Posted: 9/20/2018
Do you have a preference for gender of a new puppy? Why?
Do you have experience to back up your perceived difference between dog genders?
We have many years of experience with mini goldendoodles and have put together a summary of the differences we have found (hint: there is only one).
For our comparison, we are assuming a puppy is spayed or neutered by around 6-9 months old.
Contrary to many false conceptions, we have found no basis for the claim that males or females have better temperaments than the other. Females aren't more loving and males aren't more social.
Differences can occur between puppies, but we have seen no correlation to gender and see mostly environmental differences to give differences in personality.
Again, this is assuming a puppy is fixed at the appropriate age. Puppies that aren't fixed can have more dominant or moody dispositions due to hormones involved.
Trainability differences between genders follows the same trend as the disposition differences: there are none that we have found.
We often get the statement: "I don't want a puppy lifting his leg" or I don't want a male because he will mark his territory." It is true: a male may lift his leg and mark his territory IF he is not neutered by 1-1.5 years old. Guess what, a female may also mark HER territory if she is not spayed by 1-1.5 years old.
As you can see, to spay/neuter a mini goldendoodle puppy or not will alter their trainability, but gender does not.
Mini goldendoodles are social and love people and other pets. We have found no evidence that males get along better with females, or two females get along the best, or two males are best.
Goldendoodle compatibility problems are rare and we have found no gender difference, assuming both are fixed.
If neither are fixed, you can easily have dominance problems with same genders of either male or female combinations.
This comes to our last comparison between mini goldendoodle genders: size. Males are generally on the larger end of the range for each litter than females, but these ranges can overlap. This is the only difference we have found between genders in this breed.
If you aren't clear on expected size of a puppy, please ask. With our many years of experience, we have a pretty good idea on expected size range of a litter. As puppies get a little older, we also have a closer estimate for each puppy.
Please consider our experience if you have a strong gender preference. Please don't pass up a puppy with all of your other size, color, curl, etc preferences just because it is not the gender you prefer. We can't make this decision for you, but now you know what we know about puppy gender differences.