Everything You Need To Know About Furnishings, Breeding (And Selecting) Your Pups!

Let’s talk furnishing!

Have you seen the posts on all the Bernedoodle Facebook groups? A new puppy owner feels duped because their puppy doesn’t quite look like they thought it would. They start asking questions like, “When will my puppy start to get it’s curl?” Or “Why am I seeing clumps of hair – please tell me he’s just losing his baby hair!”

When I see these posts my heart aches for the owner, the puppy and the breeder.

The owner – just invested in their dream dog. They know their lifestyle and their family needs and have taken time to consider personality, look and breed. If something misaligns it could be bad news for their family.

The puppy – poor little guy didn’t do anything wrong but if there are allergies in the house, now he stands the risk of being rehomed or becoming an outdoor pup. Not ideal in either case.

The breeder – I’ve been here too. Learning from failure but this is something that can be understood. Needing to admit when you’re wrong and trying to coordinate the best outcome for the pup and the family. This stress could have been avoided with a little experience and knowledge. Fortunately, there are families on both sides who have their preferences, and we can analyze a few things to pair the puppy the best we can.

In our experience we have 70% of families requesting furnished puppies, while the other 30% have their heart set on their puppy being unfurnished. So, let’s try and understand how we can pair effectively regardless of the families wants.

When crossing a first generation back to another first generation or to a Bernese Mountain Dog (BMD) you will always have unfurnished babies in the pack. As people are jumping into breeding Bernedoodles for the first time, we see a lot of first generation Bernedoodles (One parent is a BMD, the other is a Poodle, also known as an F1) breeding to either a poodle, BMD or Bernedoodle. The only time you will have completely furnished Bernedoodles is by crossing back to a poodle, but you risk the fading gene that poodles carry and the coat color being less desirable – we will write about that in a later post.

Get ready to screenshot and save for your records!
Generationally:
⁃  Crossing an F1 Bernedoodle x F1 Bernedoodle = F2 Bernedoodle. This means 25% will be curly (Gene FF), 50% will be wavy (Gene FI), and 25% will be straight (Gene II – unfurnished)

⁃ Crossing an F1 Bernedoodle x BMD = Reverse F1b. This means 50% will be wavy (Gene FI), and 50% will be straight (Gene II – unfurnished).

⁃ Crossing an F1 Bernedoodle x Poodle = F1b Bernedoodle. This means 50% will be wavy (Gene FI), and 50% will have tight curls (Gene FF – fully Furnished). At FF you reach the hypoallergenic quality that many people are looking for in a doodle.

So, you ask – How do I know if a puppy in my litter is furnished or not without getting a genetic report on each puppy? Good news, to the trained eye, by 6 weeks of age you will be able to identify these tell tail signs:
Tell tail signs of non-furnished:
1. Short facial hair
2. Low to no wave to coat – especially forehead and ears.
3. Normal eyelashes
They will look like the Bernese Mountain Dog.

Tell tail signs of a furnished pup:
1. Longer hair on the snout, may or may nor be wavy yet.
2. Wave to their head and/or ears. You
3. Long eyelashes and long hair on the chin.
They will be wavy or curly – like the ideal doodle look.

Hope this download was helpful! We deeply believe the more you know the stronger we are as a Bernedoodle group!

Bernedoodles of the Ozarks is a quality Bernedoodle, Bernese Mountain Dog, Goldendoodle and Poodle breeder network of several friends and families who breed our pets together as a hobby. We believe when we treat our pets as family members, they produce strong offspring that adopt family friendly traits.
Locations in Springfield, Missouri; Green Bay, Wisconsin: Chicago, Illinois, and Harrison, Arkansas.