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 agree about flatfaced dogs and careless breeding. Watching my rescued 9 year old cavalier dying from heart failure and unable to breathe properly broke my heart. I live in a country where dogs are disposable. People get puppies then dump them on the street (the hardcore put them in the desert miles from food and water in the heat) and some acquaintences have puppy after puppy and say they had to rehome the last one when the GSD teddy bear stopped being a baby and started behaving like, funnily enough, a dog. I really hate the fashions in pets. I have seen them all, 2008 was the year of the dalmatian, 2010 GSD, 2012 husky then we moved to toy dogs. Streets are littered with in neutered mixed breeds and people treat them like vermin.

My former neighbour, an elderly lady, had no trouble being allocated rescue dogs despite overfeeding them all dreadfully, so much so that they were not healthy and did not live to a ripe old age.
She went through five dogs one after another in the 30 years we were neighbours, they all became grossly overweight, had arthritis, breathing problems and so on. I heard her lying to the vet about how much she fed the dog, saying it had half a tin of dog food morning and night but omitting the fact that she fed it a full human sized meal at lunchtime plus a bedtime snack of biscuits.
But she had a secure garden and was an 'experienced' owner, so the rescue centres were happy....

And the ultimate status? Driving your Ferrari with a cheetah in the passenger seat.

I don't think they are a class identifier, but they are a status symbol. Dogs are expensive to buy and keep. Food is expensive. Vets bills are high. So if you have a dog you must be comfortably off.

It is a bit ridiculous that as a pp said, it's easier to buy an expensive dog than rescue an abandoned dog.

Are they though? I just like dogs, any dogs really but with a preference for Heinz57 types. Mine just have to be rescues, I won't support puppy mills/breeders-for-cash.

The type of dog though matters not.

I'm obviously woefully lacking in education on this so I'll read up to find out my 'class'.

Don't confuse class identifiers with money identifiers - class and wealth are not the same thing.

@Bluecomfort

Every other person off the rough estates here have XL bullies of the standard which go for between 6-9k

American bull variants and Argentinian Dogo types?

They are amazing dogs, big, usually lovely, but yes, used as the next status symbol for muppets with miniscule genitalia, or no brains.

Waiting lists for good breeders mixed with impatient people and puppy farms.

I voted YABU. Not because dogs are not a class identifier, but they have always been a class identifier, so it isn't something that has just arisen now.

I saw the most gorgeous Basset Hound on my walk this morning it made a nice change to all of the crusty-eyed little white dogs that everyone has.

Staffordshire bull terrier or similar also tends to be associated with a particular class of owner.

Alf says "What's my class?" other than an utter ratfink.

He was adopted from a breed specific rescue at 10 weeks old, his young mum had been abandoned when her previous owner discovered she was pregnant (with 13 puppies) aged under a year old.

Our dog is definitely a Heinz 57!

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Totally the same around where I live (rural Cambridgeshire). I can't help but feel a bit sorry for all those people who 'need' to keep up with the Jones' constantly, be it by installing a hot tub, leasing a massive Volvo or buying Cockapoos and Cavapoos...

We were talking in work the other day about this, how dogs that when we were kids (I'm 50) were called mongrels are now selling for vast amounts of money. They sell for so much that some people have been threatened at knife point to hand their dog over - its madness!

Alf is fabulous!

Major of the bullies. They're my dream dog.

A fancy dog, that you know was £800+, and that eats better quality food than some kids, is a wealth signifier. As much as a fancy car, house etc.

Some dogs have always been thus.

@bloodywhitecat lovely dog!

I think it's mainly that the little fluffy ones are fashionable at the moment (and some do look very sweet so have extra appeal).

They are a bit easier in some ways — an elderly relative used to have great danes, but she had a cavachon (this was about 15 years ago, so at the time it was called an 'accident'!) as her last dog because she wanted something physically easier. Her great danes were always beautifully trained, but she was only about 5'1" and in her eighties she didn't wanted a big strong teenage dog again. I can see a family in a flat with youngish children choosing a little fluffy one over something bigger.

Here it's still mostly labradors and spaniels, with a few retrievers, although somebody must have had a litter of pointers recently because I've seen a few people with puppies who look about the same age. Then older people tend to have toy breeds, miniature dachshunds or small terriers.

No greyhounds here, but I used to see loads when I was at university.

I thought I was upwardly mobile but it appears I can't deny my working class heritage with my staffie-type mongrel 😁

@SemperIdem

Dogs have always been class identifiers.

The flat faced dogs, which were all very expensive in comparison to other breeds pre-lockdown, seem to mostly belong to people who care less about dogs than they do animal welfare.

Most pure bred dogs are prone to genetic conditions, I believe labradors are prone to hip problems but nobody ever gives lab owners a hard time.

It's a symbol of how disgustingly selfish people have become. How long before these pups get rehomed? Absolutely despair at how people turn noses up at rescue dogs.