Aibu that dogs are now a class identifier??

[MammabearX1]

Just that.... Since my dc have returned to school (London prep) the school gates are crowded with little fluffy pups.... All expensive cockapoo or cavachon types... Thorough breds seems to be gone out of fashion & there's not a mongrel in sight... I'm thinking these are a class identifier as those fluffy dogs are so expensive... My husband thinks it's down to the dogs size making them perfect for London living with smaller garden space etc... Is it just our school? When I was young the posh kids had cocker spaniels or some type of working dogs but then I grew up in the country...

I live in north london and today I have only seen greyhound after greyhound after greyhound! So I'm taking it its fashionable to have super skinny dogs here!

The rescue centres will be teeming with them after the race tracks closed.

I used to have a rescue greyhound. The RGT are very relaxed about rehoming to people,with kids unlike many other rescues. So good choice for a rescue if you have kids. Also a good city dog as they’re quite lazy!

@Blueboys77

Standard poodle owner here, amongst a sea of cockerpoos, labradoodles, that are all apparently Australian!? Goldendoodles, cavapoos ect.

No denying they are cute dogs, but none of the owners seem to know what our dog is.

A poodle would would tick the boxes of what they are/were shopping for, but they get massively overlooked or just ignored all together. No idea why? Perhaps because more effort needs to be made to get one, waitlists for good breeders, travel etc. Whereas there are poo crosses available in every town?

I highly recommend them, they are fantastic dogs who are fun, family friendly clowns and a lot cheaper than the mixed ‘oodles.

I think the Australian thing is because breeders there have actually created a standardised breed with the Labradoodle. Which is to say, they have crossed and recrossed, and then bred the lines until they have dogs that will reliably produce puppies like the parents.

So you have labradoodles who you breed with labradoodles and you get labradoodle puppies. Whereas a first generation cross of a Lab and poodle is less predictable in its characteristics - which characteristics it will get from which parent.

As far as anyone asking why you'd want that - the cross was made originally to produce a good guide dog with a non-shedding coat. Presumably there was some reason that poodles don't make great guide dogs? Too independent, maybe? But as many people like Lab temperament I think that is the attraction.

This is how most breeds were developed.

We live in a small village in Oxfordshire and the ultimate status symbol dog is a black lab. We do see lots of poodle crosses, popular with young families. Lots of spaniels. A few collies and JRTs (which we have). An increase in Dachshund's recently, super cute! I don't look down on any or think any breed of dog is better than another. We chose a JRT for lots of reasons (size, personality, low grooming needs, don't drool to name a few), not because of status or class. We got him in 2019.

“I think the Australian thing is because breeders there have actually created a standardised breed with the Labradoodle. Which is to say, they have crossed and recrossed, and then bred the lines until they have dogs that will reliably produce puppies like the parents.”

Sort of... a couple of breeders deliberately bred something that now more or less breeds true, but there’s at least 5 or 6 original breeds in there, and reportedly some were rescues of unknown parentage and there are loads of stories of the original breeders being puppy farmers.

But yeah, Australian labradoodles aren’t actually lab poodle crosses, but they supposedly do come out with the traits they’re bred for.

@tabulahrasa

“I think the Australian thing is because breeders there have actually created a standardised breed with the Labradoodle. Which is to say, they have crossed and recrossed, and then bred the lines until they have dogs that will reliably produce puppies like the parents.”

Sort of... a couple of breeders deliberately bred something that now more or less breeds true, but there’s at least 5 or 6 original breeds in there, and reportedly some were rescues of unknown parentage and there are loads of stories of the original breeders being puppy farmers.

But yeah, Australian labradoodles aren’t actually lab poodle crosses, but they supposedly do come out with the traits they’re bred for.

That's like pretty much every purebred dog, though.

I said upthread, my husband's gun dog is a Chesapeake. They are descended from two dogs who were basically found, of unknown parentage, maybe related to Labs. They bred them with other dogs, also unknown. The goal was a retriever which would be useful for commercial boats in very cold water, and which would also be guard dogs in the boats at night.

It really doesn't matter what's included in the breed's origins. And like some other similar types of working dogs, some people think the best examples of the breed were never even put in the breed books when they were opened, because the owners didn't care about pedigrees. Only good working dogs.

Similarly there is a breed that is fairly common where I live, less common elsewhere though becoming more popular. it only became a KC breed in the last 20 years or so, and the best working dogs still go by a different name and aren't registered. The KC dogs already look somewhat different as they breed out "faults," are poorer working dogs, and have a different temperament. The increased popularity hasn't been great for them either. But - no one is going to slip in a little bit of some other working breed, if that's important to you.

People ask why people pay so much for crosses? You could ask the same thing about purebreds that come from....crosses.

“That's like pretty much every purebred dog, though.”

Oh yes... except one of the reasons people tend not to create new breeds so much is the ethics of it - in that without the really dodgy practices it’d take more than one person’s lifetime.

Which is pretty bad when you realise the sort of thing Victorian’s were doing to create all the breeds they did for instance... much worse to realise people still do it.

@CovidCorvid

The worst bred dog I ever had had a pedigree as long as your arm with cruft winning parents, grandparents, etc. The breeder was the person who introduced the breed to the country and apparently highly respected. Her front room was wall to wall rosettes and silverware.

It was a behaviour issue which on subsequent sleuthing seems to be an issue with her dogs. And she ignored me when I tried contacting her. KC registered, good bloodlines, etc are meaningless. Totally meaningless.

Agree with this - we visited a KC Registered Breeder who had 10 dogs - she took them out for a mile walk a day - only the day we visited it was raining - so you know - not a day to walk dogs so she said they were a bit mad! We walked away.

Bit off subject but aren't cross breeds just mongrels anyway.

@GiftedFish a mongrel is a dog of no definition or breed where you literally have to call it a mongrel as no parentage information is available so that wouldn’t be the case with cross breeds. Hope that helps.

@SmokedDuck, WHPG and KG?

[quote MrsPernicious]@SmokedDuck, WHPG and KG?[/quote]
WHPG like the pointers? No, I was thinking of Duck Tollers. I don't know what a KG is.

@tabulahrasa

“That's like pretty much every purebred dog, though.”

Oh yes... except one of the reasons people tend not to create new breeds so much is the ethics of it - in that without the really dodgy practices it’d take more than one person’s lifetime.

Which is pretty bad when you realise the sort of thing Victorian’s were doing to create all the breeds they did for instance... much worse to realise people still do it.

I don't think the real purebred dog people are all that worried about that stuff - it's all still very much part of how purebred dog breeding works. It's like it's designed to create health problems.

Though the development of working dogs like the Chessie wasn't intended to create a breed as such. It was just meant to produce a good working dog - the type developed in response to the work.

I think this is why dog breeds that are still used for work tend to be much the healthiest, and also when they get brought into the KC, the breed health and working ability suffers. Apart from gun dogs lots of working breeds don't care about KC registration.

Isn't it off how mongrels are now seen as status symbols and sell for hundreds?

my dog is worth 2k up but people will judge me as a chav for having him, im a cat person and he is my first dog.
American XL bully

Unfortunalty I am judged because of the trash persons who own these dogs for status.
My pup is an angel, Brough up around kids and my 11yr old cat.

They even have "dealers" on fb selling these dogs . And many cats from ragdolls to plain old moggys. This has been going on all year. Multiple ppl have been defrauded as fb refuses to take down the pages. The same pages are reported everyday and reported by the same ppl. Fb refuse to do anything.

So fb are complicit in fraud. The next step is to get this to the papers and the news it's happening in UK , States and Australia.

Please don't give anybody money for an animal you can't see.

I've always had rescue animal but I'm really not posh ( carer from S.E London) I've also had staffies but I'm neither old nor chavvy. I now have a flat faced breed ( rescue) and do very much care about her welfare! She actually suffers with dwarfism and the rescue called her their 'miracle dog' both legs buckled inwards and the top breeder gave her into rescue when she was a pup along with her 2 disabled siblings. Apart from recently having her nostrils widened she's otherwise healthy and although I cannot insure her if there's any treatment she needs I'll pay for it.

@CovidCorvid

The worst bred dog I ever had had a pedigree as long as your arm with cruft winning parents, grandparents, etc. The breeder was the person who introduced the breed to the country and apparently highly respected. Her front room was wall to wall rosettes and silverware.

It was a behaviour issue which on subsequent sleuthing seems to be an issue with her dogs. And she ignored me when I tried contacting her. KC registered, good bloodlines, etc are meaningless. Totally meaningless.

Your experience with one dog from a bad breeder doesn’t make it all meaningless!

Your experience with one dog from a bad breeder doesn’t make it all meaningless!

When you are talking about lines that have the highest honours for good breeding, from the society that created and regulates purebred dog breeding, it kind of does.

And it's hardly an unusual experience, many of those dogs are conformational disasters.

Lots of spaniels, doodles and French bulldogs here. There are always fashions in dogs. Big collies were the thing when I was a kid. Lassie type dogs. Then Old English Sheepdogs. Doberman’s and Rottweilers also popular for a while. You hardly ever see these dogs now.

We have a rescue. No idea of breed.

I live in a pretty rough area and everyone seems to own huge scary guard dog type things apart from one bloke I see with a skin head who has two chihuahuas 🤣

Honestly what a horrible thing . I have two rescue dogs and they are the best dogs in the world . Says alot about someone if they have a so called designer dog iyam

I tried 3 different rescues, one we got turned down because we live near a road, another because we weren’t married, and the last because my partners brother had just had a baby (completely irrelevant to us). We was going to try a 4th but we was told before we even applied that we’d most likely be rejected because of the baby again. Did look into foresting but there wasn’t a chance they would let us keep the dog at the end of it and I would get too attached. We didn’t have much choice but to get a “designer” breed and next time we won’t even bother attempting to rescue as it wasted 2 years for bullshit reasons when we could’ve give god knows how many dogs a loving home in that time.

A rather lengthy trend, I'd have to say.

“I don't think the real purebred dog people are all that worried about that stuff - it's all still very much part of how purebred dog breeding works. It's like it's designed to create health problems.“

@SmokedDuck

I don’t mean breeding for looks over everything else or health problems arising from exaggerated features...

To create a new breed from a mixed bunch of dogs that will then pass on reliable traits in just 20 or 30 years involves a hell of a lot of excess dogs that need to be “disposed” of, overbreeding bitches to a horrific extent, often close incest and having far too many dogs on the go to be anywhere near properly meeting all their welfare needs.

That’s what I meant by it’s bad enough realising that’s what Victorians were doing while creating all their new breeds, but it’s worse to realise people still do it.

I’m not pro KC, I’m not anti mixed breed dogs... but I am anti shitty breeding practices.

With most breeds (there are some exceptions) if you look hard enough among all the bad breeders you’ll find a breeder who’s breeding well, healthy dogs and doing their best to do it as ethically as it can be.

I’ve never seen a single breeder or advert for crosses who’s doing that, they’re all bad to some degree.