I have done a very stupid thing

[RebeccaWithTheGoodHair]

Please don't slate me for this, I know it's a mess and I'm really just writing it down to beat myself up about.

DD wanted a dog, we have 2 already and all agreed that a 3rd would be fine. Our current 2 are big dogs and DD wanted a small one but a specific cross. Well DP actually found the X she wanted from a home breeder (doing a one-off litter), lived with other dogs, cats and kids - so absolutely perfect for our life. He is ready to collect this Sunday so assuming all is well he'll be home with us very soon.

My stupidity is that

• we have been looking after a family dog this week and it has really upset my cats. She barks at them (only b/c she is young and wants to play) but the cats don't appreciate it at all. I have to feed them outside, they spend the day upstairs and then sleep in the garage. It is unfair on them but it is only a week.

• I am due to look after a friend's dog at the end of the month and this is a problem. He absolutely hates cats and I have no doubt would try to kill them if he got hold of one. I looked after him last year and by having the upstairs/eating out arrangement all managed to go quite smoothly. He is in himself a lovely dog and again it's only a week so we coped although I felt awful for my poor cats. I can't believe I said I'd have him again after last year, but my friend looked after my 2 a couple of times so I felt honour bound to look after him in return.

However I now have to factor the puppy into the mix - we'll only have had him 3 weeks before friend's dog arrives and although we'll have introduced them before that I am still worried this could upset the pup. Not to mention the poor cats who'll only have had 3 weeks of their normal life before he arrives.

Friend doesn't have anyone else who can look after her dog and tbh she's not actually that helpful where he is concerned. I'm rather annoyed with her about it and will say no in the future but right at this moment I have to face it that her dog will be coming to me.

The only slight brightside is that it will be half-term so DD will be home to look after the puppy plus the doors will be open so all four will be able to come and go as they please.

But I'm still feeling worried about the whole thing. I feel that I'm not being fair to the cats (who I love) and that this might affect the puppy's development (although that might be over-projecting the whole thing).

I know no-one can help and I'll just have to get through it but OMG I'm such a fool.

Elphaba I hadn't actually thought of that. I'll ask if it could be possible as it would be a good solution.

Ho hum. Commented on your lady about daxi jax cross - relative who had one got it in circumstances you describe (one litter, brought up in a house, cats & kids friendly etc) & later admitted she knew she was being fed bullshit and the breeder was probably a front for a larger puppy business. Anyway, I wish you luck & hope pup is a good one after all.

I think you have to stop boarding other people's dogs for the sake of your cats. It's just not fair on them. And if you take on a puppy with 2 of your own dogs, plus an extra dog with digestive issues who chases the cats, just after they've calmed down from another dog being in their territory, I wouldn't be surprised if you spent much of the time clearing up shit & piss from stressed and unhappy animals.

Apologise to your friend and say you can't board her dog.

My concerns are only really about the cats. Personally, I wouldn't be looking after a dog who hates cats when I have cats of my own. It doesn't seem fair on them does it?

Now that you've agreed to look after the dog though, I suppose you will just have to do your best to keep the guest dog and cats separate - as you did before. Please, don't agree to look after him/her in the future though. Just be honest "I'm so sorry, he's a lovely dog & I'd love to have him, but it's just not fair on my cats." Simple. Understandable. Honest.

I'm not really sure that having a new puppy is the main issue here. Whether or not he or she will settle in quickly, get on with your other dogs and cats or not remains to be seen. Hopefully it will all go very well. It's purely the aspect of mixing cats with a cat-hating dog that bothers me!

pipsqueak DD is 8. As you'll no doubt realise she will call the dog 'hers' but I will be responsible for it. The issue is not with the puppy and the cats.

I'm not getting arsey about being called a fool for the arrangements. I'm getting arsey with people who are fixated on buying a specific x-breed (who I'm guessing wouldn't get fixated if I specifically wanted to get either a pure bred Jack Russell or a pure bred Dachshund).

I would be completely arsey with anyone who was potentially paying a puppy farmer.

Santa yes you've it summed up.

Can't comment on the cats situation as I'm allergic to them, but if breeder is nice I'm sure he/she will be happy to keep puppy for an extra week or two. Then next time you can reasonably say you can't look after your friend's dog!

Yes, same here Wolfiefan

I think your friend will have to find somewhere else for her dog to stay. You sound very caring to me, say yes a lot because you're kind and caring? I have a cross and I believe we all make decisions regarding getting dogs that suit us. I'm proud of my cross puppy and she came from a LOVELY family home. Many people compliment me on her personality.

Suspect whether the breeder is happy to keep for another few weeks will depend on whether they are just a one-time litter for fun, or doing it for cash and less committed to the pup going to the right home. Hope you get it sorted, OP.

8yo WANTS a certain breed of dog so you get one , so she makes a decision that will affect the household for potentially years and financially. 'her dog' she'll be bored in a week or two.

I really think on a dog forum that to repeatedly say someone is buying from a puppy farmer is extremely offensive. I am not buying from a puppy farmer, I have gone out of my way to ensure that. I have two rescue dogs and I specifically didn't want to get a purebred Dachshund because I have concerns about their health issues. This was all said in the original thread.

I doubt you have suddenly (since last month) found a legitimate breeder of a dog that isn't even a breed.
Your 8 year old wants this. Nothing anyone says here will make you realise what an awful idea it is.

Blimey I think OP is getting a bit of a hard time here! What on earth is wrong with a x?! I'd rather have a crossbreed than a pure bred, over bred dog with potential health issues resulting from genetic problems personally. Not everyone who ends up breeding cross breeds is a puppy farmer you know! My friend bred some lovely JRT x Patts, because she loved the cross. She only had the one litter and every one went to a good home that she knew.

OP, that cats will be fine. It isn't for long anyway.

Cross breeding eliminating health issues is always trotted out when people are talking about designer crosses. It doesn't though! As a lot are bred without health tests required for responsible breeding you could end up with a cross that has the worst traits or health problems of both breeds. Plus there's the dogs like pug x Beagle where you get an active beagle brain in a pug body that can't cope.

Reputable breeders of pedigrees that do proper health testing are working to eliminate the conditions from breed lines, of course you will always get the unscrupulous ones but there are far more unscrupulous "breeders" of 'designer' crosses.

Well as you know she wants the breed (which I'm calling it just for the sake of ease) because her aunt has one. Funnily enough from a home-breeder who was only having one litter. However as this person is into her Dachshunds and has her ear to the ground she was able to point us in the right direction. As most reputable breeders sell through word of mouth this is a good sign. The fact that the pup has been brought up in the house with children, cats and other dogs is also a good sign. However until DP goes to collect him I admit there can't be 100% certainty but at the moment I've got no reason to believe that what we've been told isn't true.

The fact my DD is 8 is completely irrelevant. Obviously I can't speak for you but I got my first dog when I was about that age and I loved him for the rest of his life. I never got bored with him and he is the reason I can't imagine living without dogs in my life.

Please make sure the Dachshund parent has been screened for IVDD prior to being used for breeding. A first cross, especially to another breed which has a tendency to be short-legged and sometimes quite long in the body, isn't enough to safeguard against the resulting pups being highly prone to the condition. I've got a medium sized mongrel who has developed IVDD, at least partially as a result of her awful conformation, and it's really not something you want to take risks with when buying a puppy.

The JRT should also have been checked for patella luxation and both parents should have current BVA eye tests as an absolute minimum but ideally there should also have been a number of DNA tests done on each as well.

"I'd rather have a crossbreed than a pure bred, over bred dog with potential health issues resulting from genetic problems personally."

The issue is that crossing a breed with health problems doesn't eliminate the health problems, only proper health testing does that.

What an owner could end up with is a cross with the worst possible traits and all the health problems they were trying to avoid in the first place...

There is no predicictability with a cross, so any exaggerated features can still be present, inherited conditions can still happen and on top of that, someone's making a nice profit out of it all.

Crossbreeds have lower insurance costs than purebreds, so at least actuaries with money to lose think they're healthier, and they should know - they're the ones paying out the claims.

Aloysha, I suspect that has more to do with crossbreeds being less likely to be stolen than pedigree pups - they get stolen for resale and/or breeding from. 🙁🙁

I'd rather have a crossbreed than a pure bred, over bred dog with potential health issues resulting from genetic problems personally.

Outcrossing/cross breeding can be a fantastic tool for eliminating health problems and reducing exaggeration (and the sooner the KC sanctions sensible outcrossing the better) however it's not a magic bullet and just as much care needs to be taken as when breeding pedigrees. Crossing is not a substitute for health testing or a good working knowledge of conformation.

The (rescued) mongrel I mentioned in my previous post not only has awful conformation (as well as her ridiculously long back she's also got an undershot jaw which means she can't close her mouth properly) but also developed hereditary cataracts. It's likely both her parents were Staffy crosses and each had inherited a single copy of the recessive gene from their Staffy parent. Every puppy in that litter would have had a 25% chance of being affected and unfortunately DDog2 was one of the unlucky ones. A £50 DNA test on each of her parents could have avoided her losing her sight and then needing some fairly brutal, not to mention very expensive, surgery to (partially) restore it.

Whilst crosses and mongrels may on average be less likely to be affected by genetic diseases that doesn't mean it's safe to not bother with health testing or pay no attention to conformation.

Elphaba - I'm sure pugs and some other dogs are a high risk for theft, but I'm also sure that a some crossbreeds (Cockerpoos, Labradoodles) are also at a high risk of theft.

You say you're an experienced dog owner but I don't think you're a very responsible dog owner, sorry.
Given what you now know you're still going ahead with looking after your friends dog.

There's nothing wrong with cross breeds. I had a large cross breed before my puppy and she was the most amazing dog ever.
What I don't agree with are the latest fad cross breeds being bred. The other year it was the pug recently it's a bloody poodle crossed with whatever to make it sound all cute.
People who cross breed and sell them for £500+ making them sound designer breeds are the worst ones.

Crossbreeds have lower insurance costs than purebreds, so at least actuaries with money to lose think they're healthier, and they should know - they're the ones paying out the claims.

Crossbreeds live longer than purebred dogs.

That doesn't mean that every crossbred dog will be healthy, but what it does mean that on average a crossbred dog will be healthier than a purebred dog. That is why insurance rates differ.

Crossbreds are also less likely to be morphologically extreme than purebreds though (as Cornflake says) a crossbred dog can also be a morphological mess. Morphological extremes (short noses, short legs etc) lead to health issues.

Crossbreds also have lower coefficients of inbreeding than pedigree dogs: a x-bred will have a COI of 0%; I have recently seen pedigree puppies advertised with COIs of around 25% (equivalent to being the product of a sibling mating). The higher the COI, the more likely the dog is to have either genetic problems or an immune system that is in some way compromised.

What you are doing with a crossbred is lowering your odds of a range of different diseases and problems. You are not guaranteeing anything: I have a x-bred asleep at my feet at the moment who has an allergy to God-knows-what which requires a daily piriton and a degree of fussiness in what we feed her (no cheap crap). On the other hand, she's 14 and perfectly happy.

Can you tell your friend that your dog is sick and you can't have hers but will pay halves for a kennel instead. Find a decent one and tell her that's the only other solution.
I don't know why anyone would draw this much stress on top of themselves, but it's your life so best of luck and wishing you happiness.