Designer puppies  

LOL! Well....designer dogs are very popular because often they are VERY cute looking (look at puggles!!)

The dog your friend got, Lab/Poodle is called a Labradoodle. They can be very hyper, because of the lab gene..but they are also very sweet dogs. I think poodles are so popular because generally they are really easy to train and good dogs, so people hope to get those characteristics in a mix.

As to the Shepherd/Rotty mix...You could not be more wrong ;P Respectivly, I've worked with plenty of the "tough dog" mixes and they are very good, very cute dogs :) In fact, my family has owned a total of two dogs that had been mixed with shepherd/rotty and pitbull! Both were rescued from shelters and both were/are VERY sweet. One passed a few years ago, but we still own one now.

But ultimatly, people breed dogs to try and mix and match desirable traits; trying to mix a pretty dog with a well behaved dog and hoping to get a beautiful, good dog. But I never really buy from breeders; we always get our animals from shelters--so we often get mutts, but not exactly "designer breeds"

(Good discussion!)

Designer puppies . When every thing is going on branded and designed then why leave these puppies behind . In this age of branding and all that stuff not even animals are spared to live their life of there choice over there also man has tinkered a lot.

and some people knowing of this trend among people came out with just stupid ideas of making some weird hybrid of dogs and then selling these hybrids to so called animal lovers at a very high price . which these customers are more happily willing to pay also.

do not know when all this will stop.

I was thinking something similar when I spotted an ad in the local paper for some of these "designer dogs". If you charge a lot of money it's a designer dog, if you don't its a mongrel!

Mongrels can be good dogs but it does help if you know what went into the mix and it doesn't work out that all the good traits of both breeds will be what shines through.

Of course, the breeders are just trying to make money. The truly stupid are those who buy these dogs. Not only are they paying a fortune for a mutt but they rarely have any clue about the temprement of either breed.

I can't help noticing that a lot of small dogs that are a problem are owned by very nicely dressed women. I think the problem is that they think all small breeds are cute lap dogs when a lot of them are working dogs. You see them with aggressive terriers and shi tzus because they don't realise that those dogs were created to do specific jobs and have particular characters.

All I can say Sweets is

Different strokes for different folks!

The AKC has recognized new breeds since the 60's when

my family bred, trained, and did field trials with german short hairs.

Most new breeds take generations to bred true atributes of a breed.

Most of these breeders you speak of are just after the money

they are not committed to a breed or making a new breed of better qualities.

Sad..wonder how many end up in pounds.

xoxoxoxoxo

They breed poodles with alot of different breeds. I like some of them and then I don't. I don't think that they should do this because we are breeding out the purity of a animals. Take a lab/poodle mix and then you mix it with a lab. You then have 1/4 of a poodle. Or say you mix it with a yorkie. You now have all kinds of breeds. I don't think that it would be healthy either dogs are just built differently.

This is a very interesting discussion to have. It gets complicated. First of all, breeders will breed animals that will make them money. If they can get over 400 pounds for a German Shepherd, Rottweiler mix then they are definitely going to make them. Having been one to study breeding (not just of dogs, but some with dogs) there are several things to consider.

-Lots of people think designer dogs are cute. While they aren't registrable, most people who have their dogs as pets don't care. Labs tend to produce fairly cute puppies with a lot of different breeds and they have characteristics regular folk like, and are willing to pay for.
-Troublesome breed concepts are often a misconception. It is true that both German Shepherds and Rottweilers tend to be thought of as difficult to manage and aggressive animals, this isn't always the case. In fact, more often then not a good owner who treats their animal right and has some knowledge of the breed will have an excellent well behaved and loyal animal. Mixes between breeds would be similar.
-You mentioned health problems farther down the line. I don't mean to be disagreeable, but this is rarely an issue. It is more likely for a pure bred dog to have specific health problems then for a mutt of any sort. After all, the more mixed the mutt is the more genetic lines you are drawing from. Breeds have interbreeding and a narrowing of the genes in order to produce a look, behavior, and line of animals. This often takes decades or longer to perfect. This also makes it happen that ailments end up in the genetic line. One example is that labs are prone to hip problems. Mixing other breeds makes it less likely for these issues to pop up because a wider range of genes is mixed into the dog. It actually works this way with people too! If an area doesn't have contact with the outside then their genes will begin to become limited (even without close inbreeding) and over time disabilities and deformities can crop into that population on a higher percentage then in other areas. Illness, disease, and other problems can happen even in mixed dogs, but is less likely.
-I would never buy a mutt. If I was going to pay money for a mutt, I would definitely adopt it from a shelter. If I was going to spend the big bucks, like hundreds, I would want a pure bred. But that doesn't mean that others don't want to pick out the breeds that go into their mutt and aren't willing to pay big bucks for it. In that case, why not?

It doesn't really cause harm to anyone. While I think there are some problems with breeders breeding too many animals, that is really a separate issue.

Here is the thing I think that no we shouldn't just go doing this for the money. But I will say that it doesn't matter what the breed is labeled like a how you say about the Rottie/german shephard mix. It's really all about how you treat and love a dog. I have seen and have friends that have rotties and they are nothing more than big babies. The one rottie that I see very often is in a home with 4 kids and he wasn't brought up with those kids and he loves all the family members especially the littlest one!

If you treat an animal with love and kidness and put them as part of your family then you have a happy animal.. Now if you are constantly mean to the animal your going to get something mean back and I think that is where alot of bad things can be said about a breed because a lot of people use large breed dogs for nefarious purposes.

Would it surprise you that Huskies have a bad lable too by society.!! Becuase of the part wolf in them!! But really they are just the some of their experiences in life. My Siberian Husky is a spoiled little puppers and he'd rather lay on the couch and like someone to death than growl and be mean.. He is no were near a vicious animal and that is only because he is treated like family because he is. He is loved and kissed and played with and feed and given treats and just all around a good puppers.

It is all about how you raise an animal.

Now do I feel like we should just through what ever breed together becuase it's cute. No do research on the history of each because you wouldn't want to breed an animal that is going to be sickly or have bad health. I think that if there is a mixing of a breed it should be researched and have a valid reason for doing it, and even if it's because it's cute as long as the dog is healthy and the people who purchase it do their research on both breeds then so be it.

I did some research on breeding dogs. People say that it is bad to breed dogs with just anything, and that you shouldn't buy a dog that is not AKC registered unless you just want a mutt. There's nothing wrong with a mutt! But when people are creating their own breeds, it creates bad health problems for the dogs and it just gets worse because more and more people are doing it.

I personally don't think anyone should buy from breeders anyways. You should go to petfinder.com. There are millions of adoptable pets! They are cheaper and it provides good homes for loving dogs. If everyone did this, the breeding would stop and our problems with having so many animals would stop as well.

it has been done since time began, the dogs are called mutts,

they breed naturally this is just an improvement to get the actual mixes you want I guess.

In my book, a cross bred dog like this is called a mongrel!
I can't see how you could outlaw the practice of cross breeding as dogs, left to their own devices, will mate with any available female rather than wait for one with the correct pedigree to come along, but I certainly don't think it's a practice to be encouraged. As with most things though, these breeders will be being driven by market forces. If there's someone out there willing to pay daft money for a 'gerrottie' (I prefer 'grotty'!) then there will be a breeder who is willing to provide one. Perhaps it's the dog breeding public who need their head's seeing to. £450?!