Why do many people have the 'urge' to crossbred their pets?

Any answer as to the ‘why’ of it, is purely subjective. Guessing, I would say that ultimately it’s a control issue. Some people want a made-to-order pet.

They hope to get the best of both breeds.

@Doctor_D When I was a kid in the 1960’s people who had dogs and cats usually got them from other people who got them from other people and they were all cross-breeds. All our kittens came from a feral mother cat that lived at the back of my grandparents’ place in their shed. We were ordinary working-class families and no-one had any money. So this whole idea of purebred animals is something relatively new to me.

Now this idea of people deliberately cross-breeding dogs and cats makes me laugh as it appears to be rich people just trying to be “like the little people.”

They are apthetic.

Sometimes its just a good thing to do. Some breeds have a long line of hereditary diseases and the best way to lessen the amount of diseases is to breed it with another type of dog. Some mix breeds are already known to turn out fine because they are similar. Like maltese and poodle. You get a malti-poo and they are usually adorable. Some breed of dogs also very rare and it makes it hard to breed it with another of its kind.
Now I remember seeing on the discovery channel or something like that about and experiment. They found that simply by breeding by temperment of the dog that over the years the look of the dogs will change over the next few generations. The experiment was to see how it was possible for the fox to maybe change into the pets we have today. Only saw part one. Never saw part two, so I never saw the ending conclusion.

Because they are trying to make something that they think is unique and interesting. I don’t care for doing nonsense like that, since many human-bred pets suffer from certain problems and are susceptible to certain diseases because they are “engineered” to be different.

@Pandora Seems like I also watched the same scene. This could be the result after 50 years(possibly part two) of their experiment.

@Doctor_D Wow, thanks. I’ve been looking everywhere to find out the conclusion. No one I ever met had seen the show. I’m glad to here someone else saw it. Although on tv, wasn’t it an experiment done in England?
But glad to see what the conclusion was. Maybe they pulled it off the tv once they found the experiment had actually been done in Russia first.

It is not the smartest thing to do, labs and rotts both have many of the same health problems, hip dysplasia, shoulder dysplasia, pra, and the list goes on. If you breed them together you are not lessening the chance of the problem at all. If you buy a pure bred dog from a reputable breeder they will probably have done at least 6 different health checks costing over 1,000.00 dollars, they will have studied pedigrees to be sure the breeding is a good one. Most of the designer dogs as the new cross breeds are called, are done solely for the dollar.

When I was a kid, I had a mutt, I have 2 mutts now. I love them, but they are not necessarily healthier than a pure bred dog. If you want a dog of a specific size for a specific reason, then a pure bred is a good choice because the type is set. If you are not that particular then a mutt is a good choice.

I think the reason could be all the ones you listed. Humans domesticated the dog about 15,000 years ago and we’ve been tinkering with breeds ever since.

Maybe they don’t see any difference between non-purebred dogs and people of mixed ethnicity. I think that they want a “unique” pet and they are not necessarily doing it for the well-being of the dog.

I’m not sure that less people value purebred pets. I prefer purebred dogs because I like to be able to identify the traits of a certain breed. I loved my poodle. Although I like other types of dogs, I couldn’t really imagine trying to breed it with anything other than another poodle.

It’s hard to predict what non-purebred dogs will grow up to look like. For my friend’s blue-nosed pit bull (mixed bulldog and pit bull), the dog’s head size and build varies. Looking at another friend’s blue-nosed pit bull, we expected his head to be larger and that he’d be less stocky.

On the pet shows, only purebreds are allowed to compete. I’m sure there are still many people that appreciate purebreds.

they want to make specialized and “better” breeds

is it just me or.. haven’t people been doing this for ages?

@hrcmatt – mutts have been around since the beginning of dogdom. But the idea of selling designer or specific cross bred dogs for outrageous sums of money is a new one.

I have a boster terrier.. The Boston Terrier breed originated around 1870, when Robert C. Hooper of Boston purchased a dog known as Hooper’s Judge, who was of a Bull and Terrier type lineage. Judge’s specific lineage is unknown, however, Hooper’s Judge is either directly related to the original Bull and Terrier breeds of the 1700s and early 1800s, or Judge is the result of modern English Bulldogs being crossed into terriers created in the 1860s for show purposes, like the White English Terrier.

People have been crossbreeding dogs for ages. I can’t really tell the difference between this new ‘fad’ of yorkie-poo’s & malti-poo’s and that of breeds like the boston terrier.

I also don’t see what’s wrong with crossbreeding all these dogs w/ poodles because of allergies people have. As far as the price goes.. price is based on demand… what people are willing to pay for a specialized dog.

@hrcmatt I’m still allergic to crossbred poodles though.

@Luffle :( I’m sorry!