Indeed - and sadly, sometimes a load of very expensive vet bills and years of heartache.

I personally have never known anyone with an unhealthy cross, however, everyone I know with pedigree dogs - mainly labs, retrievers, gsd's - seem to have many more problems. I don't know of any unhealthy collies, I have to say.

It is true of course that there must be many unhealthy crosses too, it is just that I personally have never met any or heard of any directly, it always seems to be pedigrees. It may just be coincidence, but I can only base my judgement on what I see, hear and read about.

Good points Dobermann, and I am sorry to hear of your experience with your cross. And good news re the pedigree

I didn't mean I couldn't afford to feed and own it once i had it, just making a point not refering to fact A dogs life is worth as much as the next dogs life, they don't choose to be born to irresponsible breeders and deserve good honest loving owners as much as a pedigree (owned both)

i know some of you already own mongrel breeds so you are attached and think the world of your pets and they are worth loads to you, but lets say your looking to buy a dog, someone elses puppy that you have no attachment to..you wont feel the same about that dog like you do your own, so you wouldnt pay out £800 for one just for the heck of it. If some people truely believe that anyone will pay out that kind of money for any dog, they will make it their job to produce the litter to make the money.

Agreed I wouldn't go out of my way to spend all my money on a pup who was a mongrel, but if I chose to it would be my choice

Exactly and then more pups are born to said irresponsible breeder and lets not forget the bitch in this....

just because it is a cross breed doesnt mean to say your not going to have loads of heart ache with health issues, your dog may have inheritted the health defects of both parents causing more bills and more pain. You just dont know what your getting. Thank god for insurance.

I have both, freebie rehomes and rather expensive pedigrees from health tested parents but not only do I love them equally I'm not convinced I know anymore of what I'm getting with the health tested ones than I did with my mongrel terrier.
I would still buy from health tested parents to minimise any health issues developing but there are no guarantees even then, Rio's mum died of lymphoma not long after we got Rio, and lets not run away with the idea that all pedigrees are health tested as many are not and having kc papers proves very little tbh. There are hundreds of Pugs available for sale for £1200 many of whom have incurred very little expense in raising a litter, they mated their male to their female and voila puppies appear with a very high price tag. It doesn't mean they are healthy just because they cost £1200 it doesn't even mean the people breeding them are even aware of the all the health issues really reputable breeders would have tested for before mating their dog, mention some of the issues and you'll be greeted with either silence or they have been vet checked. It's a mine field out there and being pedigree in itself doesn't count for much. I've lost count of the number of small undersized Dobemanns that I've encountered, yet they're all pedigrees. So if you're going to spend an arm and a leg on a dog at least do your research, ask to see the health certificates don't just fall for a cute puppy face, otherwise find a breeder who will willingly and proudly show you their dogs health test certificates. Any fool can breed dogs but it takes considerably more to do it responsibly and no I wouldn't pay £1200 for a cross breed or any dog without seeing the full range of health test results available to the breed. I'm not a gambler by nature though.

But my point is that they ARE worth as much to me. I didn't say anything you seem to think I'm saying, you're reading too much into my post and trying to put words into my mouth which doesn't particularly strengthen your argument either

Trouble, do you not think though that even some males being shown have quite "fine" builds on them? Some look like bitches imho.