DESIGNER DOGS
Does it Doodle in your neighborhood? Do you own a designer dog?
We do! Hubby Mike and I have a Bossie and a Berv.
Both our “girls” came second-hand with unproven pedigree; maternal genes known – sperm donor undetermined. The Bossie, Davie, is an Australian Shepherd with a possible touch of Border Collie; Berv Will was whelped by a Border Collie but looks like a Belgian Tervuren.
Of course I’m kidding. Officially our dogs are mutts, not trendy designer dogs. They are crossbreeds by chance, not intention like a Schnoodle, Puggle or Pootalian.
It was in the mid-‘90s when I first encountered a Labradoodle. My raised eye-browed “Labra-what?” was met with a detailed explanation of the benefits that result when one mates a Labrador Retriever with a Poodle. Acquaintances of ours, and life-long German Shepherd owners, were tired of all that flying hair that comes with a Shep and searched for a non-shedding dog as their next pet. They still wanted a large, robust and brainy dog and found the seemingly perfect match in the Land Down Under. What they got was a hyper, strong, boisterous boy who outsmarted them – and was shedding, albeit only moderately. They kept and loved the pooch, but their trust in the knowledge and skills of designer dog breeders quickly vanished.
Are designer dogs just overpriced mongrels, or is there is a real advantage in selectively crossing different purebreds?
Many pedigreed pooches are inbred and come from a small gene pool – the canine equivalent of incest, which often results in fancy, blue-blooded pups with a delicate physical constitution and an intense personality. At the same time, there is a market for purebreds. Some folks don’t like surprises and are willing to hand over a substantial amount of moolah for a pooch whose size, appearance and temperament are predictable ‘cause his parents were carefully chosen. A dog by design through the deliberate mating of two different purebreds creates, at least theoretically, a healthier, sounder pet without losing the predictability of a certain look and expected disposition.
Human nature pursues perfection. All of today’s dogs once were the result of purposely combining two nearly perfect dogs with the hope that the offspring would inherit the best genes of both, and none of the genes that put the “nearly” into perfect.
Since my first encounter with the imported Doodle, I have met many designer dogs that are healthy and have wonderful personalities. I have also seen many that fell through the cracks of Mendel’s genetic principles. And I question the sincerity of good intent when someone purposely creates litters of unmanageable, for most people, dogs in quest of the all-time agility or flyball champion, or white tiny puffs of hair that cost 300 bucks more if they have apricot-tinted ear tips.
A designer dog does not guaranty perfection, just like a designer label doesn’t mean the jeans fit. On that note, I’d better put mine on and take the Berv and Bossie for a walk. Maybe we’ll run into that cute Shlapso they played with the other day.
