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WITH careful selective breeding over many generations we have some of the finest dogs of all breeds in Great Britain - generations of pedigrees which are all held safely under the auspice of the Kennel Club.
Dogs for all sporting activities,dogs for the blind, deaf and disabled, and dogs for just the sheer pleasure of owning them and the companionship they give us. Dogs to guard us, work for our police and work for us on our farms.
However,this is fast running out of control as new unregistered breeds hit the needy market place, some selling at extortionate prices.
Lets give three examples of this. Firstly the Labradoodle, a straight cross between a Labrador and a Standard Poodle.
The Labrador’s official recognition is in Gundog Group 8. The Labrador Retriever is a keen and adaptable dog which love to please ,is excellent on a day’s shooting , retrieving game and is a good water dog. It is also very adaptable as a guide dog and sniffer dog,detecting explosives and drugs. It has a short head,dense coat and a water resistant undercoat.
The Standard Poodle was originally bred in Germany as a gundog, then used for pulling milk carts where obviously they became stronger and heavier. The smaller poodles were used either as companions or as circus dogs where they proved themselves doing tricks.
Their coat is curly,dense and profuse and needs clipping. Their breed information states that they are part of Utility Group 9.
The straight cross between these two breeds produces a Labradoodle, which i a nice looking animal standing about 19-21 inches. This cross seems to command £800. plus per pup and is constantly in demand.
Another new breed is the Springador, a cross between a Labrador and a Springer Spaniel, the traditional dog for shooting.
Possibly the origin of all land spaniels(except the Clumber Spaniel), the English Springer Spaniel is of ancient and pure origins and is the oldest of sporting gundogs recorded. The coat is straight and weather resistant with a moderate feathering on the legs. This breed’s recognition is in Gundog Group 8.
The Spocker is the best of crossbreeds, being Cocker x Springer. However, puppies never turn out the same, as with all designer dogs. Some are leggy and laidback while some are short-legged and keen - not uniform and not true to type.
All these dogs may have Field Trail Champions as parents but let us wait awhile and look to the future. Then what may happen?
To illustrate this let us think of the Plummer Terrier which was bred and worked for over 20 years by the late Brain Plummer was a brilliant man with great knowledge of genetics. He was also a biologist.
Great skill was needed to produce this terrier with trial and error being the name of the game until finally the perfect red and white terrier was achieved and could be guaranteed perfect in conformation, eyes, ears nose and limb.
Now nearly 30 years after Brain started work on these terriers it is imminent that they may be recognised and accepted by the Kennel Club - the little working terrier bred to be a ratter. Indeed, if Brain were alive today we would no doubt see many articles penned by him on this subject!
Face it, these’new breeds’ are nothing more than mongrels, which after all is a dog that is the result of crossing different breeds and types. One cannot mess around with strains and bloodlines without severe problems showing in future litters.
Are we dog lovers anymore or have we just become a mercenary society breeding for financial gain?
If this continues to escalate we may even see a toy breed of Yorkdoodles, Yorkshire x Toy Poodle, or maybe even a Dobermann x German Shepherd
It was not very long ago that if a bitch ‘ slipped out’ the mongrel puppies of that making were either given to good homes or sold on for £5. The marketing of this sort of rubbish has got to stop before it runs out of control and our ‘new dogs’ turn into fighting machines or something worse!
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