Want a designer dog? Check the pound

[Faith]

I found this article on MSN this morning and I think it's just wonderful!


By Kim Campbell Thornton
MSNBC contributor
Updated: 6:49 a.m. ET March 20, 2007


Puggles, maltipoos are pricey — and essentially mixed-breed mutts

Ever hear of a floppy-faced Jujitsu? How about a King Daley shepherd? A Germox retriever? Those are just a few of the creative monikers that clever dog owners have come up with to label their all-American dogs — mutts, to people with less imagination.

When Steve Dale, the syndicated talk-show host of "Pet Central" on WGN Radio, and his wife decided to get another dog recently after the death of their 15-year-old Brittany, Chaser, all the Brittanys they saw brought tears, so they took their search to PAWS (Pets Are Worth Saving) Chicago, the city’s largest nonprofit humane organization. There they found Ethel, a patchwork puppy who resembles the wild “painted dogs” of Africa.

“People stopped us on the street and asked what kind of dog Ethel was,” Dale says. “They seemed disappointed when I’d say she was an Australian shepherd mix.”

Since people seemed to want Ethel to “be” something, Dale began calling her a King Daley shepherd, referencing Chicago’s longtime mayors.
Janice A. Biniok of Waukesha, Wis., has been creating “breed” names for her mixes for years. Currently she has what is probably a Labrador/boxer/German shepherd.

“He’s absolutely gorgeous. He looks like a brindle Labrador, so everybody wants to know what he is. I’ve been thinking of calling him a Germox retriever,” she says.

Why can’t a mutt be just a mutt?

Everybody wants something unique, says Stanley Coren, a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia and author of "Why Do Dogs Have Wet Noses?"

People who seek out the dog du jour — which these days is a crossbreed such as a maltipoo (Maltese/poodle) or goldendoodle (golden retriever/poodle) — like the idea of having a dog that not very many people have. And don't mind paying $1,000 to $2,500 or more for one.

Best of each breed?

Pet lovers are also attracted by claims that hybrids are hypoallergenic or have fewer health problems or will carry the best traits of each breed.

“The argument people make is that by crossing a purebred Labrador and a purebred poodle, it’s going to be nonshedding and intelligent because poodles are nonshedding and intelligent, and it’s going to have the work ethic and playfulness of the Lab, making it the perfect family dog,” Coren says. “It’s a nice story, but when you tell it, geneticists laugh.”

Genetic characteristics sort out randomly. So no matter what its breed or mix, an individual dog may be more or less allergenic, intelligent or healthy than another.

“When you cross two things it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to optimize what you’re trying to achieve,” says veterinarian Patricia Olson, president and CEO of Morris Animal Foundation, a group in Englewood, Colo., that funds research on pet-health issues.

“You can’t just say if I take this and this I’m sure I’m going to have a healthier dog; it doesn’t work that way. That’s why a lot of these crosses become fads and then go by the wayside, because people have experimented with them in the past and it hasn’t always been what they had hoped for.”

Biniok says the mutts she has adopted from the shelter have never had the hereditary health problems that affected her two purebreds, a Great Dane and a Boston terrier.

While mixed breeds as a class have more variety of inherited diseases than any single pure breed because of their broader gene pool, the frequency of any given disease among mixed breeds is likely to be lower because the population is more diverse.

But because designer dogs are purposely bred from dogs of specific types or breeds, they may have a higher incidence of certain diseases, such as breathing difficulties, cancer or hip dysplasia, depending on the breeds used to create them. The Xolo (or Mexican Hairless) mixes have as many if not more health problems as the purebreds, says Amy Fernandez of Forest Hills, N.Y., who is president of the Xoloitzcuintli Club of America, for people with this scrawny, hairless breed.

Not always a glamorous picture

Plenty of hybrids are well-loved pets, but the ones that outgrow the “cute” stage can face an uncertain future.

“Right now we are dealing with Xolo/Jack Russell mixes, Xolo/pit bull mixes, Xolo/Chihuahua mixes that we cannot find homes for,” Fernandez says.

“People are happy to fork over big bucks to buy these dogs as puppies, but once buyers realize that what they have is a complicated, demanding dog, many of these hairless wonders end up in shelters or worse," she says. "At least once every winter we hear of hairless dogs intentionally abandoned outdoors to freeze.”

When you want a dog that’s one of a kind, there’s no need to spend big bucks to get it. Visit your local shelter instead and come home with your very own roughcoated Malibu griffon, Golden Gate Chiwienie dog or North American mottled shepherd.

Whatever you choose, and whatever you call it, the dog will be just as unique and special as a pricier pup.

Kim Campbell Thornton is an award-winning author who has written many articles and more than a dozen books about dogs and cats. She belongs to the Dog Writers Association of America and is past president of the Cat Writers Association. She shares her home in California with two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and one African ringneck parakeet.

[agilitydog]

That is a great article. Thanks for posting it

[doglover1984]

Are people seriously paying that for a hybrid????? I think that is just wrong to charge that much, the way I see it is that they are just praying on people. But what is worse is that a lot of these dogs do end up in shelters which is really sad. Breeders that are good breeders think for the long run of the dogs life not just making a quick buck whether it's a mixed breed or pure bred. And are willing to take the dog back if something were to happen in the case that it was no longer wanted. I think it's just sad that people do this, but it is a good article and I hope all those people out there that think they are getting a unique breed read this.

[Ceph]

thats a great article! Thanks for sharing!

[rottiegirl]

REALLY good article! I can not justify mixed breeding when there are so many mixes rotting in the pounds.

[GSDNewbie]

thanks fabulous article I am so glad media is reporting it for what it is somewhere finally.

[Heart_Song]

Ick, people like those who write this article, I just wish I could talk to them and have them actually listen!!!!!

When you buy from a breeder, you buy the BREEDING, not the dog. If the stuff in the article were true, you would say the same thing about purebreds. I could write the same article and say "if you want a purebred, go get one from the shelter, there are plenty out there." In fact, there are many times more of a specific purebred in a shelter than a specific mix.

So why do you go to a breeder? Because (if you chose wisely) you know effort went into studying the history of the lines of both parents BEFORE they were bred and there is a higher chance of quality than if you get a random dog of unknown heritage.

Originally Posted by Kim Campbell Thornton

Genetic characteristics sort out randomly. So no matter what its breed or mix, an individual dog may be more or less allergenic, intelligent or healthy than another.

This is just an example of what is wrong in this article. Genetics is NOT random. Not even purebreds are going to all have identical genes, so you would have to say it's stupid to expect any characteristics in a purebred mating if you seriously believe this. But someone who knows what they are doing can do a decent job of predicting outcomes of certain characteristics in a breeding. Ever heard of Mandel? Ever heard of dominant alleles? I doubt that the writer of this article has.

I just wish people would think for themselves and not just go by what is commonly being preached in their circle. Both pro-mix and anti-mix. And they would stop lumping good breeders with poor breeders. Yes, there are a lot of bad breeders who breed designers but there are MORE breeders who breed bad purebreds. Therefore, if all breeders of mixes are bad then all breeders of purebreds are bad, if you believe one, you have to believe the other.

Ugh, I should really just give up, no one listens or cares.

[Heart_Song]

Originally Posted by rottiegirl

REALLY good article! I can not justify mixed breeding when there are so many mixes rotting in the pounds.

And that's why I also can not justify breeding more purebreds, too many of them die in shelters as well.

[Faith]

well, actually, it'd be Mendel's theories.

and, i'm curious. so, you believe that if you take a poodle and a labrador and breed them you can accurately predict how many puppies will have poodle traits vs lab traits? what colors they will be? so, i can walk into any pet store and buy one of each and breed them and have a good understanding of what i'll get?

[Heart_Song]

Wow, I really wish I had time to go into genetics right now. Oh well, maybe this summer or something I can make a good thread about it. I will go into saying that if dog has alleles 1,2 and bitch has alleles 3,4 the ONLY randomness will be if the pups have 1,3; 1,4; 2,3; or 2,4. BUT whatever is dominant will show through no matter what the random pairing is. Therefore, it is NOT random, there is some control to it.

Originally Posted by Faith

so, i can walk into any pet store and buy one of each and breed them and have a good understanding of what i'll get?

Ding, ding correct! Exactly right. You can't. Why not? Because genetics is random? NO! Because you don't know the history! of these dogs.

Now, tell me how I can walk into any pet store buy two of any single breed of dog and have a good understanding of what I will get? I can't. Why? Same reason, I don't know the history. Now if I could do a DNA test, map out the genome, determine which alleles are dominant for each gene, etc, etc then maybe. You can't say that something like that is true for mixes and not "purebreds". What about all those pure black labs with white chests or pure chihuahuas with floppy ears? Those are traits as results of poorly educated breeders who don't know the history of the animals they are breeding.

Also, if you will notice, I NEVER said that you could determine what you will get from every gene. Why not? Because of randomness? NO. Because we haven't worked out the complete genome and we don't map out the DNA of every dog we breed. If we could do that, we could quite easily predict the mathematical likelihood to get certain characteristics and in what combinations. However, those mathematical possibilities would probably blow most of our minds.

Since we can't do that, we do the best we can through observation. If the breeding line behind one individual has consistantly shown one trait, then that trait is going to be dominant in that animal and most likely homogeneous. If the other individual in a mating pair has a long line of a different characteristic of that same trait, then it is likely that it is dominant in that animal. If these two are bred, then the two opposing characteristics of that trait will in essense be challenged and whichever one is dominant will show through.

If it is truly homogeneous in both parents, then all the offsprings will be like one another and will be phenotypically like whichever parent has the dominant characteristic of that trait, though genotypically they will not be like either parent. If it is heterogeneous in one parent, then if the other parent has the dominant characteristic, the pups will all be alike phenotypically but different genotypically. If both parents are heterogeneous, then you should know this by the fact that there is not consistency in the history of their line and therefore there will also not be consistency in their offspring, though you could determine what the statistically likelihood of a certain characteristic is if you know which traits are dominant.

And, remember ALL breeds started out as impure. Therefore, it must be possible to get from not knowing what a mating will produce to get to knowing that a litter will all fit the breed standard and that was back when we knew a whole lot less about genetics than we know now. At some point someone bred a dog to a curly coated dog. Some were curly some were not. The curly ones were bred together and there were fewer smooth coats. Etc. Etc, now you have a purebred curly dog. You could never have gotten a purebred without first breeding together impure breeds. God created animals according to their kind, not their breeds. It's only us humans who think there's something special about imbreeding animals until the become "pure."