Updated March 15, 2009

The articles on this page are to assist in understanding the tug of war between PETA / HSUS / Animal "Rights" people, who want to eliminate all pets in one generation, and those who believe that breeding and genetic selection of pet animals has been, is and will continue to be a good thing.

The Obama family dog saga

Why has it taken so long? Because the type of dog they want doesn't often turn up at the local shelter.

In the first two months of his administration, President Obama signed an economic stimulus package into law, lifted restrictions on foreign family-planning clinics and drew up a plan for pulling troops out of Iraq.

But he has left one early promise unfulfilled: He has not yet acquired a family dog.

Late last month, the Obamas seemed closer to their goal when Michelle Obama told People magazine that, after studying which breeds were least likely to trigger daughter Malia's allergies, the family had settled on a Portuguese water dog. But the statement was almost immediately modified: The first lady had spoken too soon. The quest for a White House canine continues.

So what's the problem? Why has a task as simple as getting a dog eluded the Obamas for so long? Perhaps the answer can be divined in Michelle Obama's interview: She said she wanted not just any Portuguese water dog but a rescued one. An adult with a good temperament. Perhaps even house-trained.

Certainly that should satisfy the activists agitating for the Obamas to adopt a stray. The rescue-only crowd insists that every dog purchased from a breeder is a death sentence for a stray. They make no distinction between responsible breeders who nurture sound-tempered dogs and puppy-mill operators who crowd breeding bitches so tightly into cages that they chew off each other's legs.

Rescuing a dog is indeed a noble gesture, even if there will never be enough humans to save every abandoned dog. But for the health of their daughter, the Obamas want a purebred dog. And last time I checked, Portuguese water dogs weren't turning up at the pound with any regularity.

Most of the purebred dogs that end up in shelters come by way of reckless backyard breeders or puppy mills, where dogs are routinely inbred, bred so narrowly for looks that they can't breathe properly, or bred with no thought for their health at all. Responsible breeders track their puppies assiduously and take them back if they don't work out. They don't put their dogs up for rescue, they "re-home" them.

If the Obamas find a Portuguese water dog in need of re-homing, good for them -- no doubt it will be theirs for the asking. But that dog won't qualify as a rescue. And it shouldn't have to.

For the record, I rescue dogs. I rescue, in fact, the kinds of dogs that end up in shelters in droves: Yippie, wild-eyed terriers and the much-maligned American Staffordshire (pit) bull terriers. I take them in, train them and keep them with me for longer than a decade; I work through their tendencies to bolt or their fears of men in baseball caps until they accept the compromises of life with humans. I am well set up for the task: My tolerant, dog-loving husband and I have no children; I love dogs that would drive sane women mad; and I have the tenacity to work with them.

But I also love purebred dogs and the whole notion that we humans have bred dogs for certain tasks. I love Newfoundlands that save drowning children, border collies that live to herd, brave terriers driven to hunt rats. And I despair that we may be heading into a world in which breeding dogs to do what dogs do -- work with, and beside, and indeed even for, human beings -- is considered, by some crooked measure, cruelty to animals.

There is something far worse than a family acquiring a dog from a conscientious breeder, and that's a family rescuing a dog that turns out to be fundamentally unstable or just plain unsuited to life with a family.

Childhood dogs shape attitudes toward animals for life; they can make kids lifelong advocates for animal welfare or create in them an ineluctable fear. A family that adopts a dog that incorrigibly nips children's hands, eats expensive furniture or lunges at other animals might at best end up investing in an expensive trainer. At worst, the dog ends up back in the shelter or on the street, leaving a family forever wary of canines.

In January, one month after the death of a beloved pit bull I rescued from the pound 13 years ago, I took in a 5-month old American Staffordshire named Tabitha. She is, from what we can tell, sane and hearty, a natural retriever, psychologically stable enough that neither ear-pulling nor toe-fondling nor the taunts of her Cairn terrier housemate, Thomas, faze her.

But Tabitha is still a puppy, and having lived with dogs -- seven in total -- nearly all my life, I know that puppies harbor secrets in their DNA. What we know about Tabitha is all good, but we could scribble it on a sheet of notebook paper. What we don't know could fill volumes.

We don't, for instance, know what her parents were like. We don't know if she harbors the gene for a debilitating neurological condition called ataxia that is common in her breed. Will she continue to put up with our ambushing cats? With the squeals of our friends' children? We think so, and we will work with her no matter what. If we had children to worry about, however, it might be different.

Symbolically, it would be nice if the Obamas could rescue a dog. But to insist that the only good dog is a rescued dog is to relegate our future with the canine species to random relationships in which humans are forced to settle for whatever renegade breeders produce and fail to care for.

And let it be said that the reason there exists such a thing as a Portuguese water dog at all, or any dog with a hypoallergenic coat and a game temperament, is not a happy accident but a triumph of the selective breeding humans have been practicing with canines for millenniums -- the very practice so many people who claim to care about dogs would prefer to see turned into a crime.

Judith Lewis is an environmental journalist and contributing editor to High Country News.

The article below is reprinted for people considering the purchase of a mixed breed dog,
sometimes called designer dogs, with cute doodle, oodle and pickle names.

Oodles of Doodles

The history of most of today's purebred dogs starts something along the lines of Lord Somethingorother, local gamekeepers or huntsmen, needed a dog that could catch rats all day long, herd livestock, guard something special, pull heavy loads or hunt over some special terrain, so they bred local dogs to imported dogs to achieve this special purpose and created the Wirehaired Specialhund. The Wirehaired Specialhund remained popular, even when its original job became obsolete, because of its wonderful temperament, adaptability, etc.

We have purebred dogs today because a fancier or a few fanciers thought a dog with those characteristics would be useful or just nice to have around. So what is wrong with experimenting, why not try new things and what exactly is the difference between the Bullmastiff and the labradoodle, aside from the silly name?

Qualities of a purebred

A purebred dog comes from the mating of two registered purebred dogs of the same breed. The resulting puppies can be reliably predicted to have the physical and mental characteristics of their ancestors. This means that if you breed a Poodle to a Poodle you will reliably get Poodle puppies that will grow up to look and act like Poodles.

Purebred dogs have a standard of excellence, a written description of the breedŐs ideal look and characteristics. Generations of purebred dogs have been carefully screened and selected so that only the healthiest, best tempered and best looking are used to produce more puppies of that breed. Purebred dogs are registered and have pedigrees that can be traced back in some cases to the beginning of the breed. The qualities of the dogs that go into the pedigrees are known and recorded so that faults and good qualities can be tracked. Breeders and breed clubs work tirelessly to maintain high ethical standards and keep the look, temperament and health of each breed.

A distressing number of people think that simply putting a name to a mixed-breed puppy makes it a real breed. Jugs, puggles, schweatens, cockapoos and every doodle imaginable are populating parks and handbags around the world. Clearly, many people either donŐt know or donŐt care that if you mate a Pug to a Beagle you have a litter of mixed-breed dogs, even if you call them Puggles.

Misinformation and rumour touted as fact, the all-too-human propensity for falling in love with the first cute puppy you see, and a real lack of awareness on the part of purebred dog breeders and organizations has resulted in a worldwide frenzy of crossbreeding anything to everything. Crossbred puppies with goofy names are advertised as designer breeds and sell for exorbitant prices while carefully bred, health-tested purebred puppies from responsible breeders are overlooked.

Characteristics of crossbreeds

How many times have we heard that mutts are healthier than purebreds, mutts have hybrid vigour or that Poodle crosses are hypoallergenic? The myth is that if you breed two dogs of different breeds, you can accurately predict the exact attributes the ensuing puppies will display, and that these designer dogs will be healthier than purebreds due to hybrid vigour. The truth is that crossing two different breeds will result in some puppies looking like each parent and some puppies resembling a mix of the two, maybe. Even though the breeders of these pups say they can predict things like coat type, colour, temperament and size, they cannot. The only things that can be predicted for sure are that the puppies will be awfully cute because puppies always are, and that many of these dogs will end up in shelters because they got bigger and weren't hypoallergenic as advertised.

Doodle dogs are deliberate crossbreeds and their producers have no intention of developing a breed, they simply continue to crossbreed and sell puppies. Doodle producers do some fancy double talk touting their puppies as special and better because they are crossbred. If you have a weak heart or high blood pressure, skip the next section or at least make sure you are sitting down. The North American Cockapoo Registry (yes they call themselves a registry, that isn't the shocking part) says:

"A true cockapoo is ONLY a purposeful, planned crossing of a purebred cocker spaniel with a purebred poodle. Without a traceable background anything cute and fuzzy could be (and has been) passed off as a cockapoo by unscrupulous people."

If [the Cockapoo] werenŐt so successful it would be funny. But instead of seeing the idiocy and finding a nice Poodle or Cocker Spaniel with a real, traceable background, people read that and buy a cockapoo.

Most labradoodle merchants offer labradoodles and Australian labradoodles. The difference between them is that Australian labradoodles are supposed to be a purebred developed from infusions of a few other breeds into the original Poodle/Lab crosses. According to some web sites, there is a move to seek eventual breed recognition. So now they have it both ways: A mixed breed is better, except when it isn't.

Hybrid vigour

Millions of dollars have been put into health research and testing by responsible breeders of purebred dogs. Records and databases going back generations make health issues in purebred dogs visible; therefore it looks like purebred dogs have lots of health issues. There is no database or health record for mixed breed dogs, but it is evident from observation that they have health problems. Crossbreed producers claim to be breeding "top quality" dogs and fixing health problems by producing puppies with hybrid vigour. To begin with, no reputable breeder would knowingly sell a puppy to somebody planning to produce mixes, so the breeding stock must come from other, less than reputable sources. The quality and health of their bloodlines is suspect to say the least.

Hybrid vigour refers to the mating of two different species within a family of animals, such as a lion and a tiger, a horse and a donkey, or a dog and a wolf. Since crossbreed dogs are simply a mating of a dog and another dog, the genes for health problems have an excellent chance of doubling up and expressing themselves in the offspring. Claims of super health are nonsense; veterinarians see as many problems in designer dogs as in purebreds. Since most doodle producers do no health testing and their breeding stock is unlikely to come from health tested backgrounds, some designer dogs get the worst of both worlds and inherit different problems from each parent.

So what is the difference between a Bullmastiff and a labradoodle? The Bullmastiff (or any other purebred) breeds true, and puppies can be guaranteed to be as advertised. Purebred dogs are the result of research, artistry and dedication. While there are some irresponsible breeders and problems in the purebred fancy, purebred dogs are healthy and reliable overall. Labradoodles and other mixes are a hodgepodge of possibilities that cannot be predicted, thrown together in an effort to make a quick buck. Size, colour, coat type and temperament are a guess at best.

A wake-up call

People in dogs have no idea of the gulf that exists between them and the average person looking for a pet. Despite the obvious discrepancies between myth and reality, many [pet puppy buyers] continue to believe the doodle hype. Purebred dog clubs and breeders need to realize that they are in direct competition with the doodle merchants because many people think a St. Berdoodle is a breed.

Purebred breeders are passionate and protective of their breeds and have been in the habit of downplaying them to discourage too much popularity. It's not untypical for a breeder to answer puppy queries by listing all the reasons their breed is not suitable for everybody, especially the person calling to enquire. There are breeders who won't sell to pet homes, or who breed only if they want to keep a puppy for their own breeding program, leaving potential pet owners puppy-less and feeling snubbed.

Responsible breeders don't like to advertise in newspapers, and are afraid to market their dogs because they don't want to be perceived as puppy merchants. If responsible breeders are hard to find or won't breed for the pet market, then pet buyers will go where they can get a puppy. straight to the designer dog merchant who makes them feel special because they have a special dog that [they say] is "better than a purebred." Once they have that puppy, they will love it, protect it and defend it as passionately as any purebred [puppy buyer].

The world of purebred dogs needs to wake up and get marketing, educating and reaching out to the average pet buying person or watch as oodles of doodles fill the need for pet dogs.

Frequent [Dogs In Canada] contributor Naomi Kane is a CGN evaluator and has been breeding Leonbergers for over 10 years.

Azarel Shetland Sheepdogs
Quesnel, British Columbia, Canada