So to that end, let me throw out a topic for discusion. (I hope) Designer Dogs. Or Hybrid Dogs. Or, to my way of thinking, Mutts. It started off innocently enough, some goofy celebrity chose a "puggle" for a pet and before you know it, the world became flooding with the likes of labradoodles, goldendoodles, scnoodles, morkies, snorkies, *BLEEP*s, cashons, chipos, cavashons, cockaliers, you name it, somebody is crossing it.
Now some claim there are reasons and benefits for crosses. The original Labradoodle was developed as an attempt to create a hypo allergenic dog for blind people with dog allergies. All that comes to mind for me is why not just use a standard poodle for a seeing eye dog? They are intelligent, sturdy, clean, and easy to train. I see absolutly no benefits to adding Labrador to the mix to make something some claim to be superiour as a guide dog.
Then the claims that a puggle is an improvment because it doesn't have the breathing problems a pug has. Well, of course it doesn't! Duh. But it isn't a cute, adorable, snoring, snorting, sneezing pug either. If you don't want a dog with breathing problems, don't buy a pug. Simple as that! But don't create a new breed, there are allready hundreds of dogs out there that don't have breathing problems, just pick one of those. And you sure as heck can't say adding pug to the beagle line will make a better hunting dog!
Then there is the excuse that cross breeding give hybred vigor. Another absolute myth! If you cross a lab with hip dysplacia with a poodle with bad hips, you are going to get a labradoodle with bad hips. These "new" breeds will have all the same health risks that the original purebreds used to create them had to begin with. And not only that, people who cross breed are quite unlikely to keep records and weed out dogs with health problems and dog that do not conform to breed standards. (actually, there are no breed standards for mutts) Records on purebred dogs can be traced back through multiple generations and health screening is far easier to acomplish with registered purebreds. Conformation shows keep dogs that do not conform to the breed standard weeded out of purebred lines.
Another big problem I see coming down the pike in years to come is the mess it is going to make with future generations of actual purebred dogs. The chances are always good that when you cross 2 different breeds of dogs, some of the pups in the litter are very likely to look more like one of the purebred parents. What happens when somewhere down the line the person who bought the cute dachshund/poodle puppy that mostly looks like a dachshund decides to breed it to another dachshund? The resulting pups will look "mostly" dachshund, so they find a registry that accepts a picture of a dog to issue registration papers, and then this person breeds and sells pups passing them off as purebreds, and later the buyer of one of the dachshund look alike breeds it and gets a curly coated puppy? People who don't know any better are really going to be in for a shock when their supposed purebred pup that they paid big bucks for ends up being a mutt. I think the whole thing is going to end up being a giagantic disaster!
