Breed/Hybrid/MUTT

[Minniechickmama]

I had to crack up the other night when reading something on my sister's Facebook wall.
She has a friend who posted pictures of her two dogs. My sister commented something about "What are they?". The other person said, "They are new breeds, one is xx crossed with a yy, and the other is a qq crossed with a rr.
Now, what the heck? Do people really think that if you take two breeds and mate them, that you have a NEW BREED????? Really? No, I mean REALLY?
That, my dear people is a crossbreed or a MUTT! I don't think people realize what it really takes to make a new breed of any species. If I take a Polish and mate it to a Cornish, I don't instantly get a new breed to call a Pornish? So, how is it that people breeding dogs that way get off in calling their F1 generations a new breed?
And Hybrid? No. I don't think so. But if one wanted to argue that, I suppose I could concede on some points.
If an F1 cross really was a new breed, I guess our old dog, Trouble, was a purebred Chowberman!

(RIP 10/2005)

 

[nurse_turtle]

These days folks cross a Maltese with a poodle and make a Malt-a-poo and charge $500 for it. I laugh. A mutt is a mutt is a mutt. I have several polish/silkie mutts. I shall call them POLKIES, and they are now $25/each!

 

[featherfinder]

They are called "designer breeds" My mom has one. He is a Peagle which is a Beagle X Pekingese. His breed is a actual recognized breed from what I understand so that is why they are expensive and the theory behind cross breeding. I really dont understand it. Just another way for people to make more money.

 

[Oregon Blues]

The cross breeds are not recognized breeds unless you get them registered in one of the junk registries that register garbage for the puppy mills. You don't have to know any parentage for those registries, just have the cash to trade for a set of papers.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Quote:

But...why so cheap?


I'm actually cool with the *idea* of having mixes that have a name to them. That is, responsible breeding applied to known crosses for a desired outcome. If you maintain a good stock of animal A and a good stock of animal B, you may be able to provide a consistently good quality AB f1 animal, or even a line that begins to breed true for the desired mixture. Perhaps. A common mix (as far as I know, it isn't marketed to huge dollar ammounts) exists for stock dogs. Australian cattle dogs are bred to Australian shepherds, as the crosses are valued as working dogs. Some put more effort into it than others, making sure both the ACD and aussies going into the breedings are quality dogs. Some just throw any two dogs together (the same extremes you see with purebred animals). The results are usually called "Texas heelers" or "American heelers". Granted, after going through heartbreak with a shelter dog that ended up being that mix, I'm not touching another Aussie-anything with a ten foot pole until the epilepsy problems are seriously addressed in the breed. But, many rave about having the best qualities of both dogs when using them for herding.

Of course, all you often get are highly overpriced mutts partly because yes, some do think crossing two breeds means you get an instant 'new breed' (tm). But that said...I've seen some magnificently overpriced and overmarketed purebred animals that I have to walk away choking down laughter. There was a breed of cat I was looking into as a gift for my husband, and I ran into so many breeder websites with subpar animals wearing things like pearl necklaces that came with cutesy mandatory 'care packages' that cost a fortune. I've also seen some animals that are quality animals conformation wise and consistently win in shows, but that I would personally never want in my house for either health or temperament issues. Likewise, I've met some carefully bred labradoodles who were just amazing dogs, and I'd pay decent money for them due to the sound health and temperament of the lines.

 

[Squawkbox]

I'm sick of seeing ads in my area for Labradoodles/Goldendoodles, everything doodles that are so extremely overpriced! $2500 for a mutt!!!??? I just don't understand...
I also hate the false advertising of "hypoallergenic non shedding dogs" that comes along with it, flat out lies.

 

[WalkerH]

Hahah they make me laugh. But I'm one of those people who are like...if the dog hasn't proven itself on the field or in the ring and isn't a purebred it isn't worth breeding. Don't get me wrong I love my 'boxibull' and 'pitador'...but there are plenty of mutts out there. Some of the best dogs are mutts, but if you are breeding and selling a dog at least let it be proven. People are dumb.

 

[bock]

Oh it is so stupid. Maltipoos in the paper are going for $1200, I cannot believe people actually pay these idiots that much to add even more mutts to the world. I have just as much of a problem with people selling pure breeds when they can't even spell the breed's name right and just throw any two dogs together, not even giving any thought to improving the breed. Usually "ckc" registered (or none), no health testing, no titles, no health checks, no owner screening, usually the parents aren't even stable dogs.I love my mutts, but I will go to the shelter for all of my future dogs and cats....unless they are a personal rescue. I will be volunteering at the shelter all summer, I love all animals so much and believe that we really need to crack down on byb's and puppy mills, it is not fair at all to these amazing animals.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Actually bock, the UKC is a legitimate registry that has been around nearly as long as the AKC. Many people even feel that the UKC is "better" because they are a little bit more "performance" oriented than "conformation" oriented and a lot of people consider their performance events (such as Agility, earth dog, weight pull, obedience, etc) to be at least as challenging if not more so than AKC performance events. Many UKC dogs are also AKC registered. I think the scam registry you are thinking of is the CKC, which in newspaper classifieds almost always stands for Continental Kennel Club, often easily confused for the totally legitimate Canadian Kennel Club (also abbreviated CKC).

Personally I wouldn't have much of a problem with people paying 1200 for a mixed breed "designer dog" if the breeders of these dogs were doing all of the health and temperament testing that a responsible breeder of purebred dogs was doing. After all, hip, elbow, eye, joint, heart, and thyroid testing isn't cheap and I don't have a problem with people offsetting the costs of running these tests on the parents by charging more than a few hundred dollars for a puppy. Not to mention the cost of high quality dog food for the dam and litter to provide optimal nutrition. But the fact of the matter is that these "breeders" are not doing anything different from the other BYB that sells their poorly bred yorkies, german shepherds, labs, or shih tzus for $300 in the paper other than slapping a cutesy name on their puppies and claiming that they are "hybrids." And people keep buying their dogs, and their stories that a lab mated with a poodle will make a new breed known as a labradoodle and that these dogs will somehow be free of the common health problems that cripple both breeds because of "hybrid vigor," because they don't bother to educate themselves before they get a pet.

It really doesn't surprise me at all that so many people honest-to-goodness really believe that if you take two breeds and mate them that you then have a new breed. After all, since both parents were purebred, logic dictates that the puppies are purebred too (even though they are a cross between two different breeds). After all, I used to be surprised at the number of people who came into the vet where I work and thought that their dog didn't have heartworms because we didn't see any evidence of worms in the stool sample. All they really latch onto is the "worm" part of the term Heartworm, they somehow totally overlook the "heart" part which would make them wonder why they are called Heartworms if they live in the GI tract. Same thing with "designer" breeds, people latch onto the idea that the parents are "purebred" and somehow fail to stop and think that a dog is no longer purebred when the parents are not the same breed.

 

[watchdogps]

The cross breeds are not recognized breeds unless you get them registered in one of the junk registries that register garbage for the puppy mills. You don't have to know any parentage for those registries, just have the cash to trade for a set of papers.