Mixed Breeds
@uncorrectedvision (100)
United States
January 7, 2011 1:57pm CST
My dog is a Australian Cattle Dog, Blue Heeler and Yellow Labrador Retriever mix. She is smart, gentle and sheds constantly. Are good cross breeds better than the pure breds that produced them?
4 responses
@Bad_Daddy55 (497)
• Canada
19 Jan 11
Your dog might be the best of the litter, who knows. Purebred dogs are bred for what they are, what they do and what they bring to the table.
Working dogs for what they do. Hunting for what they can hunt for or how they do it. I can go on and on. When you mix breeds you do it for something specific or happens by accedent or whatever.Out of this you might get 1 or 2 good the rest who knows. In purebred you end up with more or all of the litter with what you set out for..
@inu1711 (5285)
• Romania
21 Jan 11
Oh, I think it would be hard. You would need decades of work to create a new breed and to be accepted by the FCI as a new breed. That's because it is not enough to breed one male from a breed and a female from another breed to get a new breed. The offsprings will differ for generations, and you need multiple blood lines to start with, to eliminate the risk of high in-breeding.
Then you should consider that not only the look is what you would like for the new breed, there are also health problems and temperament ones, and this will make your experiment last even longer.
Well, genetics is a difficult matter to me, you need to know a lot about genetics before starting such an experience.
@uncorrectedvision (100)
• United States
21 Jan 11
How hard would it be to start a new breed. I have often thought what an awesome dog would result from breeding an Irish Wolfhound and an English Mastiff. The resulting dogs would be huge, beautiful and still well behaved.
@inu1711 (5285)
• Romania
7 Jan 11
They say mixed breed dogs are healthier than the pure breed dogs. It may be true, as inside a breed a lot of inbreeding take place, so the risk to transmit some bad genes are higher.
But for the utility of dog breeds, I think mixed breed dogs aren't better. People who created the breeds worked for years to obtain some special characteristics (for herding, hunting, retrieving and so on) and a mixed breed offspring doesn't guarantee any of their parents characteristics.
@uncorrectedvision (100)
• United States
21 Jan 11
I don't have fish nets to be brought in so a Newfoundland is out. I don't have a sled to pull so a Malamute is out. I don't have lions to hunt so a Ridgeback is out. The pure breeds are awesome as work dogs but most jobs for which they were bred no longer exist. I have thought about getting a beagle for rabbit hunting.
@inu1711 (5285)
• Romania
21 Jan 11
You are right, most of the jobs that made some breed famous are now gone. But passionate breeders and dog owners still mantain those characteristics of the breeds. They have contests and trials into that fields, as the dogs are more than happy to do the jobs they were created for.
It is more difficult for the hunting dogs, where the tendency now is not to do any damage to wildlife (including rabbits 
)
I wish you good luck with your new hunting Beagle and I hope you'll buy him a lot of rabbit toys to hunt.
)
I wish you good luck with your new hunting Beagle and I hope you'll buy him a lot of rabbit toys to hunt.
@puccagirl (7294)
• Israel
7 Jan 11
I don't know if they are better, but they are usually healthier for sure! I think it has been proven over and over again, and my vet even says so. I have a mixed mutt myself, and he is really healthy, has never been sick in his life!
@uncorrectedvision (100)
• United States
21 Jan 11
I had a beautiful Chow-Golden Retriever mix. He was 80 pounds, never sick and lived for 14 plus years. He was beloved of my oldest son and never ever disappointed. Smart and affectionate he looked like a bear in the winter and was loyal and strong all the way up to his very last minutes his tail wagged.
@aaronfyzeon (1919)
• Philippines
7 Jan 11
Well I really think so that they are better than the pure breeds. They can also mix temperaments as well. I have a Japanese Spitz and Border Terrier half breed dog and she is soooo sweet. But she can really be very stubborn dog as well. My Daschund and Shitzu half breed dog is also sweet and really tamed. But I guess the attitude that this dog came from acquiring the pure breed of a daschund and not from the shitzu breed. Aside from their attitudes, they would also look different from the real pure breed which is really good because you wouldn't know what their offspring would look like if ever so it would be a surprise as well.
