Very cross...

I was dandering about online earlier, and cooing over pretty pictures of dogs (yes, I had better things to do...). On a whim I put 'Tibetan Spaniel' into Google's search engine, and came across a link to a website that purports to provide Cavalier crosses, the logic being that cross-breeding alleviated the Cavalier heart issue... They have 'Maltaliers' (sounds like Malteasers, to me), Begaliers, and a number of others. It seems to be an Aussie site, so Australians might want to look into it? I thought it rather disturbing.

If anyone wants a direct link, pm me.

Karlin, I hope this post is ok! Please delete if not.

That's fine, as long as you don't post the link publicly. There are one or two places in Australia that are 'famous' for their crosses. The places are quite controversial. Caraline or some of our Australian members probably know the places. I know there's one mass-breeding place in particular that does 'designer crosses'.

Oh it really infuriates me when I see signs with stupid made up names for cross breed dogs, implying that these dogs are special & rare and yeah "designer". And there are idiot people paying hundreds of dollars for them, with no papers (obviously). Talk about stupid people getting ripped off by other stupid unethical people. Grrrrr

There is a move afoot here in Australia to outlaw the sale of dogs through pet shops. As you can imagine the pet shop owners are screaming their guts out about it, but I sure hope this gets passed. I am seeing more & more pet shops with these ridiculous signs up. I refuse to buy pet produce from shop that sell pets. Oh I am getting madder by the minute thinking about it. I better shut up now.

What's really stupid is when these people say that by crossing 2 breeds, they will eliminate the problems in the two breeds. Hello!!! What makes them think they will eliminate the problems?? It's just as likely that the cross will have ALL the problems of both breeds.

i do know of a litter due mother a field sapniel and father a cavalier .........the off spring is going to be kept by the owner scan shows 4 and all will be MRI scanned as part of the research programme even though i am not in favour of cross breeding i will be interested to see the results father has the malformation but no syrinx

Before we got Star, a friend was succumbing to family pressure to get a dog. I had been doing a lot of research, and told her that she shouldn't even consider a dog from a pet store, and why, blah, blah, blah. But one day her husband and kids just went out and bought a puppy (he does stuff like that, a whole other story there, though!).

Well, the puppy was a special mix of some sort, and was indeed very cute when a few months old. However, as an adult, he literally looks like the head of one type of dog was attached to the body of another. Poor thing is really unattractive - and w-a-y bigger than they were told he would get.

Yikes!

I agree with everyone here - It makes me sick when I don't even sell a champion sired/champion dame puppy for as much as alot of these MUTTS go for! Seriously, go to the pound, there's a tone of them! I'll never understand spending $2000 or often more for a mutt!!!