
Speaker 5: People were home and everybody was getting puppies. But for

174
00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:14,560
Speaker 5: our program anyway, or their program, it was explosive.

175
00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:18,560
Speaker 4: Lauren decided to go solo. She launched her own breeding

176
00:10:18,600 --> 00:10:22,560
Speaker 4: program in twenty twenty one. Since then, she's sold eighty

177
00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:26,800
Speaker 4: three puppies. Her website says each puppy currently costs thirty

178
00:10:26,840 --> 00:10:31,119
Speaker 4: four hundred dollars plus tax, and on Instagram and Facebook,

179
00:10:31,280 --> 00:10:34,079
Speaker 4: her doodle related accounts have a following of more than

180
00:10:34,160 --> 00:10:35,640
Speaker 4: one hundred and forty thousand.

181
00:10:35,840 --> 00:10:38,000
Speaker 5: I'll just say it, I'm a beast. Like when I

182
00:10:38,040 --> 00:10:40,280
Speaker 5: have puppies on the ground, I'm posting a minimum of

183
00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:43,520
Speaker 5: like forty stories a day. It's all day long. There

184
00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:45,880
Speaker 5: will never be a family that can say I don't

185
00:10:45,920 --> 00:10:48,679
Speaker 5: know what's happening over at Sunny Heart. Doodles like no,

186
00:10:48,760 --> 00:10:50,520
Speaker 5: they see everything.

187
00:10:51,840 --> 00:10:55,080
Speaker 4: But the rise of the doodle has raised some concerns

188
00:10:55,440 --> 00:10:59,560
Speaker 4: from purebred enthusiasts and some of the most powerful gatekeepers

189
00:10:59,640 --> 00:11:16,400
Speaker 4: in the The doodle drama That's After the Break as

190
00:11:16,440 --> 00:11:19,000
Speaker 4: part of her reporting on the doodle business for BusinessWeek,

191
00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:22,880
Speaker 4: Ali Conti also wanted to understand another aspect of the

192
00:11:22,920 --> 00:11:27,400
Speaker 4: doodle boom it's critics. Online, you'll find a lot of

193
00:11:27,480 --> 00:11:31,080
Speaker 4: vitriol directed at doodle breeders and a fierce debate over

194
00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:33,320
Speaker 4: whether they're breeding practices are ethical.

195
00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:35,800
Speaker 1: So if you talk to people who breed doodles, they

196
00:11:35,880 --> 00:11:38,640
Speaker 1: will often talk about like doodle hate and how they

197
00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:42,400
Speaker 1: get a lot of hate mail and people commenting on

198
00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:46,319
Speaker 1: their Facebook pages from people who are into purebred dogs,

199
00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:50,600
Speaker 1: essentially saying these dogs are bred and ethically they're not healthy,

200
00:11:51,200 --> 00:11:53,360
Speaker 1: spreading messaging about like you never know what you're gonna

201
00:11:53,400 --> 00:11:55,040
Speaker 1: get when you get a doodle.

202
00:11:55,280 --> 00:11:57,680
Speaker 4: And Ali says you can find some of the loudest

203
00:11:57,679 --> 00:12:01,199
Speaker 4: doodle opponents at events put on by the American Kennel Club,

204
00:12:01,559 --> 00:12:04,679
Speaker 4: the nonprofit registry that is final say on what is

205
00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:08,920
Speaker 4: and isn't considered an official breed in the US. The

206
00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:11,800
Speaker 4: organization's stamp of approval is the best way for an

207
00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:15,200
Speaker 4: emerging dog breed to become popular with the public, and

208
00:12:15,240 --> 00:12:20,240
Speaker 4: the AKAC doesn't recognize doodles. An AKC spokesperson told Ali

209
00:12:20,360 --> 00:12:24,920
Speaker 4: that no doodles have applied to be recognized. Earlier this year,

210
00:12:25,120 --> 00:12:27,920
Speaker 4: Ali went to the Clubs Meet the Breed's event in

211
00:12:27,960 --> 00:12:28,400
Speaker 4: New York.

212
00:12:29,080 --> 00:12:32,000
Speaker 1: That's where people go and like basically proselytize about their

213
00:12:32,040 --> 00:12:33,680
Speaker 1: favorite breed. And it's like funn you get to go

214
00:12:33,679 --> 00:12:35,800
Speaker 1: pet a bunch of dogs. But people have these like

215
00:12:36,240 --> 00:12:41,560
Speaker 1: antidoodle like buttons on what does an antidoodle button look like?

216
00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:43,680
Speaker 1: You know, make sure of a doodle. It's so cute.

217
00:12:43,720 --> 00:12:45,560
Speaker 1: It just says doodle with the line through it.

218
00:12:46,679 --> 00:12:49,680
Speaker 4: The AKAC makes the majority of its one hundred million

219
00:12:49,720 --> 00:12:54,160
Speaker 4: dollars in annual revenue from registering purebread dogs and selling

220
00:12:54,240 --> 00:12:57,720
Speaker 4: tracking chips to owners. But since doodles hit the scene,

221
00:12:57,880 --> 00:13:03,520
Speaker 4: the AKAC has seen purebread poodle registrations declined. In nineteen ninety,

222
00:13:03,840 --> 00:13:07,559
Speaker 4: they were just under seventy two thousand registered poodles. By

223
00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:10,120
Speaker 4: two thousand and eight, that number had dropped to just

224
00:13:10,280 --> 00:13:14,400
Speaker 4: under twenty two thousand. They haven't released dog registration data

225
00:13:14,440 --> 00:13:15,120
Speaker 4: since then.

226
00:13:15,360 --> 00:13:18,600
Speaker 1: So it's kind of like the AKC is rapidly losing

227
00:13:18,679 --> 00:13:21,920
Speaker 1: its it's relevance. Like people are not super hung up

228
00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:24,480
Speaker 1: on having a pure red dog anymore. I mean, this

229
00:13:24,600 --> 00:13:27,920
Speaker 1: is their livelihood, right and the rise of the doodle

230
00:13:28,040 --> 00:13:31,240
Speaker 1: has absolutely cut into their market share. You know, they

231
00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:34,280
Speaker 1: always say, like, this is about the health of the dogs,

232
00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:36,959
Speaker 1: and there are backyard breeders who are doing unethical things

233
00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:39,640
Speaker 1: for sure, but there are also ethical breeders. So it's

234
00:13:39,679 --> 00:13:42,400
Speaker 1: not really fair to say if you get a golden doodle,

235
00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:44,719
Speaker 1: it's gonna have health problems, you know, it's going to

236
00:13:44,760 --> 00:13:48,400
Speaker 1: be from an unethical breeding situation. Like that's not true

237
00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:51,079
Speaker 1: at all, but that is sort of the line. Through

238
00:13:51,120 --> 00:13:54,960
Speaker 1: A spokesperson, the AKAC told us in an email that quote,

239
00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:58,600
Speaker 1: we are not anti mixed breed or antidoodle, nor do

240
00:13:58,640 --> 00:14:00,840
Speaker 1: we see these dogs as a threat to the organization

241
00:14:01,080 --> 00:14:05,160
Speaker 1: in any financial or organizational way. The spokesperson also said

242
00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:08,760
Speaker 1: they don't consider financial factors when considering whether to recognize

243
00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:11,640
Speaker 1: a breed. When asked whether doodles were cutting into their

244
00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:15,040
Speaker 1: market share, the spokesperson said no, that there was no

245
00:14:15,080 --> 00:14:17,480
Speaker 1: way for them to track that. She said the organization

246
00:14:17,559 --> 00:14:21,360
Speaker 1: includes doodles in quote many of the AKC sanctioned sports

247
00:14:21,360 --> 00:14:25,520
Speaker 1: and activities, and that they value the enthusiasm, athleticism, and

248
00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:27,960
Speaker 1: joy that they bring to their events and to the

249
00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:31,040
Speaker 1: dog community as a whole, and how has the doodle

250
00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:35,040
Speaker 1: community responded. Well, if you ask anyone who's like an

251
00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:38,200
Speaker 1: ethical breeder in the doodle world, they will say, well,

252
00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:41,040
Speaker 1: we want nothing to do with AKAC. And it's hard

253
00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:43,800
Speaker 1: to know if they don't really care about getting this

254
00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:46,960
Speaker 1: recognition from the AKAC because they just don't need it,

255
00:14:47,080 --> 00:14:49,840
Speaker 1: or if it's in a reaction to like how they've

256
00:14:49,840 --> 00:14:53,200
Speaker 1: been treated by these these purebred breeders. So it's hard

257
00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:53,560
Speaker 1: to know.

258
00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:57,560
Speaker 4: The AKC spokesperson said in an email quote. Rather than

259
00:14:57,600 --> 00:15:01,440
Speaker 4: centering the conversation on claims about profits or competition, which

260
00:15:01,520 --> 00:15:04,160
Speaker 4: do nothing to improve outcomes for dogs, we should be

261
00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:07,720
Speaker 4: working together to support and protect responsible breeders so they

262
00:15:07,760 --> 00:15:09,960
Speaker 4: can continue doing what is best for the dogs in

263
00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:10,440
Speaker 4: their care.

264
00:15:10,920 --> 00:15:11,360
Speaker 1: Unquote.

265
00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:15,120
Speaker 4: As a doodle breeder, Lauren Houston says she's learned to

266
00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:19,040
Speaker 4: live with a discourse. She just cares about her dogs.

267
00:15:19,360 --> 00:15:23,440
Speaker 5: In my personal life, like everybody loves my dogs. Everybody

268
00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:27,280
Speaker 5: just adores them. In the public space, it's a little

269
00:15:27,320 --> 00:15:31,040
Speaker 5: more critical because there are many people who hate breeders

270
00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:33,880
Speaker 5: and who hate doodles. I don't care who adopts what

271
00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:36,440
Speaker 5: or who buys what pure bread. I don't think that

272
00:15:36,720 --> 00:15:38,080
Speaker 5: there are a whole lot of people out there who

273
00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:39,960
Speaker 5: are going to be able to convince people who love

274
00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:42,800
Speaker 5: doodles to not get doodles.

275
00:15:43,520 --> 00:15:46,720
Speaker 4: Allie, When you think about the future of the doodle industry,

276
00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:51,520
Speaker 4: have we hit peak doodle or could their popularity rise

277
00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:52,240
Speaker 4: even more?

278
00:15:52,720 --> 00:15:55,320
Speaker 1: I think the popularity could rise even more. You know,

279
00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:57,440
Speaker 1: like there is still a bit of a stigma around

280
00:15:58,120 --> 00:16:02,000
Speaker 1: doodle ownership, in part due to day CAC's messaging and

281
00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:06,440
Speaker 1: the messaging of some of these individual purebred readers, and

282
00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:09,000
Speaker 1: if that were to disappear, then I think there would

283
00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:13,560
Speaker 1: be absolutely no barrier to doodles completely overtaking every dog

284
00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:14,400
Speaker 1: park in America.

285
00:16:21,240 --> 00:16:24,280
Speaker 4: This is The Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder.

286
00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:27,680
Speaker 4: The show is hosted by Me, David Gera, and Wanha.

287
00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:32,560
Speaker 4: The show is made by Aaron Edwards, David Fox, Eleanor Harrison, Dengate,

288
00:16:32,920 --> 00:16:38,480
Speaker 4: Patti Hirsch, Rachel Lewis, Krisky, Naomi Julia Press, Tracy Samuelson,

289
00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:44,360
Speaker 4: Naomi Shaven, alex Udia Julia Weaver, Yang Yong and Taka Yasuzawa.

290
00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:47,640
Speaker 4: To get more from The Big Take and unlimited access

291
00:16:47,680 --> 00:16:51,240
Speaker 4: to all of Bloomberg dot Com, subscribe today at bloomberg

292
00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:54,760
Speaker 4: dot Com. Slash Podcast offer thanks for listening. We'll be

293
00:16:54,840 --> 00:17:00,600
Speaker 4: back on Monday.