Again, your prejudice. I read another poster here with a doodle bred from tested parents, and I have a good friend on her 7th Cockapoo (over 35 years) from a breeder who uses a Ch Toy Poodle stud - also fully health tested.

As to the false illusion that SOME owners of Doodles appear to be under, what about the false illusion sold here continuously that "purebred and registered" automatically means quality.

There are a HUGE amount of people who put a lot of stock into that piece of paper believing registries wouldn't entertain registering poorly bred purebreds and litters from stock not health tested. What about putting a message out about that illusion?

I am continuously amazed that posters will rail against the doodles with blanket statements while simultaniously forgetting to mention the fact that the vast majority of purebreds are bred and registered without health testing behind them. (OFA stats bear this out).

We should not be dividing. A good breeder is a good breeder and a bad one a bad, no matter what it is that they breed.

We need to start by getting the message out about farm/mill bred dogs no matter from what heritage.

I actually completely agree with you here.

I put breeders of purebred dogs that breed solely for profit or other ridiculous reasons ('I want my child to see the miracle of birth!') right up with all other irresponsible breeders...purebred, crossbred and otherwise.

But, I hope you can see the point I am trying to make about Doodles. Some Doodle breeders/owners seem to believe that they are producing overall healthier dogs (and I dare say drill this into their puppy buyers as a selling point) but have no way of proving this as they do not health test.

Most of these designer breeds will be the result of F1 matings... you cant get any more random that that.... you cant pick and choose what you want and what you don't want in the resulting puppies...

Health testing is another matter.... if you test your stock for ALL of the genetic breed ailments... you are not playing Russian Roulette....

The poor health in these pedigree dogs, will not miraculously disappear in the resulting X breeds..

You will have to remeber , that the majority of members on this board are from the UK..and as such will give opinions on what we know...

If your culture is different , you may need to take that on board, and not take things as a personal insult ..

We speak on what WE see here and the results of such breedings

I do see that point, and it is true of many, not just some, just as it is true of many of the purebred breeders.

My problem is that by blanket condemning those that breed mixes we are teaching people not to look at "how" dogs are bred but to look at "what" is being bred.

That is at cross purposes to the message that should be sent out. I cannot begin to tell of the horrid socialization conditions I faced in two mills (both selling Canadian Kennel Club registered dogs) that I came across while looking for my spaniels. If I had not noticed how completely unsocialized the pups were and insisted on going back to the barn at both these places I would have fallen for the breeders claim that they were breeding well (both showed and had champions and health tested).

I am older and had some experience especially with pups. I hate to think of all those less experienced who are taken in.
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I did notice that I missed a couple of your bolded points from the page before.

"Even dogs bred to be companions, which are the majority, should come from health tested stock."

Absolutely.

Most small breeds require eye/patella tests. Most large breeds require eye/hip tests. That would be a starting point for mixed bred dogs.

'Better' breeders are by far the minority though! trawl through the local free-ads in your local newspaper...how many are 'designer' crossbreeds? the majority are over here. I see more ad's for 'designer' crossbreeds than purebreds. Not one of the ad's mentions health testing of any sort.

Unfortunately here purebreds are as well represented as mixed, but the purebreds fetch the highest prices. (At 10% of the dog population they hold some prestige.) As the vast majority of pups born in Alberta are mutts, people are less prepared to pay a high price for one (designer named or not) than a purebred.

I believe our bigger enemy are those unethical that are pitching their purebreds as more valuable as buyers can then go on and breed from them and make some money themselves - "hump and dump breeders" I believe the Terrierman calls them. These are the breeders who have my ire, and there are lots of them.

i have recently seen advertised "sprorkies"...... yep Springer x yorkie..... springer being the mum. am intrigued would they be little like yorkies and look like a springer or viceversa??

I did want to mention before I left for work that Jackbox, you seem to be of the impression the purebred here is on the decline. Not true. It has just never caught on. We've always been a mutt loving country.

In the USA, as well, I read that only 25% are purebred. I can't see there ever have being more. This speaks to obviously a large cultural difference in our view of dogs and dog breeding.

Very good post and very true.

Rubylover, I'm always intrigued by your posts. We going to be immigrating your side (Alberta) in the next few years and I'm curious to know what the dog situation is out there as we'll probably get our second (if we do) when we're there rather than take two over.

Back on topic though, excellent thread people, really interesting PoVs, Becky that post/quote is excellent and sums up what I've been thinking/feeling all along.

My only concern on this is that a) they are not only ''potentially'' being bred un-ethically for high prices (yes, I do accept that isn't just designer dogs) but that b) does anyone truly no the long term health implications of these ''breeds''?

Yes, they are all cross breeds from way back, but that was years and years ago and (despite the un-ethical mumbos) generally the health issues have all been identified and in time, I hope will be eradicated. OK, wishful thinking, but I think generally Becky's quote says it all in terms of ''can of worms''.

She was the first and only Labradoodle I have seen in the flesh, I thought she was a Saluki cross

Actually i think you'll find a Puggle is a Pug crossed with a Beagle

Jann
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Someone posted a picture of one on here a while ago. It was bloody gorgeous, I have to say.