Why do people pay £100's of pounds for mutts?

[LuckySalem]

I dont understand why people are paying hundreds of pounds for what are essentially mongrels.

Apparenlty my mongrel pup is a Sprollie, I paid £80 for her from rescue but if you look at some places such as this www.pets-classifieds.co.uk/c51d77584.php I should have paid £350 for her

Now I understand things like the labradoodle being bred (when it worked) for people who had allergies but what on earth is with people?!

thanks for the reference to the trust - will definitely have a look -

My pleasure Pipsqueak

Barbara is a really nice lady and knows her stuff, I honestly think you can't go wrong by speaking to her.

Sounds great pipsqueak.

Val - The problem is the government don't seem to be very good at animal problems I mean just look at the Dangerous Dogs Act (should be thrown out IMO)

LS, the Dangerous Dogs Act? Don't get me started!

Grrrrr!

Yeh I keep getting told that I can't start on it on our site cos I'm a mod!! lol

Oh rollocks to being a mod... no-one would dare invite me, I'm too gobby (and yes, I do see their point!). Its also a thankless job.

We do discuss the DD Act on the PFK forum but are reminded that criticising certain national rescues could bring us problems.

On that note, although I have in the past been at odds with German Shepherd Dog Rescue over a specific decision they made, I admire the fact that the owner says they have no censorship on her forum though I fear for her sake the repercussions this might cause.

It must be a difficult job being a mod in a controversial field. I know of some rescue forums where I barely dare say a thing as I'll be rollocked and it must be hard for mods to strike the happy medium.

Now you know why I'm always anxious to stress that although I am hands on for one rescue, whom I respect 100%, and I'm a member of many related forums I am strictly independent. If a forum's rules are imho restricting my ability to save a dog and putting him at risk of PTS I always go my own way and reach out to the people on my personal contact list, bypassing the forum. It gets results and I haven't lost a dog yet but it gets me into big shit trouble with the mods sometimes!

I didnt rescue this time as DD2 was so young and I wanted to get a dog where I knew the history (suppose alot of places wouldnt have considered us with dc's so young anyway).

My dog was advertised as a pedigree without papers. Paid £250. I had done alot of research on the breed and decided a lab was an ideal family dog and didnt mind no papers because we were never going to breed or show.

I also naively thought I would be certain to end up with a happy, healthy pup.

As some of you know, my dog is a happy, bouncy, creature but has severe hip displasia and subsequent arthritis. Turns out that some of the pups from a previous litter also have HD so turns out I was completely wrong

My last dog was a border collie pup from a rescue. He was fab. Think we paid £50 and that included his innoculations, 6 weeks insurance and the big snip!

I should add that my collie was completely healthy despite having no history and the rescue assured us that if anything cropped up that they had missed I should contact them as their vet would be able to deal with it for a reasonable donation.

sb - you weren't wrong, you just didn't know

Having papers says nothing about whether the pups might end up with hip dysplasia anyway - it's the hip scores, for both parents, and how those relate to the average for the breed, that will tell you whether the pup is at risk. Same with all the other health screening, for labs and other breeds.

Lots of people think that if they buy a pedigree pup with papers from a KC reg breeder then they'll automatically get a healthy one. Not true. Potential owners need to swot up on the diseases that affect the breed and ask the breeder for evidence and results of health screening. The Kennel Club website also allows you to search for test results if you know the pedigree name.

HTH

Which leads me back to the priginal topic! I don't see anything wrong with paying money to get a pup from properly health screened parents (if you can't/won't have rescue!) - I've done so myself.

It's the fashionable element of the 'new' breeds which I find worrying - like dalmations and so many others in the past, they will fall out of fashion I'm sure, and rescues and the like will have to pick up the pieces.

I also think it's a bit irresponsible to design and market dogs for people who don't like dog hair - that way heartbreak lies.

Pipsqueak - We're down south so where we got ours might not be any use to you depending where you are though will happily pass on details if it is. Valhalla's advice is very good, the Labradoodle Trust are great and will be able to help you. There is a forum attached (Doodle Times) which has been great for advice (though a bit big on pictures and sparkly stuff!) and there are often threads on there about new litters and also on UK labradoodle forum. I was able to read a thread from last year where several members had got puppies from the breeder's previous litter and read about how they had got on with their puppies and knew they were very pleased with the breeder, which was hugely helpful.

You are prepared for the bounciness & over friendliness aren't you (labradoodles not the forum members)?!

thanks wynken - have had a good read of the website and may be thinkingn now that we may be better with a smaller dog - not sure why . the doodles may be just a bit full -on for us as first time dog owners . i am not sure - will do some more research - thanks for all the tips