Paying £100's for mongrels

[dimondjedi9]

All I have seen on Facebook is adverts selling so called ‘designer’ puppies for ridiculous amounts of money.
All these Jackerpoos, cockerpoo, yorkieshit etc are basically mongrels, it amazes me why people would pay £700+ for a mongrel.
The definition of mongrel is:
Any animal resulting from the crossing of different breeds or types.
We rescued our little Westie from travellers, she had been bred and bred until she became of no use, the amount of different puppies they were selling was unreal, crossing them with everything.
Surely the worry will be that if these dogs keep being inbred all the time then the true breed will disappear, Facebook should ban the selling of any animal, especially on the run up to xmas!

Slim so at all the poor black dogs who get overlooked , especially the greyhounds .

Agree with what Toffee said earlier. In our experience, it's not easy to adopt a rescue. We tried with both a local shelter and with a breed-specific rescue and got nowhere. The people at the rescue were a bit rude and said they had nothing for people like us ie with children (all well past the tail-pulling stage fwiw!) The breed rescue were lovely but after 3 different interviews, my husband got fed up and so we dropped out of the process. We have had dogs for years, have a decent garden and someone at home pretty much 24 hours. Many of the dogs we saw had been at the local rescue for months but hardly surprising when they hold potential owners to such high standards. Very sad for the dogs.

Personally HATE this. I do a lot of different things in dog rescue & it really p**ses me off that people see their supposed much loved pets as money spinners. Some of the breeds that are crossed are just ridiculous & show that the idiot in charge has given absolutely no thought to the welfare of the bitch or her pups. Even 'proper' breeds are going down the swanny because people are more interested in looks than in the health of a dog.

I get so angry when people try to sell 'jack-a-chis' or 'huskadors' for stupid money; it is a mutt & probably one with ridiculous health issues due to ignorant breeding. Give me your run of the mill Heinz 57 any day; the only 'breed' I accept is rescued in this house!!

I have no problem with good breeders who breed for a real reason; to improve their breed & get a healthy line again. I understand people who want a specific breed for a purpose - working dogs etc.

Anything else is, in my eyes, ridiculous. I struggle to understand why it makes sense to pay stupid money for a dog when there are thousands waiting for a spot on a warm sofa. I know the shortcomings in rescues, I regularly encourage rescues to focus on individual families rather than blanket rules. But when you see the tens of thousands of dogs - of almost all breeds including the 'designer' ones - being killed each year? Rescue all the way

People breed dogs to make money. It's horrible. Those French bulldogs that are in fashion go for thousands. Sell 8 of them and it pays for the conservatory or whatever.

We thought long and hard before we got our rescue dog. I work mornings only and DH and I love walking so doggie wonder gets 30 mins am, 1hr pm plus a walk round to block before bed. We get great, daily, non negotiable exercise and a very grateful dog rescued from guaranteed slaughter in Romania. We didn't rescue direct from Romania but a local shelter did and we found him there. We have no idea what breed he is but he is a shaggy, scruffy cockapoo lookalike. Very calm, loving, gentle until he sees a squirrel! We truly have struck gold with him as first time dog owners.

I haven't RTFT but they're mugs and nothing else. It's NOT a cockapoo or a jug, it's a croeebreed/mongrel.

The problem is, people breeding pedigree dogs and not breeding with research, thought and health checks so puppies are mindlessly churned out making problems such as pug muzzles worse and worse. Then they're not endorsing the puppies so the new owners are able to breed with any other puppy of the same breed without health testing and register them so people (more mugs who don't research) buy them and do the same. And repeat.

If people actually bothered to look into decent breeders, they'd find people who are trying to breed out health problems in their chosen breed by breeding with health checked dogs, dogs that don't exhibit problems, dogs with longer muzzles etc. Then they endorse their puppies so puppy owners either can't breed or only can once health checks are done and are satisfactory.

People don't care though. They want a dog NOW, buy from places like Gumtree, puppy farmers, people who have had an "accidental" litter, people who are breeding designer mongrel and they just don't think.

I really, truly wish that breeding dogs was completely illegal unless you pass tests and your dogs do too. There should be a dog license to own one. It's just insane how anyone can get hold of a dog and produce puppies. It's no wonder there are so many in rescue.

Ita devastating.

I've RTFT now. Gosh there are some delusional people out there. The "cockapoo breeder" who doesn't health test. The "cockapoo" owner who thinks that they're all easy to train (they're really, REALLY not), the people who think cross breeds are healthier.

Such a joke.

YANBU, Cockerpoos, labradoodles, puggles etc are mongrels and are overpriced at that!

Why not go to a rescue centre for a cross breed? Yes some are good for those with allergies but so are many established breeds already.

What is the problem people have with mongrels? I would always choose a mongrel over an inbred with Kennel Club breed standards that are nothing but deformities like faces so flat they can't breathe, skin so wrinkled infection sets in and hips so deformed that can't give birth. I think Britain's head vet (whatever his correct title is) discribed Cruffs as a 'parade of mutants'. The KC has a lot to answer for in my book.

Btw I have a pure breed myself, an ex working dog that we adopted when it retired age 11.

I really, truly wish that breeding dogs was completely illegal unless you pass tests

All breeding dogs should be health screened, I agree, this should be the law. But breeding crossbreeds, so what, what's the problem with that? Also breed standard deformities should be breed out even if that completely changed the look of the breed.

Why not go to a rescue centre for a cross breed?

See my earlier post. Breeders have waiting lists, so i know eventually i will get a dog. Rescues do first person to get there and reserve the dog, so 18m later i was no closer to getting a dog. It may have been next week, 5 years, or never.

I was also starting to feel pressured that i would need to take the first dog i was offered, straight away, with no time for thought or whether it was a good fit, as the chances of being offered another would be very slim.

Fakename not all KC registered dogs are bred to KC conformation - notably the gundog breeds.** Working labs and spaniels look very different to the show types as they are bred for ability not appearance.

YANBU. My dogs are KC registered pedigrees, and their parents and grandparents have their studbook and qualify for Crufts etc, and were both under half the price of some of these "designer" dogs. Anyone who sells dogs on social media...you've got to question their ethics. Who are they selling to? Who is willing to buy a dog without knowing or possibly even caring whether it was bred in an ethical way? People buy dogs bred under puppy farm conditions and all they care about is how "cute" it is. Drives me mad.

And not health testing the animals you are breeding could result in litters that either die young or live with painful, long term health conditions. You have a choice whether you breed an animal and that choice should be driven by your love and passion for the breed - money is a secondary consideration.

General rules before buying a dog:

1. Choose a KC registered breeder who has had a recent inspection
2. See the mother first (if you see mother AND father, even better)
3. Expect to be asked a million questions by the breeder who should be checking if you are a suitable owner (if they don't do this it's a good indication they aren't concerned for the dog's welfare)
4. You should receive information on the dog's lineage and health test results for both parents.
5. You should receive detailed information on caring for the dog

There are a million other considerations but these are the top ones for me.

You missed one of vital importance.
Ensure the breeder will give you a contract where they insist if for any reason you need to return the dog, it goes back to them, and that the puppy is endorsed.

My mutt is the offspring of two friends working gundogs. He's a cocker lab cross and it the best dog I've ever ever had. They bred especially because both dogs were great working dogs and my lad is easily the fittest, healthiest most intelligent gun dog ever. I've been offered a lot of money for him but will never sell. The vet said he's superbly fit and said that crossbreeds often are. He has none of the ear hassles of cocker and none of the hip or weight problems of the lab. At 8 years old he still works constantly and runs 7 miles with me every day. He was worth the couple of hundred we paid which really only covered the exceptional care he got as a puppy.

There's a lot of snobbery implicit in this thread. Not all people buy crossbreeds because of fashion.

KC reg really means very little. It certainly doesn't mean it isn't a puppy farmer. I think people believe that KC reg (or awfully) council licensed means it is automatically all about board. It doesn't mean that. Not in the slightest.
To all the people screaming rescue? Yes great. If you can. I couldn't. I looked for ages. I applied for dogs. Got turned down as we didn't have a dog already but did have cats and kids. There were breeds I didn't want and wouldn't be right for too.
The problem isn't all breeders. It's those who run it as a business. Whether that's designer cross breeds or pedigree dogs. We have a pedigree. I waited on breeders lists. She's come from breeders who are passionate about the breed, want to preserve it and health test to try and ensure healthy litters and a better future for this special breed of dog. She's a dream come true.

ProfessorCat yes you're right, that one is very important and it definitely should have been in my list.

Vet Health checks
Vaccinations
Worming
Puppy care
Extra food
Bedding

People think that can be done for less than £100 a puppy? Absolute nonsense.

I don’t mind paying for that in the slightest.

And a puppy without all of those done raises more questions to me than just money.

No one is questioning that dogs shouldn't be expensive. I think it's the implication that people are charging ridiculous amounts of dogs that don't necessarily have all of the above. Someone's just got two dogs, bred them and is now selling them for extortionate prices.

Good, careful breeding is expensive and the price will match that but it shouldn't be silly money and if it was I wold be questioning the breeder's motives.

Phlebas - that's cool. You've been incredibly lucky. More often than not, a crossbreed will pick up the health problems of both breeds and breed characteristics too. Not much fun.

I remembered another one. People who advertise puppies. Never buy from them.

Also, KC Reg doesn't mean anything in a lot of cases, absolutely right. Puppy farmers KC Reg to look reputable.

However, a good puppy from a decent breeder will be KC Registered AS WELL as everything else.

My dog cost £550 and is a show quality, well bred dog from one of the best and most ethical breeders in the UK at the moment.

If I bought the same breed from a random person on Gumtree, I could expect to pay £1000+. It's incredibly wrong.

No idea why my post said 'luck of the drawer.'

My crossbreed (who I refer to as a crossbreed) came from a lab breeder who was crossing for the first time. All heath checks were done and the breeder specifically said that she was making no promises about what we would end up with. We met the mother and grandmother.

As I have already said we have been incredibly lucky. Our dog is incredibly healthy. That could however be down to a good diet and a lot of exercise too.

Has anyone else noticed a difference between dogs that have come from show stock and those that are bred to do a job ? thinking of Labradors especially , although I had a foreign bred HPR breed that seemed to be healthier and sturdier and less neurotic than ones I have met bred from UK lines ?

Massive difference frumpety especially health wise. Breeders of working dogs regard their looks as the least of their priorities- they breed for health, temperament and intelligence.

Of course this means that you get dogs which are even brighter than average, and may tend to be independent as they need to think for themselves sometimes (though "trainability" is also bred in). They also have a lot more stamina than show types, and coats tend to be shorter and of a different texture.

Both of our spaniels are from working stock - you cannot tire them out and they were a dream to train - bright, keen to work, eager to please and very focussed on the task in hand. However without a lot of exercise (3 - 4 hours off lead every day) and mental stimulation, they get very bored and start getting into mischief. Their coats are pretty much waterproof and dry very quickly. They are leaner and smaller than show types with shorter ears and less "droopy" eyes.

Because they don't have massively heavy coats they don't have to be clipped as long as they are thoroughly groomed on a regular basis (which we do), though I do know that a lot of people have even working types clipped because they prefer the short coat - stops them picking up a lot of mud and burrs.

I know people with show-type cockers. Ears are much longer and more prone to infection, Dogs are heavier and broader - more inclined to put weight on. Their coats are amazing - it's like stroking satin - beautiful! Much longer and silkier than the workers' coats (though a healthy dog will still have a fab coat - ours do), needs a lot more grooming or must be clipped, takes a lot longer to dry out hen wet (partly the texture, patly because there is so much of it). They don't need nearly as much exercise though - but can be very prone to get fat if you aren't careful.

Spaniels of all types seem to live for food!