As I have explained in about us I’ve had quite a journey in my search for a way to breed a reliably non shedding medium sized hybrid dog which could match my miniature labradoodles for size, health and temperament. The Miniretriever, now known as the O’Connel Retriever based on Golden Retriever, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a touch of Labrador, makes the perfect medium sized mother

I challenge anyone to think of a sweeter gentler temperament combination than Golden Retriever and Cavalier and when mated to our Moyen Poodles they’ve turned out to be wonderful mothers to their “Minigroodle” puppies. I’m calling them Minigroodles because  they look and act like F1 Groodles  they’re just smaller (meaning they’re not only a sensible size for the city, they’re also bloody cute).

We’ve had lots of positive feedback and I’m pretty sure that these mingroodles are close to ideal family pets, but you never know for sure if you don’t ask, so in early 2025 we surveyed all our dogs born in the last 20 years. We received 417 responses from our minigroodle owners. The first were only born in 2017 so we can’t yet say anything about their longevity but can definitely start to say what they are like up to 8 years of age.

Personality:  We used the Monash Canine Personality Questionnaire to look at their personalities compared with the 2009 research by Jacqui Ley (1) which looked at “the average Australian dog”. This questionnaire looks at 5 categories of personality which they called Amicability, extraversion, neuroticism, Self assuredness/motivation and Training Focus.

We found that our Minigroodles are way more “amicable” than the average Australian dog  (scoring highly as easy going, friendly, relaxed, non aggressive and sociable) and they were close to  average for extraversion, self assuredness and training focus. The scored a little higher than the average for neuroticism (which is measured as fearful, nervous, submissive or timid). So in summary they are very friendly and relaxed and outgoing, reasonably self assured and easy to train and likely to be  bit cautious in new or challenging situations.

Health:  We asked about presentation to the vet and found that they were in general healthy, with no sign of increased incidence of urinary or joint issues compared with dogs desexed at over 6 months of age. Behavioural issues were rare, but when they did arise were related to anxiety (reflecting their slightly elevated “neuroticism”).

They did however  have one health issue of concern and that was that nearly half of them had been to the vet for at least one ear problem. Lop eared dogs are very prone to ear issues particularly when combined with hairy ear canals.  We will provide clear information about managing ear issues with all our puppies in future.

Lifestyle suitability: We found that while most Minigroodles live in family houses with gardens, they were also happy in  in townhouses, apartments, and rural homes. They showed the same friendly balanced personality wherever they lived. They are equally suited to single people, couples families with other dogs and families with children.

Shedding: They are reliably non or low shedding and it is easy for us to identify the dogs likely to be in the 75% which are best  choice for people with allergies. If you don’t have allergies then a bit of shedding isn’t likely to be an issue – none of them shed enough to be a problem for the vacuum cleaner.

Size:   The majority are in the 10 -20 kg size range , with some over 20 and one outlier over 25 kg. as the repeated selection for medium sized dogs in our O’Connells reduces the variation in their weights we should see a more consistent weight range in the Minigroodles.

So in Summary

Our survey showed that on average our minigroodles are very friendly and relaxed and outgoing. They are reasonably self assured and easy to train and are likely to be  bit cautious in new or challenging situations. They are low to non shedding and most are in the  10 – 20 kg size with some 20-25kg. They are adaptable and have been successful in all family and housing situations. They are generally healthy and don’t show any evidence of increased joint and urinary issues due to neonatal desexing, but they are prone to ear infections.

• Jacqui M. Ley *, Pauleen C. Bennett, Grahame J. Coleman A refinement and validation of the Monash Canine Personality Questionnaire (MCPQ) Applied Animal Behaviour Science 116 (2009) 220–227