Have you ever seen a person with a service or therapy dog? Service or therapy dogs are specially trained to help people with disabilities. Some dogs help guide people who have visual or hearing impairments. Service dogs can also help people with post-traumatic stress disorder. Service dogs can even be trained to alert an individual that he or she is about to have a seizure.

In the past several years, a breed of dog known as the labradoodle has become a popular service dog. Crossing a Labrador retriever and a standard poodle produces this breed of dog. The labradoodle makes a good service dog because they have the body build and intuition of a Labrador retriever but, like standard poodles, they do not shed and are hypoallergenic.

Sources: Yellow Labrador Looking, 26, Wikimedia
Brown Labradoodle, 70, Wikimedia
Pudel_Grossschwarz, 40, Wikimedia

The intentional breeding of organisms with desirable traits in order to produce offspring with similar desirable traits or with improved traits is known as selective breeding.

Watch this video to learn more about selective breeding.