Designer Dogs

A bit of a rant here about people and designer bred dogs. Cats are not quite as exploited. While there is bad breeding going on with cats just as there is with dogs, there is not the amount of crosses (pedigrees)and health mutations that there is with dogs. Dogs appear to mutate easier than cats. Also the Fédération Internationale Féline d’Europe (FIFE) are, l understand, a lot stricter than the kennel club on breeding standards.

People have become obsessed with having fancier and fancier names for dog breeds, damm the temperament and health implications. They are getting bored with the well known pedigrees around. They want designer breeds with fancy names, so that they can show off. This has brought about the situation nowadays where you cross breed 2 different pedigree dogs and merge their names into one. And the beauty of it for breeders is they can invent whatever name they want and do not have any breed standards to stick to. These cross breeds regulaly change hands for upwards of £500 often more than the standard pedigrees.

While l am always quoting “a pedigree is a mongrel that breeds true”. It is also true that if you breed two pedigrees that doe’s not mean you get a healthy ‘purebred’ mongrel pup. You stand a risk of just wrapping the worst of both of those lines with each other and going from horrible inherited diseases to god-awful inherited diseases.

One of the common things that is done is to cross a poodle which doesn’t shed hair with another breed. This is sold as a non hair shedding breed, no proof that the genetics to stop hair shedding will cross over but by the time people realise it is too late.

Crossing a yorkie with another breed does not mean that the teeth will not be rotten, and still be falling out by the time the dog is 8years old.

The healthiest mongrels are generally those that have a totally unknown parentage you may guess parts but they are basically unknown. This doesn’t mean that they won’t get health problems, it is just a hell of a lot rarer. True unknown parentage mongrels are becoming rarer in the first world now where ‘pedigrees’ are gaining ground.

Insurance companies are now classing some of the designer cross breeds as ‘pedigree’ eg labradoodle. This is an insurance definition as a pedigree by kennel club standards has to have ‘bred true’ for at least 100 years.

Insurance standards of pedigree, means that they fall into various risk classes. In the labradoodle case it is hip dysplasia, they are also high in the temperament problem stakes. Many get referred to behaviourists. People don't realise they're getting a very intelligent, big, active dog and most labradoodle owners seem to be first time dog owners too.

Another behaviourist visitor is cockies or Border collie x Cocker Spaniels, pretty highly strung and very uncertain temperaments. Border collies top the behaviourist’s charts on polls. They are unsuited to town life unless they can run themselves stupid and are very intelligent as well so need lots of mental stimulation. Yet they are expected to live like a family pet. Their herder instincts to nip heels become more vicious as it is not channelled into the work they were bred for, by people that do not understand the breed.
Cocker spaniels again not to high in the good temperament stakes especially golden’s. Cocker rage is a well recognised problem but the root cause is unknown. While it can affect all the colours it seems predominant in golden’s.

Pomchi - these were all the rage a couple of years back. Pomeranian x Chihuahua were changing hands at around a £1000. Their temperament was nasty to say the least.

Rottakitas, Rottweiler’s cross Akita’s my god that is insane, l do not want to handle these thank you. Akita’s need careful owners as do Rottweiler’s. Needles to say all too often they do not get it but to mix the 2 is asking for a problem breed, and people think pitbulls are dangerous.

Springador these seem to be popular with gamekeepers. The problem’s become apparent when this active working breed, bred specifically to work ends up in a pet home without the necessary stimulation.

I have put a few here that have been sold as ‘breeds’ you can try and work out the parentage: whipbull, yorkiepoo, sprollie, springerdor, cockalier, cockapoo, yorkadale, yorhua, cockerschon, shorkiepoo, sprocker, shichon, jug, grippit.

To find out what the known inherited problems are in some of the top ‘normal’ breeds, as opposed to designer breeds this site Inherited diseases in dogs database will give you a clue. The site is being constantly updated as more inherited diseases become acknowledged. Now consider what may happen if 2 breeds are interbreed.

Finally to bring a bit of humour into a serious subject

What do you get if you cross a Leonberger with a Shih Tzu?

A shihberger

What do you get if you cross a Jack Russell terrier with a Shih Tzu?

Jackshiht