A Designer Dog for You?

Last Sunday, CBS Sunday Morning ran a story promoting the rising trend of designer dogs. FYI, designer dogs are cross breeds. Cross a labrador with a poodle - you get Labradoole. Cross a pug with a beagle - you get a puggle. You get the picture.

Now tell me, is this cute?

It is the in-thing right now to own a designer dog. Jake Gyllenhaal & Slyvester Stallone are said to own designer dogs. There are more than 300 of such hybrid dogs in the market right now, according to the American Canine Hybrid Club & only a small number of hybrids are popular.

Buyers are particular about their designer dogs - the dogs have to fit a certain 'look' - they have to be small, with teddy-bear like qualities i.e. cute faces & fat pudgy bodies. The dogs have to stay small so that they eat less, poop less.

Right now, the puggle is the hottest selling dog in the window & it goes for as high as US$950. Why the high price tag when they are not pedigrees you ask? Because it is like breeding a Versace bag with a coach bag. So now a living being is reduced to a rich man/woman's vanity piece. Insulting I say.

Designer dogs, hybrids, cross breeds are just names. They are mutts in cute packaging. How long they will remain cute - that remains to be seen. But I have a feeling that there will be more stray dogs on the streets of America in the years to come. And exactly how what do the breeders plan do with those commercially less popular hybrids?