Somehow, this episode has the most left field content warning out of all them, because the doodle/poodle community loves talking about Hitler.

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The guy who invented Doodle dogs talks about them with more regret than Oppenheimer showed for the atom bomb: “I opened a Pandora’s box and released a Frankenstein’s monster.”

We discuss the rivalry between the the Doodle and Poodle breeding communities. The Doodle community likes to call the Poodle breeders blood purists, to which Jaume says:

It’s quite strange seeing people that have intentionally bred to animals to obtain a result calling the other side eugenicists.

In Animal Aesthetics, Interactionism and Animal Aesthetics: A Theory of Reflected Social Power, Bonnie Berry suggests that people project some of the characteristics of your pet onto you…

J: Some of their characteristics reflect on their human owner. So for example, if you were to see someone holding a snake, you think, wow, they’re so brave. S: I would personally think they’re evil. Or a sorcerer.

Just as an experiment, please comment what you would assume about the owners of the following dog…

Because the typical life stages (house, kids) are either unaffordable or undesirable to a lot of Gen Zs/Millennials, a lot of us have built our family structures up around our dogs — our fur babies, if you will. But a lot of heterosexual couples who co-parent a dog end up reproducing the stereotypical gender dynamics of parenthood, with the woman as the primary caregiver and the man as the playmate. (Imagine being the deadbeat dad to a dog.)

Also, just for fun, please name this dog:

Further reading:

* Doodlemania by Allie Conti (Bloomberg, 2025)

* How Doodles Became the Dog du Jour by John Seabrook (New Yorker, 2026)

* Greenebaum, Jessica. (2004). It’s a Dog’s Life: Elevating Status from Pet to “Fur Baby” at Yappy Hour. Society and Animals. 12. 117-135. 10.1163/1568530041446544. (You can access it here easily)

* Burnett, E., Brand, C.L., O’Neill, D.G. et al. How much is that doodle in the window? Exploring motivations and behaviours of UK owners acquiring designer crossbreed dogs (2019-2020). Canine Med Genet 9, 8 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40575-022-00120-x

* Why the rise of ‘fur baby’ culture is fuelling overtreatment and major animal welfare issues (book announcement on Taylor & Francis)

* Berry, B. (2008). Interactionism and Animal Aesthetics: A Theory of Reflected Social Power. Society & Animals, 16(1), 75-89. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853008X269908

Also, just in case this episode has somehow given you a thirst for designer dogs, we’d like to leave you with some pet rescue resources instead:

* Why adoption is the best option

* Find a dog to adopt in the UK https://www.rspca.org.uk/findapet & USA https://www.aspca.org/adopt-pet/adoptable-dogs-your-local-shelter & Australia

https://www.petrescue.com.au/

* & NZ/Aotearoa https://www.spca.nz/adopt & Spain https://www.facebook.com/groups/perrosenadopcionespana/

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