I'm definately not trying to rain on anyone's parade.. BUT designer dog breeding is as low as a person gets in my mind.

This has been sitting on my chest for a bit and i just responded a post about someone who thought their mixed breed male was "cute" and they wanted to breed him because they thought the puppies "would be cute too."

AM I THE ONLY ONE NOT OFF MY ROCKER?? Don't get me wrong; I'm all for breeding if its a responsible pairing and a responsible breeder.

Mixed breed dogs being intentionally bred (which may or may not rank up there with being unintentionally bred due to ingorance and laziness) really hits a trigger in my mind. Every time anyone talks about breeding their mix with another dog because of this or that or something odd and off the wall i do a 180 in mood.

With so many dogs being euthanized in every shelter in every town in every city in every state across this entire country, WHY would you add to that? HONESTLY? This is one of the few things that just doesn't make sense to me.. it just doesn't.

"If you don't know what "heartstick" is:

It's an injection into the heart (almost) The intracardial injection is to be used only on a sedated or unconscious animal. The reason for this is that the heartstick delivers a torturous death. Secondly, it is extremely difficult to accurately insert the tip of the needle on a squirming cat or dog.

The IC procedure should never be attempted on a conscious animal, in part because there is a reasonable probability that the first insertion of the needle will fail to place the tip of the needle correctly in to the left or right ventricle, left or right atrium or thoracic aorta. Additional "jabs" or attempts to locate the blood chamber only increases the pain to the animal. Additionally, the needle often passes through the lung on its way to the heart and a sheath of nerves between the ribs. This procedure on a conscious cat or dog is not a humane act and impacts a great deal of unnecessary suffering on its victims."'

FYI: A lot of dogs being euthanized are euthanized with heartstick.. and are not sedated.


"Last year, animal shelters in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties took in 112,197 strays and unwanted pets. Almost two-thirds -- 70,514 -- were put to death. This two-part series looks at South Florida's pet adoption and euthanization crisis. "

STRAYS put to death because maybe an owner didnt think to look at the local HS. On Average, strays are kept at shelters/societies around 5 days. If your dog is known for leaving and is gone for 3 days and it takes you 2 days to locate your dog at the society, you're already too late.

Do you think that your dogs are TOO CUTE to end up in shelters, societies, organizations and other rescue efforts? Anyone (breeder, owner, trainer, alike) is completely dense for believing such a cullminated lie.

“Right now we are dealing with Xolo/Jack Russell mixes, Xolo/pit bull mixes, Xolo/Chihuahua mixes that we cannot find homes for,” Fernandez says.


To me "designer dogs" are nothing more than glorified mongrels, mutts, mixes, curs. I LOVE mixed breed dogs.. but when i want one i go to my local shelter, i don't breed them. I take a homeless dog, i don't make them.

Is there REALLY anyone who disputes this post? Is there really anyone willing to get up and say, "I disagree with your post. It's okay to destroy a good breed standard and replace it with poor-quality mix breeds who are cute and cuddly (even if it is for time being until their poor temperments and standards create behavior and health problems). I truly find it an okay thing to replace open homes for strays and shelter dogs with impoverished mutts. I don't know what you're talking about Kobesescape. Truly, truly i tell you i think its okay!"


Anyone doltish enough to say or even think this is someone who either owns, or breeds these mutts for profit. There's really nothing special about them, other than their unique temperments (usually not for the better) and colors.

There's nothing wrong with owning a mixed breed dog, there's a problem when people try and make them something they're not. We've ALWAYS had mutts in our country. It's just so sad to see Americans (who are supposed to have so much pride) throw away their dignity and respect because they're so hard up for cash that they have to create new breeds (as if the 250 common breeds in america aren't enough to choose from).

Please, someone tell me i'm not alone on this matter? Anyone need anymore proof we're overpopulated? anyone who reads what i quoted above and still has not remorse for their actions of breeding/buying these mutts is a sick person and cannot be trusted among a community of dog-lovers.

We all have our opinions right? For my first time being back i posted one hell of a BANG, hey!

I do agree with you on this issue.

Many around do know the truth of designer breeds and breeding, BYB and puppy mills. In saying that, I didnt always know, and before having a full understanding of the concequences, did not see a problem with designer breeds, or breeding a wonderfully natured dog, with the neighbours wonderfully natured dog to hopefully get more wonderfully natured dog........I didnt think of the big picture.

I have never breed any animals, but my perspective of breeding animals as above was quite nieve, and lacked the perspective of the overall impact.

I dont believe this ever made me a bad person, I just didnt understand!

But this is where we come into it now, with a clearer perspective of the overall picture, the impact of just for the sake of it breeding or breeding just to get a few extra $$$$$ in the pocket quickly, we need to educate.

Many of these users reminded me of myself a few years ago, not thoughtless or cruel just nieve. Getting the message accross ruthlessly may not be the best way to approach either though. I know I would not have been prepared to hear the whole story if it was presented to me rudely or aggressively telling me I was stupid.

Unfortunately, with the ever increasing popularity of the desinger "mutts" many who have not researched are fooled into believing that they are truly a recognised breed or soon to be, so hence are worth all the hundreds of dollars you pay. A good majority of this can be stopped if we educate the "pending breeders" and help them understand the overall impact of their actions......a good starting point anyway.

Thanks for the response. And i love how you put yourself in those footsteps and was so honest with the forum about "being nieve" yourself.

To that, im thankful you did educate yourself or get educated. However you must understand that this is not an issue to take or give submissively or passively. This messege, to my thought, needs to be spread. Years of other people standing by begging people to just stop and look at what they're doing hasn't brought any fruition to efforts of trying to stop overpopulation.

Aggressive manuvures and other "tatics" almost need to be taken for people to get the idea.

As something that hits close to home, im not sure i could passively give this messege to an audience.

However, breeding ignorance or ignorance in general of dog overpopulation shouldn't be allowed to be an excuse. There are plenty of resources out there for people to learn (magazines, newspapers, libraries, computers with internet)

In my thought-proccess i hold ignorant people just as accountable as the careless.

And im seriously not judging you nattiej, i'm so glad you brought that point up (ignorance, NOT to be confused with arrogance) It's not your fault you didn't know? But it's also not fair for dogs to be punished or the brunt of overpopulation due to ignorance, if you know what i mean.

I'm really hoping our posts open eyes! Thanks for your response! I hope no one thought i was being too harsh, and i definately don't look down on you nattiej, thank you for responding!

No I dont think you are being too harsh. But after many years on forums focused on domestic animals, I have discoverd that alot of posts (like the one you are mainly referring about on this thread) are very often Trollers trying to rile up and generate conflict amongst some of the passionate regular users for their own amusement.

It can be hard sometimes to work out which ones are the trolls and which ones are the real deal, serching for answers, and advice. Those that are truly searching for answers or advice, are the potentially the biggest hazard and danger in all this, they are posting, not to troll, but to set their dogs up ready for breeding, and feel that if they are bombarded with harshness straight up, they are not necissirly going to hang around to hear the whole story. They are just going to keep searching forums until they hear what they want to hear. Or give up and move straight into breeding their poor dogs blindly.

I do not argue with you at all your perspective on the issue at hand, we are both passionate about it, and i agree with you in full. But I would hate to think that we scared someone off, before they have the opportuinity to learn the truth. Time and posts will tell if the poster is legit in wanting to know what they are asking, or if they are trolling us.

Yes, there are two types of breeders of these dogs: the careless and the ones who don't know. My messege was directed more to the people who do the "well, i just dont care its a dog.. who cares, i make $$$ off the pups but what happens to them happens to them" Not the ones who don't know. Thanks for straightening that out.

I really hate to get on my soapbox and sound off, but this is an issue that drives me nuts.

I don't understand why people will pay more for a poorly bred mixed breed dog than they will for a well bred pure breed dog. The breeder I bought my Oli from is exceptional. He came with a health guarantee. If ever I cannot keep him, for any reason, she'll take him back and either find him a good home or keep him for the rest of his life. Both physically and mentally he's sound and healthy. The breeder will take my calls, 24/7, if there's ever a problem with him. When he suffered a neck injury, and I was afraid I was going to lose him, she sat on the phone with me for hours. We both cried. She's there for me if I need a shoulder to cry on, and she felt the same relief when I got the call to inform me he was going to be alright.

Would you get the same thing from these so called breeders of the so called designer dogs? I think not!

And it irritates the heck out of me how the breeders LIE! Bald faced lies meant only to sell puppies to the unsuspecting. Labradoodles don't shed, and don't need to be groomed. Good Lord! Goldendoodles should never be clipped. Good Lord again! And hybrid vigor my big fat behind! I groom way too many sickly, unsound mixed breed dogs to believe that lie.

Don't get me wrong. I love mixed breed dogs. But I remember back in the day, we called them mistakes, and you couldn't give them away, much less sell them for $800+.

The clinic I work for does a lot of pro bono spays and neuters for a local rescue. It's sad, how many puppies we do every single week. Never less than 6, sometimes as many as 20. These are the puppies someone thought they were going to get rich from, but found out they can't sell them. They can't even give them away. At least, after they leave us, they aren't going to be contributing to the overpopulation of homeless, unwanted pets.

And it's not just mixed breeds, either. We see many purebred puppies that end up in rescue, too. Sad little puppies who were produced to satisfy someone's greed.

Stepping off my soapbox now.

I'm glad someone brought this up. On the community bulletin board at my neighborhood grocery store, I frequently see notices by people who have mixed breed puppies FOR SALE--for as much as $200! They're not even "designer breeds"-- they're mutts of uncertain mixture, born because someone didn't feel it was important to spay their dog. I'm outraged at how people think they can sell a mixed breed puppy, when we can go to the shelter and get a mixed breed puppy, often paying as much as that, but we get a rebate on the spay/neuter after the deed is done.

A few years ago, a friend of mine got a choc. lab puppy, male. When I told him about the Big Fix coming by, he said they wanted to wait and get a female yellow, breed them, "just to see what colors they got." I pleaded and reasoned with him not to do that. Finally, after some thought, he came to me nodding his head, and said, "You're right. We'll get him fixed." I was so relieved. That's six fewer homeless puppies in the world.

There are several ladies in our local paper who's ads read the following: "PUPPIES! PUPPIES! PUPPIES!!! (kennel name here) Home raised with love. French Bulldogs, Yorkies, Chocolate Standard Poodles, Cavalier King Charles, Morkies, Affenpinscher, and other little love bugs. Call, ***-***-****." NOW, this may throw some people off, but honestly, she has half a page of breeds usually.. i've seen this ladies place and it's DEPLORABLE. No authority around here can do anything about conditions. USDA licensed does NOT mean quality dogs or quality conditions, someone can be USDA licensed with minimum passing conditions.

I witnessed a dog being brutally beaten, half-drowned, and was nearly dead when i called our local society.. their response? "Sorry, mam.. we didn't witness it ourselves." That's what i deal with in my hometown. For every well taken care of mutt from our shelter, there are 50 designer mutts bought and paid for in homes.

This subject is very much a trigger in me and i can see that i'm not the only one sensitive to this problem. Thank you guys so much for restoring my temporary loss in humanity.

I do have to stick up for some of us. I didn't buy my dog because he was a "designer dog". I simply bought him because he was what we wanted. We had some friends that had Goldendoodles and although I thought they were ugly, their temperment was great with kids and they were really smart. Our Goldendoodle is now 1 1/2 years and I couldn't ask for a better dog. He's still a little high strung because he is still a puppy, but he is smart and GREAT with my kids not to mention my other dogs. And yes I do have purebred dogs. I have a St. Bernard and a Great Pyranees. Before getting our Goldendoodle we had a Black Russian Terrier. Sometimes it is not about buying a designer dog, it is because when you see that particular puppy he just captures your heart and you know you can't live without him. So I say, don't knock all of us who have a "designer" dog. Some of us didn't buy them for the purpose.

Originally Posted by dcarpenter

I do have to stick up for some of us. I didn't buy my dog because he was a "designer dog". I simply bought him because he was what we wanted. We had some friends that had Goldendoodles and although I thought they were ugly, their temperment was great with kids and they were really smart. Our Goldendoodle is now 1 1/2 years and I couldn't ask for a better dog. He's still a little high strung because he is still a puppy, but he is smart and GREAT with my kids not to mention my other dogs. And yes I do have purebred dogs. I have a St. Bernard and a Great Pyranees. Before getting our Goldendoodle we had a Black Russian Terrier. Sometimes it is not about buying a designer dog, it is because when you see that particular puppy he just captures your heart and you know you can't live without him. So I say, don't knock all of us who have a "designer" dog. Some of us didn't buy them for the purpose.

Well, you can sugar coat your descion how ever you need to but the cold reality is that shelters and rescues across the nation are filled and overflowing with dogs that have the same charcteristics you've described. I'm sorry if that offends you but it's true.

Take a look at Petfinder.com sometime. There are over 250,000 animals on there at any given time, all looking for a family to love. For every person that buys a "designer dog" one of those dogs don't get a home and likely will be put to death. Take a walk through your local shelter...you don't think that you could find a dog in there that is smart, good with kids or capture your heart?

The bottom line is that designer breeding is usually done by people who want to make money and have no regard for an animals health or temperament. I'm glad that your dog is all that you wanted and is great with your kids but at least be honest...you could have found a dog at a shelter that would have been equally loving with your family and you'd have saved a life to boot.

I have never understood the "designer" breeds, from day one. I totally agree with you that we have enough standard breeds, we don't need to create more, especially with our overpopulation problem. Being a dachshund owner, the most infuriating cross to me are obviously the dachshund mixes. The most popular I've seen around the "chi-weenie". I am a firm believer that a dachshund shouldn't be crossed with any breed. You're just asking for conformation issues in the spine, etc. Plus the chi-weenies and other dachshund crosses I've seen just look plain stupid! BTW I also detest the term "weenie dog" ;-) I informed my best friend and future owner of one of my pups that she wasn't allowed to take my boy home until she learned to say and spell dachshund properly!
THat's going off subject though.
I'm also infuriated that the CKC recognizes many of these crosses and breeds now and gives these people an avenue to register their dogs which is essentially promoting more breeding because people can now sell "papered" dogs.
The most popular that I've seen by far is the yorkie-poo. People who can't afford a yorkie jump on this "breed" because of it's similarities to the yorkie and it's afforability. I've seen an explosion of the yorkie-poos in my area.
I think this is a problem that will only get worse. Deep down these breeders and mills know what they're doing is wrong, but they simply don't care. I've met them. It's all about the buck. Their dogs for the most part live out in kennels year round and the only time they even see them is to throw them their food and water. Let alone vet care for the pregnant bitches. It's just ridiculous. You can educate all you want, as long as there's a market, they're going to breed the dogs. The only one you have a hope of reaching is the backyard breeder that actually views their dog as a pet and cares about it's well-being and the well-being of future pups.
Take a trip to any local flea market though and you'll find the puppy mills at work and the designer breeds selling out of their cages. That's just not going to change. The BEST hope that anyone has for slowing this down is convincing the CKC to STOP recognizing designers as breeds, thereby slowing the cash flow for the mills.

That said, the other thing that infuriates me are the anti-breeders. There are those out there who if you even mention your dog being pregnant, look at you with a death glare. There are those who believe that dogs shouldn't be bred, period. This frame of mind is absolutely idiotic. The backyard breeders and the mutts are always going to exist. If the responsible breeders of purebreds concerned about maintaining lines and genetics just up and quit, we'll still be left with an explosion of mutts, and only mutts.
There has to be a happy median somewhere.

Oh well, my two cents in and done.

[Somebody2Love]

Yes, I agree with you 100%!!! The whole "designer" thing started because of Paris Hilton(I was told & read in a magazine) I also agree that there will always be mutts & back-yard breeders. I breed Yorkies(yes I do OFA/CERF,I follow the breed standard) and just last Friday(5/22), I had a lady call me asking if I would breed one of my bitches to her mini schnauzer to get little "Schnorkies!" WHAT THE %$#@!!!!

Of course, I said no, and she was mad. I thanked her for her inquiry but politely said I had to go. Jeez, I go to all that work to keep my dad's rat terrier(he's refuses to get him neutered, I know, I know...) way from my two bitches when they're in season and then we've got people who PURPOSELY breed mutts! Damn, I coulda had "Rorkies!!!!"

My point is, don't breed mutts on purpose. Don't take two purebreds of different breeds to make mutts. SPAY TODAY!!!!

Originally Posted by dcarpenter

I do have to stick up for some of us. I didn't buy my dog because he was a "designer dog". I simply bought him because he was what we wanted. We had some friends that had Goldendoodles and although I thought they were ugly, their temperment was great with kids and they were really smart. Our Goldendoodle is now 1 1/2 years and I couldn't ask for a better dog. He's still a little high strung because he is still a puppy, but he is smart and GREAT with my kids not to mention my other dogs. And yes I do have purebred dogs. I have a St. Bernard and a Great Pyranees. Before getting our Goldendoodle we had a Black Russian Terrier. Sometimes it is not about buying a designer dog, it is because when you see that particular puppy he just captures your heart and you know you can't live without him. So I say, don't knock all of us who have a "designer" dog. Some of us didn't buy them for the purpose.

What ever your intent may be, you've helped to create the demand. By putting money in the breeder's pocket, you encouraged the production of more puppies. In essence, you helped to condemn your puppy's parents to more years of over breeding and a possible miserable existence.

You say he's high strung because he's still a puppy. That may or may not be the case. A lot of the "doodles" remain high strung their entire lives. And there could be major health issues you haven't faced yet. Hip problems, elbow problems, hypothyroidism, epilepsy, Addison's Disease, to name a few. Your dog is too young for you to know what the future holds.

[chevy & karen]

Originally Posted by kobesescape

I'm really hoping our posts open eyes! Thanks for your response! I hope no one thought i was being too harsh, and i definately don't look down on you nattiej, thank you for responding!

Well here's my 2 cent's. I don't think you can be too harsh when it come's to the defense of animal's. I had dog's all my life, all of them rescues and shelter dog's but I alway's longed for a puppy. I normally never read the pet's and animal's for sale section in the news paper (It depresses me) but I did one day back in 2005 and went to see a litter of puppies. I knew something was not right with these pup's when I first laid eye's on them but I could'nt walk away without taking one and not knowing what would happen to them. It has been one major health problem after another. These people that breed and don't know what they are doing need to be stopped... It has haunted me for the last 9 year's as to what has happened to chevy's sibbling's.

I volunteered quite a few year's doing shelter work and thought I seen and heard pretty much all the abuse one can handle but breeding dog's and not knowing what your doing is also abuse to these puppies that are brought into this world.. Not all problem's are immediate, some are gradual and come with age and some can never be cured.

The bottom line is that designer breeding is usually done by people who want to make money and have no regard for an animals health or temperament. I'm glad that your dog is all that you wanted and is great with your kids but at least be honest...you could have found a dog at a shelter that would have been equally loving with your family and you'd have saved a life to boot

Hear Hear!! I have to confess that I am one of those breeders so angered, and sometimes aghast, at the posts I read in various forums on the internet, that I find it very difficult to be polite and understanding. The depth and breadth of the ignorance is so staggering!! I take my hat off to those of you who are polite and understanding, like nattiej, and try to educate rather than shoot people down in flames, but for my part I cannot in any way at any time justify the careless and uncaring bringing of life into the world with no thought to the future welfare of that life, be it animal OR human. I also happen to be of the opinion that ignorance is no excuse.