OK, so we all know that goldendoodles are crazy! Now, let’s look at why this is the case.
First, let’s discuss what “goldendoodle” actually means. It’s a slang term for a breed of dog that was popular in the 1970s and 1980s, apparently named for its shiny gold fur. As with many slang words of that era, it has long been used in a variety of contexts. In this case, it simply means funny-looking dog.
Now here is your chance to see how you can use humor and irony to add value to your product marketing.
Everything about goldendoodles
I saw this video on the Internet, and I think it’s worth posting. It’s from a workshop held by Ben Widdicombe at the 2013 CanCon conference in Denver. The video is about goldendoodles…
(Yes, the title is a joke that falls right into the expected category of “everything and anything related to goldendoodles”.)
The message of this video is clear: Goldendoodles are crazy! They’re crazy in an important way: they don’t know what they are doing. They have no idea what they are doing because they don’t know what they should be doing. So, if you look at them and see a bunch of people who don’t know what they should do, maybe you should get out of their way. Their behavior reminds me of Charlie Munger: he wouldn’t want to be where you are; he would rather be somewhere else where he would know what he was doing.
Am I saying that goldendoodles can be good or bad? No, I am not saying that. I am saying that these people are not thinking about themselves as professionals or conveyors of value (they just want to get paid). It turns out that when a person becomes an expert in something — when she knows how to do it well — she naturally assumes others will do it well too.
And so she puts herself into situations where she is surrounded by experts also trying to do something good but not knowing how to do it well; and she gets them all together in situations where everyone wants her to succeed — but doesn’t know how to succeed at all.
She can become very aware that her own actions will have an effect; but she doesn’t really care because she has no idea how the outcome will look or feel; so it doesn’t matter what other people think themselves because everything always looks good on paper first. And then when someone tells her how wrong this whole thing is going to turn out, it only makes her more confident that it will work out fine without them (because everyone says so).
In short, this leads to irrational behavior (which is fun!). And if you want some operational advice from someone who has been through it myself, read on:
#1 You Need To Be A Professional In Order To Be Professional
#2 Anytime You Take On An Expert Role In Something You Need
The characteristics of Goldendoodles
As you can imagine, there are many competing theories of what is the best way to choose the right pet. The most popular is the “Kibitzer” approach, which reduces all possible choices to a single preference:
…the Kibitzer’s favorite toy was a goldendoodle.
This approach doesn’t really work; both dogs and cats are equally good choices for a Kibitzer. The Kibitzer prefers dogs because they don’t give him any trouble, as well as cats because he likes them more than other pets. This is not terribly useful information for a pet-changer. As much as we would like to follow this approach, it doesn’t work (at least not in our experience).
Another version of this approach is to look at the personality test on wikipedia:
…the test shows that goldendoodles have an unusually high level of conscientiousness (a trait commonly associated with people who are organized and work hard). On score of 7 out of 10 they have an average intelligence which is equivalent to that of humans.
They also have very good memory, which is common in people with high IQs. … [The test] clearly indicates that goldendoodles are highly intelligent creatures who can recognize good things when they see them; and the more intelligent your dog is, the better this test will be able to pick out your dog from all the other dogs!
Which isn’t too different from what most pet-changers want their dogs or cats to be like. But it does give some insights into how difficult it might be for people to change their pets (and why).
Our own experience seems to support both approaches: either through direct observation or through testing we can show us how our dogs or cats interact with us — but the data just won’t do it for us if we don’t put ourselves in those situations ourselves.
As such, we definitely share some of these characteristics with our pets: very alert and attentive (like kids) and extremely intelligent (like kids too!). But there are also plenty of other characteristics we share — like stubbornness and aggression — that distinguish us from other pets among our pets.
And while these traits aren’t necessarily bad things at all (it may be true that stubbornness makes us more effective hunters), they often lead our dogs or cats into situations where they can make mistakes and become hurt or sick due to their
How to train a golden doodle
There’s an old saying that says “Gold is not a metal, it’s a color of light.” That may sound like a line from some low-budget science fiction flick, but it is actually the title of one of the most famous books on canine behavior. It has all manner of profound implications in terms of how we should treat our dogs, but what I want to focus on here is how to train a golden doodle.
If you are looking for a dog with which to train your own golden retriever or any other small breed, there are several excellent references out there, but none quite as good as this one. I found it through my family’s Google Books account and was pleasantly surprised by its depth and breadth.
The book is divided into four parts and covers everything from basic obedience training to grooming and training (though it does not cover any sort of PRA/VA testing; that information can be found elsewhere).
It starts off by giving an excellent introduction to what makes a golden retriever different from other breeds (their size, their intelligence, etc.) and then goes on in more detail about the various aspects of dog behavior that make them irascible: food-motivated behavior (eating), play-motivated behavior (rewarding activities), social and territorial behaviors (fencing), grooming/manipulation behavior, etc.
Throughout the book we learn about how we should address these behaviors with our dogs so that they do not become problematic in themselves: we want them to be able to understand their place in the larger scheme of things while they persistently pursue irrelevant things like food or toys.
We also learn how these strategies can help us train other behaviors such as housebreaking or self-control so that our dogs don’t take over our lives completely – just something else for us to have fun with later in life when we have more time on our hands.
Here are some good links for further reading:
How to care for a golden doodle
“There is no doubt that there are a wide variety of different breeds of dogs,” said anthropologist and dog fancier David Barash in “Dog: A Natural History.” “Although some of them can be considered ‘normal’ by people, most are not.”
This is one that really got my attention. It is a common misconception that all dogs are the same and that there is only one breed: golden doodles. The reality is quite different and here I would like to share some of the experiences I have had while buying dog food for my Golden Doodle (named Connie).
In the beginning, I was very dubious about buying dog food for a Golden Doodle. She had been rescued from a shelter when she was 10-11 weeks old, so her body was very skinny and her teeth were extremely worn down (which you can see in this picture). But then I picked up another Golden Doodle at the store and started to see the same pattern – many dogs with teeth like that in their mouths. And it wasn’t just me: In dog shows across the U.S., it seems like every breed has teeth like Connie’s.
The reason why this happens lies with something called dental caries (also called cavities), which refers to decay in the tooth surfaces due to bacterial activity as well as tartar build-up caused by eating solid foods (i.e., we can’t brush our teeth or do other dental hygiene due to tartar).
The extent of this decay depends on how long ago you had your pet eat solid foods; if you have eaten them over an extended period of time, your pet will likely have more extensive decay than someone who ate cereal regularly for 5 years after they were adopted from a shelter or rescue group (which tends to happen with pets who eat dry foods because they don’t need water).
This increased susceptibility can also lead to tooth loss – which can be easily prevented by brushing your pet regularly and promptly following instructions on dog food labels regarding when it should be fed; but if not treated as soon as possible, it will eventually lead to more extensive decay which will likely end up being fatal in time.
I paid attention when I read this cautionary tale from Dr Ben Goldacre about sugar cats litterbox habits . Dogs love water but cats hate it so bad they literally pee themselves! This is because cats clean themselves during their normal litterbox visits.
Conclusion
I’ve always been crazy for goldendoodles. I used to have a lot of them when I was a kid and they were the first toy that my mother ever got me. At first, they were just toys, but as time went on — and I finished school — I started spending more and more money on them.
In the last couple weeks, it has become clear to me that goldendoodles are not just toys anymore. They can be used to communicate with people in ways that are apparently impossible with other types of toys — like tools.
A few weeks ago, the topic of goldendoodles turned up in my inbox and my first thought was: “are goldendoodles crazy?” And then: “how about this one?”
For me, the message is simple: if your product is a toy that can be used for something different than what it initially appears to be, you probably shouldn’t call it a toy; if you aren’t trying to put people into situations where they feel uncomfortable or are restricted in some way by your product, you probably don’t need to make it so obvious.
It is 2022 and making things easier or less complicated should not require outright lying or deception. That is a lesson we have learned over time and unfortunately, we seem to go through phases where we are too afraid of making something plain-to-the-point-of-obvious (because then people will claim they don’t need it) or too afraid of being seen as childish (because then people will say they don’t want it).
