Clumberdoodle Archie’s Characteristics And Personality
I have done a post on “What is a Clumberdoodle” so as we have a Clumberdoodle called Archie I thought it might be interesting to list his characteristics and personality.
Clumberdoodle Archie’s Characteristics And Personality
We have had Archie since he was a 9 week old puppy so please read all about how he came in to our family here.
We have actually renamed Archie’s breed from Clumberdoodle to a “Slumberdoodle”. Although he loves his walks, he is quite happy to put his paws up and laze around the house and sleep most of the time – well he did come from “Sleepy Hollow”. He is a very chilled out dog and I have to say that he has been quite an easy dog to have around (well after the hard work when he was a puppy).
We did start out with the intention of making Archie sleep in a crate – we failed. It lasted a few days, and I know we should have persisted but we gave in. Archie would not settle at all and I could not bear the constant crying and distress that he was getting himself into. Steve (my husband) even sat down with him until he fell asleep (Archie, not Steve) but as soon as Steve moved to come upstairs, Archie woke up. We tried moving the crate upstairs and put it on the landing with our bedroom door open, but even that did not work. So we put a bed and a rug on the floor in our bedroom which changed everything, and we have all had a good night’s sleep ever since.
Archie does sleep on the floor all night but in the morning I do get a cover to put over our quilt and Archie then comes up on the bed for his cuddle before we, (and I stress we, Archie not included) get up.
Now, if Archie had his way he would stay on the bed for the rest of the day as he is in no hurry to get up in the morning. I do not want to give too much information, but we go to bed usually between 10.30 – 11.00 p.m. We both get up before 9.00 am but Archie is quite happy to stay on the bed, sprawled out asleep which could sometimes be way past 9.00 am and we have to physically remove him.
Clumberdoodle Archie’s Characteristics And Personality
When he does eventually wake up you think he would be desperate for a wee, but no and if it is raining then he will try everything to avoid going outside and we literally have to force him.
He is not very keen on the rain at any time of day and we have to chase him around the house to get him to put his lead on and go out for a walk. Once he is actually out, he is okay but getting him there can be a challenge.
He is very affectionate, although not soppy and doesn’t do kissing or licking, but he does love to cuddle up to you and be stroked but his favourite is to lie on his back and have has tummy tickled, and he would quite happily stay there all day for this to be done!!!
Archie has a great personality and can get very excited and playful with people he knows, however he can be a little nervous with people he does not know which is apparently a Clumber Spaniel trait.
Archie definitely loves routine and does not need a clock, as he knows exactly what time of day it is. He likes things to be normal in and the right place and doesn’t like things changing position or being moved – I know, strange!!
He suffers from separation anxiety and both my husband and myself have to be blamed for this. As we are both retired and are both or one of us are home at any one time, there has been no need to leave Archie on his own. If we have done on very rare occasions he gets extremely distressed which we witnessed by setting up a “baby monitor” in the room we left him in. We have had no reason to pursue this, so he comes with us most of the time, or else our Son “dog sits”.
Clumberdoodle Archie’s Characteristics And Personality
A typical day in the life of Archie during the Covid lockdown is:-
9.00 – 9.30 a.m. He eventually gets up and goes outside for his first wee of the day. He will then go back to sleep on the landing but keeping one eye on the road outside carrying out his neighbourhood watchdog role.
10.30 a.m. Play time in the sitting room whilst we have a morning cup of tea, then back to sleep.
1.00 – 1.30 p.m Out for his daily walk from or house which can vary from day to day but on average about 11/2 hours. Then about 1/2 cleaning him off.
3.00 p.m.Afternoon coffee for us and Archie gets 2 chunks of his doggy chocolate, then an afternoon sleep, but again will keep an eye out for anything that might be going on in the road.
5.30 p.m His daily brush and comb before his dinner with a play before he eats.
6.00 p.mDinner time (he only has one meal a day which was Archie’s decision). After his meal a little play as he is now energised.
6.30 – 8.55 p.m He will snooze in between the odd game with his toys or tennis ball.
9.00 p.m Prompt he will ask for his evening treat which is either an ostrich spaghetti chew or a Dentastix which he absolutely loves and will do anything I ask him to do before he gets it. I am sure if I really wanted him to do a somersault he would do!! He will then have another snooze
10.30 p.m (ish Final play with his tennis ball with the 3 of us joining in, and it has to be myself, hubby and Archie. Then out for a final wee and so to bed. Then his routine (and it is his routine) starts all over again the next day.
The Postman
Now one of Archie’s highlights of every day is waiting for the postman. He looks out of the window and sees the red post van parked up the road and then watches the postman delivering to the other houses and barks incessantly waiting for him to hopefully come down our drive and deposit any letters through the letterbox. Archie waits and as soon as the letters hit the floor he picks them up and then runs into the lounge – waiting for a treat
He gets most upset if the postman doesn’t actually deliver anything and bypasses our house.
One of our regular postmen knows Archie loves to pick up the post and if we see him whilst we our out walking he will deposit the letters straight into Archie’s mouth. If he didn’t have any letters for us he would find something to give to Archie even if it was just a card that they leave when no-one is home to take in a parcel. We are probably in a small minority who do not mind getting junk mail if there is no personal mail as Archie is really pleased with anything!!!
Now Archie is a bit of a neighbourhood watchdog, as he loves to sit on the landing and look out of the landing window to see who is about. If he is in the lounge then he gets a good view of the street out of the front window and loves to just sit and watch what is going on.
Archie’s toys
He has never chewed anything belonging to us (except for slippers if he gets hold of them) or furniture in the house, but his toys are a different story. He does love his toys but hates anything with a label on it and these are destroyed in the first instance. He is also not keen on any of his soft toys that have limbs as he likes to suck the material until it gets really soft and then bite them off, so he is just left with the bodies. If we don’t get to them fast enough and Archie consumes them, it is then checking poo to make sure they come out the other end. We have found a whole large soft toy ear of a rabbit that went through him in tact.
He loves playing with his toys but he also likes to play with a little more stimulation. He has a wonderful nose on him and he likes it being put to the test. We hide one of his toys in different places around the house which he manages to find quite quickly. Even if it is put in a drawer or cupboard Archie will sniff them out and if he cannot open the drawer or cupboard he will lay down in front of them. This is something that he has done by himself with no training from us. Also he loves treat trails where I hide some little treats throughout the house and he sniffs these out in record time.
We do actually play hide and seek when we out are walks where again I hide one of his toys (his favourite for this being his soft fabric beefburger). We are lucky enough to have a moorland common walking distance from where we live with loads of good hiding places, in trees, gorse and other undergrowth. Also laying a cheese trail (no wonder he is putting on weight!!). If both my husband and myself go out together then Archie plays human hide and seek. One of us will hold one to him and count to 100 whilst the other one goes and hides and Archie has to find us, with a tempting morsel waiting for him.
The Telephone
With no training from us whatsover, Archie will howl like a wolf if the phone rings and will carry on even when we have answered it. When we do answer it, he does carry on howling for a little while which must be quite disconcerting for the person on the other end as they can obviously hear it and wonder why he have a wolf in the house! He must have an in built instinct to alert us to the house phone, and only the landline phone – not a mobile.
Now if Adrian (our Son) who Archie loves (“his human brother by a different mother!”) just phones for a chat and he isn’t actually coming to visit us, he has to phone us on our mobile rather than the house phone. If he uses the mobile Archie doesn’t take any notice of it. However, Archie gets very excited if Adrian phones the landline as he knows exactly who it is by the way we speak to Adrian and knows that he is on his way over to see us, which is quite often as he does not live very far away.
Archie will sit and look out of the window waiting for him to arrive. and when he sees his car goes crazy. Even if it is dark and the curtains are drawn, and even if he is actually fast asleep, Archie knows the sound of Adrian’s car from up the road and he is up and waiting in total excitement for him to come in.
Archie’s Coat
Finally his coat is very high maintenance. I do comb and brush him every day to avoid his coat matting which it will do if it is left. Also going to a professional groomer regularly (every 6 – 8 weeks) that is expensive. I have tried to clip him at home but I have to be honest and say that a professional groomer does a far better job and is well worth the expense.
Archie is a mud magnet and when we take him out for his daily walk most days he will come back extremely dirty and muddy. You see other dogs that are out on the same walk, but none look like Archie. So when he comes home we have a routine. First it is using the Mud Daddy to wash the mud off, then towel dry him, then the pet blaster and then his face finished off with a normal hair dryer. This procedure can take up to 30 minutes.
If anyone is thinking of getting a Clumberdoodle I would suggest that you get them used to hair dryers from an early age as you will need to use them on a regular basis and it makes drying them a lot easier if they are used to the driers.
Archie’s tricks
He has been very easy to train and does have quite a few tricks. The usual sit, and paw and high five. He can bow and do a “shy dog”. He can twist around in circles on command, do the front crawl (on a carpet not in a swimming pool!). He can also count – yes count. He will bark to how many fingers we are holding up which includes addition and subtraction. He can wave a paw and wink!!
Also after watching the Olmpics in Tokyo 2021, I am trying to teach him some dressage. No, not with me on his back but getting him to extend his paw out like in the “passage” (I think) and then perhaps the “half pass” doing it diagonally. I will video this if I manage to train him – but you might have to wait a long time!!!
He also has a wide vocabulary and understands a lot of what we actually say, not just to him but in general conversation. We do have to spell some words rather than say them, but even then he is very clever and knows exactly what we are saying.
One of his favourite tricks and we have never taught him do this, but if anyone is on all fours on the floor he will jump up on their backs. You can then throw a tennis ball to him and he will return it (raquets not used). He does actually prefer it if he is facing the front window, as he gets a better view of the street!
We love Archie to bits and it has proved that he was definitely the right breed for us and can thoroughly recommend this wonderful crossbreed. Dogs do inherit the traits from their breeds but most dog’s personalities come from their owners – hence why Archie is as he is!!
LIKES | DISLIKES |
Rough Play Fighting with Steve, he keeps going back for more | Getting up in the morning |
Cold weather and snow | The hospipe |
Loves the wind | Cats |
Sleeping | Birds in the garden |
Rich Tea biscuits | Strangers |
His cool mat that he uses a lot of the time to keep cool | The rain |
Any one of his 4 beds that we have placed in different rooms | Doesn’t like being separated from us, even if one of us goes out |
Snuggling up to one of us | Labels on anything |
Tummy tickles | Kissing or licking |
Going out for his walks | The Vet |
Loves being groomed, particularly now we have the grooming table. | Fireworks (this is more than a dislike this is a hate) |
Loves being blasted and hair dried, as he doesn’t like being wet when he comes back from a walk. | The heat and really struggles when it is very warm (like me!!) |
Picnics | |
Routine |
You can follow Archie’s progress from the day we brought him home to the present day in various articles here
Clumberdoodle Archie’s Characteristics And Personality
I have been reading your blogs as we are getting our first clumberdoodle who is also called Archie have enjoyed your journey and getting hints and tips
Hello Allison
Thank you for your comment and hope you have enjoyed reading all about Archie and hope my posts have given you some insight in what owning one of these super crossbreeds is like. Good luck with your Archie, When will he be ready for collection? Please let me know how you get on and I would love to see some photos.
Regards
Karen
I am in the process of adopting an adult clumberpoo from sleepy hollow myself very soon…..any tips for settling in?
Hello
Thank you for reading this post in my blog and leaving a comment. Is the adult Clumberdoodle you are going to adopt one that originally came from Sleepy Hollow or are you getting it direct? In relation to your question about any tips for settling in, Archie was 9 weeks old when we got him from Sleepy Hollow, so an adult dog will be different. However I have charted Archie’s progress from the time we saw him with his mother and siblings at Sleepy Hollow and over the past (nearly) 7 years in many posts that I have written, which might be of interest to you.
Regards
Karen