I am a dog trainer who teaches obedience classes. More and more often I’m experiencing the following conversation:
Me: “Welcome to class, do you have your sign-up paper?”
Person whose dog is bouncing and leaping around at the end of the leash, releasing clouds of hair into the air: “Yes, I’m so excited to be here, I know that Missy is going to do really well in class! She’s a purebred Labradoodle [insert any designer dog breed] and they’re just naturally well-behaved and hypo-allergenic too!”
I’m tired of being the one to say “You just paid an exorbitant amount for a puppy on the basis of outrageous expectations.”
In my mental fantasy I would ask “Why are you coming to obedience class if your dog is already perfect?” In real life, I gently point out that a Labradoodle, by definition, is a mix. When you breed two different types of purebred dogs together you can get any combination of any of the characteristics found in either breed. And I’ve yet to meet any dog—pure breed or mix—that is “naturally well-behaved”.
But what really bothers me is the underlying assumption that was finally spoken by one frustrated puppy owner: “There must be something wrong with me! The store promised me that my puppy would be easy to train!” It’s this promise that’s absurd: the idea that anyone (with enough money) can purchase the perfect dog. Just add water and food, and with no effort, you will have the perfect family companion—the perfect Lassie, but without shedding.
What makes this an even more dangerous myth is the reality that the number one reason dogs end up in shelters is behavioral problems. Unrealistic expectations result in disappointment for dog owners and potential death for the dog.
In full disclosure, let me state that I own two pure breed dogs (a Rottweiler and a Jack Russell) and one “designer dog”. Walter is a Cockapoo, a cross between a Poodle and a Cocker Spaniel. He’s a good boy and I love him dearly. But he was not an easy dog to raise and train. Of course, Walter isn’t really a designer dog, as the owner of his mom didn’t deliberately breed her Poodle—no, Walter is the result of an unplanned love match.
So what are the goals of designer dog breeders? The most often stated reason is “hybrid vigor.” This concept assumes that a crossbred animal will be healthier than a purebred. In reality, this is false. Because of genetics, no dog, regardless of breed or cross, is safe from inherited health issues. A crossbred dog has the same chance of inheriting a health issue as a purebred.
Look at Cockapoos for example. Poodles and Cockers have many of the same health problems; therefore, a cross of them might actually stand a higher risk of inheriting a problem than a purebred pup from a good breeder. Yes, if there is a disease found only in Poodles, a poodle cross will not have it. But if the health issue is found in many breeds, even crosses can get it. Some of the problems in both breeds are: hip dysplasia, progressive retinal atrophy, epilepsy, allergies, skin and ear problem, and gastric torsion. Breeders of cross mixes rarely do any health tests – genetic or otherwise.
With any dog, your chance of avoiding health problems is greatly increased if the dog’s ancestors and relatives (the more the better) were screened for genetic disease. However, the kind of careful, knowledgeable breeder who does this kind of screening will not knowingly sell to someone who intends to mix breeds. The odds of finding a “Cockapoo” from generations of health-screened ancestors are so slim as to be nonexistent. And since the breeders of these mixes aren’t terribly concerned with breeding to any standard, they aren’t terribly concerned with screening out any of the health problems either.
The myth that purebreds are unhealthy came about due to bad breeders who either did not care about health testing or who were ignorant and felt that dogs who show no outward signs of a problem do not have it. A purebred dog from a good and educated source has a greater chance of being healthier than a crossbreed.
Crossbreeds by design have become such a phenomenon that there is now a club to register such dogs. The American Canine Hybrid Club (www.achclub.com) bills itself as “the finest registry for hybrids”. Their website lists hundreds of hybrid breeds with names such as “Bascottie”, a cross between a Basset Hound and a Scottish Terrier. Or maybe you’d prefer a “French Weenie”, a cross between a Dachshund and a French Bulldog. Doesn’t anyone else ponder the idea that breeds are being crossed more for their cutesy portmanteau names than for the desire to create a healthier dog?
The American Canine Hybrid Club’s rules state that: “The first breeder to create a new hybrid cross has the opportunity to name it if chosen to do so. If the breeder does not choose to name a new hybrid, our office will do so. Once a name has been selected, that name will be used for all successive litters of that particular hybrid.”
The most popular hybrid at ACHC has been the Puggle, a cross between a Beagle and a Pug. The first to register a Puggle litter with ACHC and name the mix, was Wallace Havens. In 2008, at the height of his “success”, Havens’ Puppy Haven Kennels was, at any given time, home to more than 1,000 dogs and sold more than 3,000 puppies a year of about 30 different cross breeds. Some puppies were sold directly to “customers” but most of his business was providing animals to pet shops all across the country. (http://chippewa.com/news/article_5011838f-996a-5245-a7d5-d77946acdcd9.html#ixzz1TzUCcOoL ). OK kids, can we all spell p-u-p-p-y m-i-l-l?
Let’s look at another popular mix, the Labradoodle. In the early 1980s, the puppy-breeding manager for the Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia wanted to create an allergy-free guide-dog. Crossing a standard Poodle with a Labrador produced a litter of three pups, one of which was hypo-allergenic. Then it came time to foster the puppies. (The following excerpts are from Wally Conron, “My Story: I Designed a Dog” (www.readersdigest.com.au/my-story-i-designed-a-dog):
With a three to six-month waiting list for people wishing to foster our pups, I was sure we’d have no problem placing our three new crossbred pups with a family. But again I was wrong: it seemed no-one wanted a crossbred puppy; everyone on the waiting list preferred to wait for a purebred. And time was running out – the pups needed to be placed in homes and socialised; otherwise they would not become guide-dogs.
By eight weeks of age, the puppies still hadn’t found homes. Frustrated and annoyed with the response to the trio of crossbreeds I had carefully reared, I decided to stop mentioning the word crossbreed and introduced the term labradoodle instead to describe my new allergy-free guide-dog pups.
It worked – during the weeks that followed, our switchboard was inundated with calls from other guide-dog centres, vision-impaired people and people allergic to dog hair who wanted to know more about this “wonder dog”. My three pups may have been mongrels at heart – but the furore did not abate.
It was 1989 and the publicity surrounding the new designer dogs went national and then international. A new world opened for countless people who had once thought they could never enjoy the delight of a pet pooch.
But I quickly realised that I’d opened a Pandora’s box when our next litter of ten labradoodles produced only three allergy-free pups.
I began to worry, too, about backyard breeders producing supposedly “allergy-free” dogs for profit. Already, one man claimed to be the first to breed a poodle- Rottweiler cross!
Nothing, however, could stop the mania that followed. New breeds began to flood the market: groodles, spoodles, caboodles and snoodles. Were breeders bothering to check their sires and bitches for heredity faults, or were they simply caught up in delivering to hungry customers the next status symbol? We’ll never know for sure.
Today I am internationally credited as the first person to breed the labradoodle, but I wonder, in my retirement, whether we bred a designer dog – or a disaster!
The Royal Guide Dog Association of Australia has discontinued the cross breeding program. The reasons? Too few of the crosses were proving to be suitable for guide dog work, few of the non-shedding promises held true, and many of the heritable diseases of both breeds were expressed in the new generation. Yet Labradoodles continue to be bred in both Australia and the United States as they are very saleable and for huge prices. (One to two thousand dollars per puppy is a very good price, particularly for a non-AKC registerable mutt or mixed breed). But in most cases, the puppies resulting from these cross breedings are no longer hypo-allergenic, dander-less or non shedding.
Labradoodles, Goldendoodles, all kinds of “oodles”, are showing up in shelters. People who have been promised easy care, non shedding coats are finding that like Poodles, Labradoodles and Goldendoodles need regular grooming. And to make matter worse, because many of the Labradoodles and Goldendoodles are much larger than Standard Poodles, those grooming fees are often much more costly.
Are designer dogs a fad? I don’t know, but I do know I don’t want dogs treated like Tulip bulbs or Beanie Babies. Fads have often led to people paying exorbitant amounts for things that shouldn’t have been worth anything like the going price. And each time people stood around afterwards and said “What were we thinking?” And I know it seems obvious, but let me state right here and now: A puppy is not a Pet Rock.
And so I come back to unreasonable expectations. Every puppy, purebred, designer, or mutt, comes with a variety of inherited health and temperament characteristics. How the puppy is reared, trained and cared for immensely affects an adult dog’s life. To assume that only the good characteristics of a puppy’s parents will emerge is not fair—to you or to your puppy.
In the last few months several of our apprentice trainers have decided to add a new dog to their respective families. We’ve had many round table discussions between and after classes about breeds, breeders, temperament testing, health testing, genetic background, and of course, possible puppy names. Emails fly back and forth with pictures of puppies under consideration—along with the breeder’s estimation of each puppy’s personality. “Way too much work,” you think. Really? For a decision that’s likely to impact your life every day for many years?
There are complete books on how to find the right puppy for you. Get all the information you can. Choose your puppy carefully. Be educated about the health, temperament, exercise and grooming needs of different breeds and the background of each particular puppy you consider. Train your puppy, have realistic expectations, and may you be blessed with many years of wonderful dog companionship.
