What’s the Deal with Designer Dogs?

Since man met beast some 14,000 years ago, man has been trying to breed beast to serve his purposes. Early man just wanted a wolf that wouldn’t chew his leg off and would warn him when the enemy was approaching or help out in the hunt.

But today people want much more from their dogs.

Most recognized breeds of dogs existing today came from selective breeding created so long ago no one is completely sure what was breed with what. For example if you needed a dog to climb into holes and chase small animals you would breed the longest, skinniest dogs you had until you came up with something useful like the Dachshund.

The American Kennel Club recognizes over 150 breeds, while there are over 400 breeds of dogs throughout the world. Some are not recognized because there are so few of them, or they have yet to achieve a certain standard breed type.

So what’s the deal with designer, or hybrid dogs? Designer dogs are not breed with the specific purpose of establishing a standard breed. What they are is two standard breeds that are mated with the intent of creating certain characteristics.

This all began in the 1970’s in Australia when a breeder of guide dogs worked with a blind woman whose husband was allergic to dogs. The breeder set out to mate a poodle with a lab and came up with the first Labradoodle, who did not shed and was thus hypoallergenic. From there the Labradoodle became popular and the hybrid dog breeding business went crazy.

Is there anything wrong with over 200 hybrid breeds, everything from the Basston (Bassett Hound/Boston Terrier) to the Foodle (Poodle/Fox Terrier)? Not technically. What matters, as with all dog breeds, is the quality of the parents. With designer dogs going for as much as $2000 to $5000, you better make darned sure that the breeder knows what they are doing and that the parents are legitimately what they are supposed to be.

Designer dogs come with no guarantees. For instance if you breed anything with a poodle does that mean the resulting dog won’t shed? No. And if you breed one Labradoodle with another will there be another Labradoodle or will the recessive genes of the grandparents pop up?

As companions there is nothing wrong with designer dogs and there are some really appealing combinations out there. But buyer beware. These dogs do not have the kind of long lineage that AKC recognized dogs do, giving a pretty safe idea of what you are getting. The only thing that really separates a designer dog from your average mutt is a fancy name and knowing what breed the parents were. But then, there are dozens of ads in the newspapers with mutts that have the same information but don’t cost near as much.

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