When people adopt Goldendoodles, they are often looking for them to have a certain appearance, and furnishings are sometimes a big part of a Goldendoodle's appearance. So, how do you tell if a Goldendoodle puppy will have furnishings?
Furnishings can be seen around the eyes, ears, and nose of a puppy. If the hair around the face is longer than the rest of the coat, the Goldendoodle puppy will have furnishings. Furnishings appear when Goldendoodles are around 6 months old, when the Goldendoodle sheds their puppy coat.
To find out more about Goldendoodles and their furnishings, keep reading.
What are Furnishings?
Goldendoodles are known for their teddy bear-like faces, complete with a furry mustache and eyebrows. But not all Goldendoodles fit this description!
Furnishings are the longer, poodle-like hairs on a Goldendoodle. Furnishings are considered more desirable in Goldendoodles because they give the Goldendoodle puppies a more distinct “doodle” appearance, and they lead to hair that doesn't shed, like a poodle’s.
Though furnishings are common in Goldendoodles, they aren't always present. whether or not a Goldendoodle will have furnishings depend on genetics that don't make an appearance until the puppy is older.
Furnishings will give a Goldendoodle a teddy bear-like appearance, with the thick fur forming eyebrows and a mustache on the puppy’s face. The hair will also be curlier.
You can’t tell if a Goldendoodle puppy will have furnishings right away, as the puppy will be born with a puppy coat. Once they shed that puppy coat, their adult coat will have either furnishings or a flat coat.
Puppy coats are thinner, softer coats meant to keep the puppy warm. You’ve probably noticed that puppies just feel so much downier than their parents, and eventually lose that fluff.
Adult coats can still be soft but are usually thicker. They are coarser and built for warmth as well as protection of the skin and camouflage. Some dogs will develop a double coat, a coat of fur with a soft and fluffy underbelly close to the skin, and a thicker, coarser, longer coat on the top.
Golden retrievers have this double coat that keeps them warmer through insulation. It also waterproofs their skin. Golden retrievers were bred in part to be swimmers, so the waterproofing of the coat was very important to early golden retriever breeders.
Poodles don’t have a double coat. Instead, they have a single thick, dense coat. This coat is pretty and easy to style, but it also doesn’t shed. Most dogs will shed when the weather gets warmer or cooler so they can grow a new coat to better protect them against the weather. Poodle coats just keep growing and growing and don’t shed. Their coat is similar to human hair.
When breeders breed Goldendoodles, they want that poodle hair that doesn't shed and can be styled. They work very hard to make sure that as many puppies as possible have furnishing rather than a flat coat.
Do all Goldendoodles have Furnishings?
Most people expect that all Goldendoodles have that warm, gold, curly hair that forms eyebrows and a mustache. But this actually isn’t the case with all Goldendoodles! There are some that have flat coats. Flat coats are dog coats that don’t have furnishings and are flat and unadorned. Golden retrievers have flat coats, and poodles do not.
Some Goldendoodles have furnishings like their poodle parent, but some inherit their other parent’s flat coat. Flat coats are often called “improper coats” by dog breeders because the curly hair and furnishings are most desirable in Goldendoodle puppies.
The furnishings in Goldendoodles are dominant, so it’s more likely that a Goldendoodle will have furnishings, but it isn’t impossible for them to have a flat coat. Goldendoodles with a flat coat look more like their golden retriever parent, shed, and can’t have their fur styled. They also can’t have puppies with furnishings, even though furnished Goldendoodles can have flat-coated puppies.
When you breed a flat coated dog with a furnished dog, roughly three-quarters of the puppies should have furnishings. This is a statistical probability, however, not a fact, so you shouldn’t plan on every fourth puppy being unfurnished every time.
Once the puppies have shed their puppy coats and grown their first adult coat, you can watch for the fuzzy T shape down the snout and around the eyes. If the fur there is longer than the fur anywhere else, then the puppy will have furnishings. The hair will probably be curly as well, but there are straight hair puppies with furnishings as well. It’s just less common.
If the puppy does have furnishings, prepare for regular grooming to keep it all in check! The hair won't stop growing naturally, so it will have to be cut or it will start to take over your puppy's beautiful face.
What Makes a Goldendoodle Have Furnishings?
What gives a golden doodle furnishing is actually a question of genetics. Furnishings are a dominant gene, and flat coats are a recessive gene. So, if a dog has even one dominant furnishing gene, it will have furnishings. A dog has to have two recessive flat coat genes to have a flat coat.
If a dog with two furnishing genes is bred with a dog that has two flat coat genes, all the puppies will have one furnishing gene and one flat coat gene. All the puppies will have furnishings, but their puppies could have flat coats if the puppies breed with a flat-coated dog.
If two dogs, each with one furnishing gene and one flat coat gene breed, there is a 75% chance their puppies will have furnishings. Statistically speaking, one of every four puppies will be flat coated and not have furnishings. They will also not be able to have furnished puppies.
Some of their siblings will be able to flat coat puppies, but about 25% of the puppies will have two furnishing genes and not be able to have flat coated puppies. So, the odds are you’re going to get mostly furnished puppies from a golden retriever and a poodle coupling, but it’s not impossible to have a few flat-coated dogs as well.
That being said, while flat coats are considered undesirable by dog breeders, flat-coated dogs are just as sweet and lovable as their furnished brothers and sisters.
Cindy is a prolific writer and online researcher who can't imagine life without dogs. There is scarcely a dog topic she has not researched or written about. Her love for dogs and helping dog parents is evident by the thousands of dogtemperament.com visitors who read her articles monthly. Most of all, each topic Cindy writes on helps forge a stronger bond and understanding between her and her happy Catahoula Leopard Dog Jossie.