Page 8 - K9 News - Issue 15 - March2021

that are being dreamt up by the Cross-Breed
Greeders are quite possibly in danger of
compromising the hard-fought-for health of the
very breeds they are crossing!
A Standard Poodle, for example, will routinely
be tested (by any decent, ethical breeder worth
their salt) for von Willebrand disease. And an
Alaskan Malamute will likewise be routinely
tested for Polyneuropathy. But you wouldn’t
carry these tests out the other way round. You
can’t. So, if you decided that creating a MalaPoo
would be a jolly fine way of making a few bob
(marketing the ‘perfect combination’: An Arctic
Sled Dog that doesn’t shed its coat!), who’s to
say that these inherited conditions aren’t going
to cross over the genetic boundaries? What if
they do, and future generations get bred back
to the original pure breed? I know this is highly
speculative on my part, and I am certainly no
expert, but history is littered with the debris and
fall-out of misconceived experiments. POMSKY

And aside from the health implications, instinct, but immense strength (both physically
what about, by way of another example, and in character) backed up with an extremely
temperament? high prey drive. Mix them up and you may well
get the best bits of both. But if you get the worst
Every breed has its individual temperament
bits, the bits that really don’t go well together,
characteristics, and while these are fine in their
God help you and your neighbours!
rightful place, some of them you would not want
to see mixed up. A German Shepherd Dog is a No. This path we are on that is leading to more
highly intelligent, extremely loyal friend with a and more crosses is not a particularly well-
high guarding instinct. An Alaskan Malamute, on surfaced one. It is full of real and potential
the other hand, is a highly intelligent, stubborn potholes and needs to be closed off at both
but laid-back power-house, with no guarding ends.

But what can we do to stop it, when the public
seems to have an insatiable appetite for weird-
named puppies? An appetite that has grown
dramatically during successive lockdowns, and
been fed by the unscrupulous?
And the BBC doesn’t help, though there are no
surprises there!

It was recently announced that the BBC, on
their on-line channel BBC3, would be streaming
a documentary around the subject of breeding
designer dogs. Initially titled “Will My Puppies
Make Me Rich?” it will follow the lives of a
SCHNOODLE selection of young people - complete novices

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K9 NEWS DIGITAL / MARCH 2021