I have always felt proud to have better knowledge about pets, especially my Angel, but my pride was hammered to pieces when I stumbled upon the images of what I thought was a ‘Dachshund’, but digging a little deeper, proved me wrong. In fact, I was looking at a ‘crossbreed’ between a Dachshund and a Rottweiler. All these years I assumed Angel to be a pure-line dachshund since I brought her home from the kennel trusting the owners’ words. The excitement of welcoming a pet into my life blinded me off from doing any background check. For a true pet-lover, it might not even matter if their dogs/cats were purebred or mix-breed, but for the exorbitant amount we shell out while buying our pets the research is worth every penny.   

Purebred dog (or a Pedigree) refers to a dog (from a modern dog breed) with a registered/documented ‘pedigree’. For Example Golden retriever, German shepherd, Rottweiler etc. are considered purebred. ‘Primitive Man’, in his quest to find help in his daily chores, understood that dogs are easily domestic-able. Some types of work needed certain inherent traits that helped dogs accomplish the work due to high energy, aggression, chasing, digging, barking and independent thinking. This helped the ‘Primitive Man’ decide which traits he wanted in a dog breed. Then he started breeding them selectively. Selective Breeding simply means that dogs with the ‘desired’ traits like herding, hunting and guarding were bred extensively. This kind of selective breeding is done even in the case of cows, buffalos, goat, sheep, pig, poultry, horses, donkeys, elephants, camels etc.

And what is a crossbreed dog? It is an intentionally bred dog of two or more documented breeds and a resultant of mankind’s ever persistent desire to own something a little different, a little fancy or in short supply.

A huge group of purebred dog breeders and dog clubs are adamantly against the creation of ‘designer dogs’ due to their assumption that, in the long run, such dogs are a danger to the whole ‘dog breeding world’. And almost all pro-cross-breeders believe that their practice of cross-breeding adds to the vigor (that got reduced due to in-breeding for several generations) to the existing genetic make-up of purebred dogs. As in case of Angel’s litter (a male puppy), he is a pure cross-bred pup. His mother, Angel, is a Dachshund (again a cross-breed of Dachshund and Rottweiler) while his father, Joy, is a pure-line Shih-tzu.

Choosing which stance is ’correct’ is not my priority here. My priority is to give potential pet-parents a fair picture of both the stances.

Negative aspects first:

Size: Pet-size is a very important factor for all the pet-parents concerned. Cross-bred dogs have, at times, unpredictable sizes. If both the parents are of comparable sizes, you may expect the puppy to be of a similar size. But you can never be sure of the ultimate size.

Litter-count: The litter count is very low in case of crossbreeding. It is approximately one-thirds as compared to pure-breeding. And the survival of the litter is even lesser, being one-fourths. In simple words, pure-breeding might fetch you 9 puppies while cross breeding would only produce 3 puppies. And for every 4 puppies born (in case of cross-breeding), only 1 puppy survives.

Congenital health issues: Since the mating process naturally leaves out the defective genes, a mixed-breed puppy is usually on the advantageous side of standing a much lower chance of being born with congenital diseases. However, many congenital issues, such as eye diseases, kidney problems, hip dysplasia, and epilepsy are found across crossbred dogs. This happens when both the parents are carriers (or victims) of one or more of the same genetic disorders.

Temperament: As discussed before, purebred dogs have been reared for different purposes, and their temperaments correspond to the purposes accurately. For example, Rottweilers are rather bold and \ aggressive because they have been bred to be watch-dogs and guard-dogs. Poodles, on the other hand, were bred to hunt and be wonderful companions. It is almost impossible to predict the temperament of a crossbred puppy, which these two dogs might produce.

Risky deliveries: A very high level of risk is involved in cross-bred pregnancies. Breeding dogs of different sizes (essentially breeds) can sometimes lead to complicated pregnancies and deliveries.

Positive aspects:

Undeniably unique looks: Most of us would prefer a dog that doesn’t resemble any other breed, and cross breeding can effectively produce such a ‘designer dog’. On combining two different breeds, it’s a coin toss as to how the genetics will combine. This means that each puppy in a litter, may look different from its littermates, and this, in-turn, can give us a very interesting-looking litter.

Future pure-breed: Many of today’s purebred dogs are successive crosses of different breeds, and have been refined through selective breeding, thus displaying their consistent characteristics today. Similarly, we can expect some of today’s crosses to potentially evolve into future pure breeds. The Cockapoo is one such potential future pure breed. Cockapoo is a designer breed resultant of an American/ English Cocker Spaniel and a Poodle.

Money matters: While the average purebred puppy often fetches breeders a mediocre $300 to $500 some cross breeds go for more than $1,000.

While there are advocates for and against pure breeds and cross breeds, we pet owners are spoilt with the abundant choice available! Probably, a day may not be far away, where in you go to the nearest kennel house/pet shop, and fill up an order form as to what combination of breed, colour, trait, temperament, height and size of pet you wish to have.

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According to Wikipedia “Purebreds, also called purebreeds, are cultivated varieties or cultivars of an animal species, achieved through the process of selective breeding. When the lineage of a purebred animal is recorded, that animal is said to be pedigreed.” In other words, if a German shepherd mates with another German shepherd, their pups will have similar characteristics to their parents and not to other breeds in their gene pool. However, just like human babies may have congenital defects due to their parents being related, breeding from too small a gene pool, especially direct inbreeding, can lead to the passing on of undesirable characteristics. It may even cause a collapse of a breed population due to inbreeding depression. Therefore there has always been a debate about when to allow ‘outside’ stock for breeding purposes as this can improve the overall health and vigor of the breed. Purebred animal breeds are also susceptible to a wide range of congenital health problems. Then why do humans demand for purebred pets? Why is an animal, whose ancestry has been recorded, considered a better pet than a mutt? These questions are simply beyond me, especially after knowing the ill effects of pure breeding. My article is going to focus on the effect of this, especially on dogs.

Genetic conditions are a particular problem for dog breeds that do not accept any outside breed or blood. Most kennel clubs make a dog breed with its parents or siblings, which is morally as well as genetically disgusting. Some of the most common conditions arise from inbreeding. These include hip dysplasia, seen in large breed dogs, von Willebrand disease, a disease that affects platelets that is inherited in Doberman Pinschers, entropion, a curling in of the eyelid seen in Shar Peis and many other breeds, progressive retinal atrophy, inherited in many breeds, deafness, and epilepsy, known to be inherited in Belgian Shepherd Dogs, German Shepherd Dogs, Cocker Spaniels, and St. Bernards. Many dogs are bred with exaggerated features to please dog show judges! In reality, not only do ‘purebred’ dogs riddle with genetic diseases, but dog breeds are not even a real thing! We have made them up! We often talk about dog breeds as if nature created them that way and as though every mutt were just a mix of different purebreeds. But in reality, mutts are healthier than the so called ‘purebreds’ and pure-breeding is a sort of genetic manipulation humans made up just to amuse themselves. 90% of all dog breeds have been created in the last century! Because our ancestors thought that dogs should live upto our arbitrary standards, even though it causes them to get sick and die.

In 2008, the BBC ran a documentary on the health problems in pedigree dogs.A summary of the main points of that documentary are as follows:

• 60% of Golden retrievers die of cancer.
• 1 in 3 of King Charles’ Spaniels have skulls that are smaller than their brains!
• Great Danes are so huge that their hearts cannot support their bodies!
• Male Dalmations have difficulty in urinating due to stone formation.
• Bull dogs are a total genetic failure and are victims of borderline animal abuse! They can barely breath due to their squashed noses, their heads are so big that they can only give birth through caesarian, their tails can become ingrown, they have hip dysplasia and their average life expectancy is 6 years!
• The Bull Terriers have respiratory diseases due to their oversized snouts, supernumerary teeth and are compulsive tail-chasers.
• The Basset Hound has suffered too many changes to its rear leg structure that has made it stand so low that its stomach nearly touches the ground! It also has excessive skin, vertebra problems, droopy eyes prone to entropion and ectropion and excessively large ears.
• The Boxer have an extremely short snout, has difficulty in breathing, has lower hindquarters and has difficulty controlling its temperature in hot weather. It also has one of the highest cancer and many of them suffer from seizures.
• The Dachshunds are prone to dwarfism and do not have properly functional legs or necks for their size. There is barely any clearance between their chest and the floor.
• The mutations in German Shepherd Dogs serve no purpose but have made it an imbalanced breed that is more prone to cancer.
• The St. Bernard is oversized, has difficulty breathing and has too much skin due to which it quickly overheats and cannot work like thebreed was meant to. Their common diseases include entropion, ectropion, Stockard’s paralysis, hemophilia, osteosarcoma, aphakia and fibrinogen deficiency.
• Pugs have high blood pressure, heart problems, low oxygenation, difficulty breathing, tendency to overheat, dentition problems, and skin fold dermatitis. Even their double curled tail is a genetic defect that leads to paralysis in serious cases.

When new born puppies don’t fit the ridiculous and harmful breed standards imposed by us humans, who like to play God all the time, they are culled by the breeder. Completely healthy puppies are euthanized, just because they don’t look perfect. This is sick. The next time you feel like bringing a pup home, pick up a stray or adopt one from the animal shelter. But I beg you to not ask for a ‘purebred pedigreed’ dog, because that is just wrong and against the laws of nature.

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