Do you have a Designer dog (hybrid, mix)?

My mom just got one of those little maltipoos (maltese-poodle) and it almost died the first day, she had hypoglycemia and anemia and some other stuff; guess it got stressed from the change in homes but DANG! where's that hybrid vigor? she'd doing better now but my mom has to feed her 4-5x a day; weighs around 1 lb at 8+ weeks.

Now, I have a Daisy Dog (shitzu, bichon, poodle) sometimes called a teddybear; he's 9, and he is almost 30 lbs; too much vigor but lately he's been having hind end problems, I thought the mix would help that to not happen. Otherwise he's a great dog, never a problem for the most part. BUT, I can see where mixing has caused some weird stuff like his coat is both thick and wavy making it hard to groom.

What are your experiences with designer dogs? (oh my mom spent over $700 and another $200 on vets in a week).

 

I've never quite understood the hype about hybird, there's no real diffrence between them and mutts. but hybirds are so popular that perhaps less than ethical breeders are cashing in on the fad without making the pups health the first priority. That said even when only the healthiest animals are bred there's no sure fire way to ensure their pups will be in perfect health, or which genes will be dominant*. Really though crap breeding is crap breeding, regardless of the bred/s in question.
So sorry you've had bad luck with your dogs, hope they get better.

As it is we have a purebred cocker spaniel who is just perfect (not that I'm biased ), but I do think some of the cocker hybrids are adorable.


*which is why I'm baffled by labradoodles being bred to be hypoallergic or whatever. Sure poodles don't shed, but labs do like its going out of style. I mean wouldn't it make more sense to bred a hybrid of two non-shedding breeds?

 

designer dog = mutt

 

Um yeah...designer dogs are simply over-priced mutts. You can find a ton of designer dogs down at the SPCA for $45.

My parents have a Lapard...labrador/shepard.

 

sheplabrottydingo was 1 i had, shepard lab rotweiller dingo
purposefully breeding for specific traites often has unpredictible results and alotta health issues
i'll take a good ol mutt anyday..seems the more randomly mixed upthey seem the healthier they are

 

Just like humans, variation in DNA generally causes good genes to come forward and the more useless genes to fade away.

 

So many of you have to leave town now. My babe is a golden retriever/rottwieler. Sweetest and strongest thing. My friend said she had one too. She was wrong. I have a special knack for recognizing breeds but I don't know the names of a lot of them.

 

Ok, the little maltipoo is doing much better! It's funny, she didn't bark because she had a bad cough and now that the antibiotics are kicking in it's going away and she's a real barker, very spirited. Those really tiny dogs (mix or not) are just delicate.

Well Sage, the thing is you don't need to mix to non-shedding dogs just the poodle usually does it. People might like a lab but not the awful shedding, a labradoodle is a great idea; actually I just heard of them but it's pretty cool, I think.
What they try to do is make a better dog, like the cocker spaniels are mellow and the poodle is smart and non-shedding so they mix them; same w' maltipoo, maltese are mellow...same with my dog the shitzu is mellow, and so on.
Where's the dalmation poodle mix, that's what I want to see. Those poor Dalmations need to be bred out badly, oldest breed and very inbred, don't you think a mix would be cool? Oh right, the dalmation is hyper so couldn't mix with a hyper poodle, oh well.

 

The main problems with "designer dogs" is that they're bred in puppy mills, or even worse, back yards.

Pet shops are terrible places to get a dog. They're expensive, the dogs often have health problems... because they're usually bred in puppy mills. And you can argue as much as you want, but puppy mills don't give a shit about the health of the dogs they're breeding. All they want is money - they stick 'em in a tiny cage, feed them just enough to keep them alive, and usually only let them out of their tiny cage to be moved to another, bigger cage with another dog to breed. A lot of the times, they'll leave them alone in there and if the two don't get along, they might seriously injure or kill each-other. And it happens pretty often, when you put two underfed dogs in a cage with more room than they've ever had in their lives.

They keep the pups in the same conditions, too. As soon as they're able to be away from the mother, or often times premature, they put them in small cages and feed them the absolute minimum until they're ready to be shipped off to pet shops or other breeders/mills.
All they care about is the money. The health of your dog? Not so much.

Puppy mills aside, I think mutts are GREAT .. usually. My cousin has a mutt, we really aren't sure what's in her other than shepherd and ridgeback (amongst tons of other breeds) and she's dying of old age at 5 years. Kodos (my boy) is a mutt - bullmastiff, rottie, boxer and lab (don't ask how we got so lucky, I still can't figure that one out) and he's incredibly healthy and smart... but they were an "accident/free puppies" litter and both dog-parents were family/farm dogs, so they were kept pretty healthy with lots of room for excersize and play. He's never had any health problems, never even had worms or anything, he's grown proportionately so far (he's a year and 3 months now, about 3'4" and 110lbs) and we've never had ANY sort of aggression problems... he just kinda follows us around, pants and smiles and does silly things all day long. Yep, I definitely like the mutts.

 

Well, my dog wasn't puppy mill but that' only because they are a very rare designer dog (3 mixes). My mom's though, I think they are something like that : they have a barn out back and have many types of dogs and don't show the parents only pups inside; though she was concerned and called every day and offered to take the pup back and paid the vet visit and meds (which they by law have to).
Actually that little crisis no doubt helped the bonding process having to hand feed it and basically save it's life, because I'll bet this little girl's going to be a handful for the first year. Those reputable breeders that screen and have champion bloodlines are too expensive, like $3,000 who has that kind of dough, not me. But in Boulder people buy those bernese mountain dogs and often have to get surgeries on them and they are an expensive dog that doesn't even live very long so maybe lots of people have that kind of dough.

 

Google maltipoos and you will find dozens & dozens of puppymills breeding these dogs.

 

If your Mother had taken the original money spent for the dog + the 900.00 spent at the vet done some research & found a good breeder put it all toward a dog that had a guarantee IMO she would have been better off.
On the other hand rescue is a great way to go, my mutt lived for 18 years.

 

My beautiful babe is pound spayed..

 

I got my old girlfriends parents a pound dog that cost me around $100 and he was fixed and microchipped. That shitzu or lhasa whatever, he made a great pet for them.

My mom was just going to this big flea market where they buy stock and these locals were there selling puppies; just like petland, seeing the dog in person sells, they're adorable little pups. I just got this book off ebay about training my margolis, had a show on pbs woof and woof woof, ever hear of it?
EVERYONE loves my dog; actually the maltipoo looks like a little sasha, she even calls hers sasha; my girls folks wanted one like sasha, it's a great mix, he's a pleasure!

 

:agree:

Indeed!

 

I haven't heard of this designer dog phenomenon, but agree with the majority here: sounds like nothing more than a new name for a pavement special, as we call them over here.

 

I have 2 designer dogs. Or at least you can call them that. The problem with designer dogs is that is is hit or miss on the health issues. They can be healthier or get all the health problems of both breeds. They started the designer dogs, by mixing poodles to help reduce shedding, although that is not always the case. My lhaso poo shed like crazy and has allergies.

She is the actualy designer dog in that she was intentionally bred and sold at a pet store. I rescued her from being taken to the pound.
The other dog is what I call a wrinkle rott, shar pei rottweiler mix, and she was bought at the pound as well. You can go to the pound and almost always find a cross breed dog that was an accident (someone breeding actual breeds and their dogs got together by mistake) and not have to shell out the big bucks.

 

We call our dog a hybrid. He is a pound dog. He looks like a really big dachshund with shorter ears and a shorter nose. Who knows what he is mixed with?
We don't care, he is a great dog. Very sweet and gentle and very quiet.

 

I'm surprised a lhasapoo sheds, but I love that mix!
My moms maltipoo has made huge progress now, up to 1.6lbs and a real terror. I got her a dog training book by this guy margolis. I figure she gained 3/4oz this week on the prescription dog food. Wearing my mom out though.
I don't think you could find a little mix in the pound while it's still a puppy because they could sell them for big bucks, now later on sure. I got my girlfriend's parents a lhasa or shitzu mix whatever it is he is a handful, that's why he ended up there. I think mine had pee problems but I take him for 3 walks a day and don't have any problems. Right though, you really don't know what you're gettting; I was looking at mixes and man, some are sooo homely looking compared to either breed.
She can't leave hers out alone because we have hawks around.

 

Both of my dogs are registered purebreds. One is a Lakeland Terrier and the other is an Airedale Terrier.


I like most kinds of Terriers, but any dog that loves you is a great dog.