So wrong!

[Unisaw]

Have you heard of the "designer dog" fad?  Today's WSJ Online had a feature story about them complete with a photo gallery (registration required).  One cross-breeding is just so wrong: the doodleman, a cross between a doberman and a poodle:

[erik the bold]

Yikes!!  The only one I've seen before was a Labradoodle, cross between standard poodle and labrador retriever.  I think they started in Australia.

[bratch]

There are Jack Rats which cross rat terriors and Jack Russel Terriors.

Border Jacks which cross border collies and Jack Russel terriors for one of the dog games.

People are also mixing Australian Shepards and Border Collies to get the desirable traits of each.

I believe the Labradoodles are nonallegenic as well.

[Azrael256]

Purebreed dogs these days are so incredibly messed up that a little shakeup in the gene mix has got to be a good thing.  I agree that it's a weird looking dog, but it probably has a better genetic makeup than mom or dad.  We had a registered beagle who had no problems, but our pure lab had that weird nerve condition labs seem to get where they think their front legs are chew toys.

I happen to like schnoodles, myself.  They aren't particularly attractive dogs, but the one I met was a whole lot of fun.

[Gewehr98]

I agree, a little genetic diversity in those inbred AKC bloodlines is a good thing.

This is a Saint Bernard/Catahoula Curr Hound mix, a total accident, but he looks like an oversized Border Collie at 100 pounds.  BernDoggie's also my best buddy:

[Morgan]

My best boy is half Rottweiler, half Akita.  Great dog.

[Stand_watie]

I posted this photo earlier asking what folks thought the new puppy was (Shepherd/lab and Shepherd/collie were the most common answers I got)




Well here's the update some three months later - she now weighs 56 lbs by my bathroom scales (at 5 1/2 months) and is officially the 'big dog' of the house. The choc lab/unknown hound dog weighs in at 50 even).

[matis]

My dog is half Alaskan Malamute and so's the other half.  

That equals 100% con-artist.  I shoulda trained this guy to charm rich old ladies.  Wouldna had to work for a living.


I will say this for him, though: He's extremely obedient.  I taught him one command when I got him 9 years ago and he's NEVER disobeyed.

That command  (musta been), "ignore any command I ever give you."  He's been excellent at obeying.


I remember at obedience training, I'd say: "sit... sit... sit...."  The trainer said to me, "Matis, you're not teaching him to sit; you're teaching him to count!"


Oh, yeah and playing fetch.  Malamutes are VERY smart and are a bit independent.  I'd throw a stick in the back-yard.  He'd sit on his haunches, looking at it and at me.  With enough coaxing, he'd go get it.

ONCE!

After that one time his attitude is: "you threw it, YOU go get it."


Actually, He's a good boy, he knows who'se alpha (good thing -- he weighs 130 lbs!) and a great dog.  Malamutes are known to eat the siding off houses.  Just for the h*ll of it.  The joke among Malamute owners is that you save money on furniture.  They eat furniture, so you just go back to Good Will and buy another $50 sofa.

My Zeudi OTOH destroys nothing --almost -- he does like to eat paper, like the check-bearing envelopes I left by the door to take to the post office.  Or the $54 in product rebates I left there!!  


And he talks!  He comes up to me at the table, pushes his face to mine and licks his chops.  Can't possibly mistake what he's saying.

And they don't bark much.  Mostly they "woo-woo".  But it's LOUD.  And he thinks he belongs to the ambulance and fire-engine wolf-pack.  He howls to the sirens.  Even to the ice-cream truck "music".

I look at him lying beside my computer chair -- a gorgeous creature -- my own private wolf!  "What did I ever do to deserve a dog like this?" I ask myself.  


I'm one of the luckiest guys alive: Great daughter, great GF, great dog -- even got a great ex-wife!  Love my truck, too.


Oh, 'scuse me, this is Christmas, not Thanksgiving.



So Merry Christmas and Happy Channukah and Happy New year to all.


The very, very best to all of you in the coming year.



matis

[matis]

Stand_watie, that's a good-looking dog you've got there.

But he's no match for that beautiful girl.  Do you know her from somewhere?




matis

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

This is a fascinating subject for me, because growing up I was fortunate enough to have a golden retriever/collie mix, and he was an amazing dog-- loyal, sweet to family, but fought and defeated threatening German Shepherds, Labs, and so on-- always got STOMPED by the neighborhood Airedale (but, they ALL got stomped by that monster).

Ever since, I've sort of had 'the bug' to study, examine, and try on some breed combination that would bring the best of both breeds together into a superior dog.

Morgan, I bet that Rottie/Akita's an interesting mix.

matis, Peter Jenkins, author of A Walk Across America and several others, had a fine dog named Cooper Half Malamute.  He mentioned that bonehead, stubborn, independent streak as well.  When I was 19 or so, as a result of my dog and reading those books, I had decided on finding a half-malamute, half Golden Retriever.  Never did, though.

I think we'll begin to see more and more of this crossbreeding, much to the consternation of the fru-fru purists.

[grampster]

I had a runt Labrador by the name of Mike when I was a young man.  He had a propensity for fishing.  He would go to Plaster Crick and snare suckers, carp or whatever else of the finny genre presented themselves.  He'd then bury them for a few days until they became fit for his table.  Then he'd bring them home to share.  Oh, the humanity.
 
He also loved ring boloney and would stash chunks of it (that my devlish father would give him) at the foot of my bed, under the covers.  I hope ya'll are getting a visual, er, a "feeling" for my tale.

Mike, loved the crick and I'd steal up on him from time to time as he would while away the afternoon.  I used to sit in a tree, concealed by the leaves and watch him pick through stones in a gravel bed 'til he found the proper one for casting.  He'd then pick it up in his mouth and try to heave it across the crick.  He'd do a little dance after the cast, I think willing it to the other side.
 
Anyone that thinks dog's do not have a special place in the heart of G-d, is grossly mistaken.  Cats are there too, but in other ways.

I miss that ole dog.  He was all black with a pure white chin that reached down through the center of his chest.
 
After I married and moved away, he stuck around my folks for awhile, just to make sure they didn't miss me too much.  One day he left and never came back.  I hope he found another lad that liked to watch him pitch rocks.  Godspeed, Mike.

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

Oh, one other thing:
I saw a thing on Discovery Channel or Animal Planet about a year ago about some dog that they were talking about as some new superdog-- I remember them calling it either Caucasian Ovcharka or Caucasus Mountain Dog or Caucasian Shepherd Something.  

They showed video clips in the Kurdish mountain regions of Iraq of these dogs being used as herd/flock guards, just devastating wolves.  I think they grow to like, 220lbs and roughly the size of St. Bernards, but they look like lions.

There was a K-9 police dog trainer talking about how these dogs were potentially beyond anything he had ever seen, even for experienced, assertive owners, and he hoped they WOULDN'T catch on in the U.S.

Anybody know anything about these? (DON'T want one, just on the subject of dogs...)

[Stand_watie]

Stand_watie, that's a good-looking dog you've got there.

But he's no match for that beautiful girl.  Do you know her from somewhere?




matis

Heh, heh. That's my daughter, my only child and 'the apple of my eye' if I can borrow from the words of David. She just turned ten and is growing up all too fast.