Saturday, May 9, 2009

Designer Genes


Goberian, Havaton, Doxie-Chon, Eskifon, Wauzer, Rottaf, Miniboz, Cheeks, Japeke.

Nope, not a foreign language...these are some of the new 'designer breeds', the newest trend flooding the market.

A great percentage of these mixed breeds end up in petstores, where with a fancy designer name and an outragous price, you can take one home and conveniently enroll your pup in said store's puppy or obedience classes!
Fifteen years ago, we called them 'mixed breeds .'
I refer to them as 'Canadian Classics.'
I have nothing against mixed breeds, I was exposed to more mixed breeds growing up than purebred dogs. (although our family did own a couple of purebred dogs; a dachshund, a beagle) There were more mixes, I assume because we lived in an urban area and anyone who was serious enough to have purebred dogs probably lived in a more rural setting. All the kennels were out in the country where there was plenty of land.

Our dogs were let out in the morning, to wander around and scratched at the door when they returned. When a neighbour came knocking at the door ( sometimes knocking at more than one door, because sometimes there was more than one sire, since LuLu was out wandering too!) to share the news their little LuLu had just had six puppies and a few of them closely resembled our dog, there were congratulations all around and the pups were given away to good homes.
As a 'mixed breed', the pup might cost $10-20.00.

Now some of the mixed breeds--oops! I mean 'designer breeds' are going for $800.00. One site has their pups listed for $1200.-

Since these 'breeders' don't belong to any kennel club (or they wouldn't be cross-breeding) they are not held to any breeder's code of ethics or regulatory committee. They don't need to do any health testing, which is obvious by the number of Golden-doodles with hip issues.
They do have their own registry though--I don't know who's brain-child that was but they 'recognize' certain hybrids. Recognize them as what?? Dogs??!?

They don't do pedigree work to see which dogs were inflicted with what diseases and what percentage of dogs have genetic issues to be passed on in their off-spring.

Some claim hybrid dogs are healthier, because you are mixing up the gene pool. Yes, indeed they're mixing up the gene pool...but they don't tell you instead of concerning yourself with one breeds disposition and health issues, you are now dealing with two (or who knows how many) distinct breeds who both carry separate health issues within their breed.

I have a problem with people who are crossing Catahoula Leopard Dogs with Boerboels-now that's a whole lotta dog for someone without the knowledge of that mix! Or a Great Dane with a Neopolitan Mastiff.
I shudder to think of the possible ramifications of combining those genetics!

If you are interested in the list of 'designer breeds' or the registry club:


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