How do you feel about cross-breeding different breeds of dogs?

Well people will try anything, I had a nice little beagle, but she was never spayed and of course she came in heat and a big dog got stuck in her. Whatever happened, he pulled her insides out and she had to be put down. It was my fault for not neutering her. I doubt its a good idea to mix these breeds! But people will be people!

hi....i have a maltese poodle also known as 'moodle' and a maltese shitzu...and they are great! its early days with the breeding so its hard to say about illnesses but don't all breeds get sick anyway!? its becoming more popular here in australia. poodle's aren't only just 'miniture' and 'toy', there is also the 'standard' poodle. is anything ethical these days? corporations and private owners are going to do what they want to make money anyway, and people are going to keep buying them. and this doesn't just stop at breeding dogs, we only have to look at the world around us. for example the scientists and governments and what they are putting into our food, and the labeling standards (or lack of!) its all about money for them. we have no idea about what GM food is going to do to us years down the track....

The type of dogs you're refering to are often called "designer dogs." Dogs that are breed for no other purpose than to be cute. I don't think that there is necessarily anything wrong with wanting to have a cute dog, but the problem with these dogs is that you don't know what they're going to look like most of the time when they grow up. They're cute as puppies, but sometimes don't look great when they're older. "Mutts," or dogs that are a mixture of unknown origin are known to be healthier than purebreed dogs. Many shelters are now reporting a large influx of "designer dogs" in their shelters. To me, there's no need to create new breeds. Dogs now a days are treated waaayyy differently than they used to be.

A standard poodle is around 15 inches tall and a lab around 21 inches so they are far from the same size. Most cross breeds can not be registered but yet the owners want to charge like they are pure breds. I believe some of these are bred by accident but you are right, some people bred them to create a certain look. I agree, people should take health matters into consideration before breeding.

By mixing breeds dogs tend to be healthier because they are less likely to have the same recessive traits. The Labradoodle was created as a potential guide dog for blind people with dog allergies because poodles don't shed as much as labs, but aren't a good temperament for a guide dog. Most standard poodles I've seen are very close in size to Labradors, so I'm wouldn't worried about health concerns in mixing the too. Careful breeders are aware of issues in breeding dogs of different sizes. By breeding a smaller male to a larger female you avoid these problems. (my grandfather bred male donkey's to draft horse mares for years to produce large mules). In the end though, check a pound or a rescue center before spending hundreds of dollars on a purebred dog that is likely to have health problems due to recessive genes.

The labradoodle is a mix of a labrador and a standard size poodle. They do exist (but they're ugly as all get up!!) LOL. I don't think we should be creating new "breeds" just for the cuteness and saleability. Most of the breeds that have been around for a long time were created for a specific purpose, ie: hunting, retrieving, guarding, ratting, etc. We have such a large population of unwanted dogs already, I think it's wrong to keep on creating them, just to get a buck. You're correct about the whole new set of health problems. Not only that, but it being a new "breed" they do not all come out looking the same. The genes are still so mixed up, there is no way to get consistency.

Cross-breeding is not unethical, after all,dogs so it all the time when left to their own devices. The unethical part comes when people breed dogs only to make money, paying no attention to the potential problems that cross-breeding or (more often) inbreeding will cause. The reason so many pure-breed dogs look like they do today is because it was a huge fad in the victorian era to breed dogs for specific "looks." We have far more breeds of dogs now than we did 150 years ago because of this craze. Unfortunatly, most of these breeds were acheived by taking dogs that had the desired traits and breeding them "in-line" - what the rest of us would call "inbreeding" to get their results faster. Many breeds of today barely resemble the bred standard of 100 years ago. Also, little regard was given for the "side effects" of this type of breeding, which is why we have english bulldogs that are too broad shouldered to be born naturally (most are delivered by c-section); german shepherds with hip displaysia, shakey and nippy chihuauas, dalmations that are born deaf at a much higher rate then other breeds, etc. The list goes on and on. Personally, I feel that cross-breeding is a good way to correct some of the damage irresponsible breeding has done; so long as it is done right. Unfortunately, I think the new "designer breeds" are going to be just as mis-bred by people looking to make a buck as our more historical purebreeds have been.

I have heard of this more and more~ the mixing breeds of dogs. I think that they are a new 'fad' that people are going threw. Some of the dogs are darling, while others aren't. As someone else said, you can't register them so they might not be worth as much as a pure breed. I agree that is doesn't seem right to mix a large breed with a small breed. Although it happens all the time with mutts, but I wouldn't do it as a dog breeder.

Cross breeding has been going on for as long as I can remember. When I was a child that type of dog was called a mutt and most people just gave the dogs away to anyone that would take one. These days the dogs are considered to be "designer" dogs and have a high price tag one them. Whatever name tag you place on it cross breeding has been going on for years, its just that some decided to call them designer instead of mutt. I myself have two German Shepherds mixed.