Tues 8th Jan: Thinking outside the breed box

Most of the adoption enquiries we get are for small or medium-sized dogs or puppies, and this usually means a breed, or one of the designer crossbreeds that are so fashionable (and more of that later).  However so many small breed dogs are interbreeding with larger ones that we see more and more small-to-medium mixed breeds these days, and I'd like to introduce a few of those puppies currently available.

Bramble, so sweet and pretty

Bramble is a very pretty girl as well as already being used to living in a home where she's been fostered since she was just three weeks old.  Now at ten weeks she's ready to move on, and in fact she must leave her foster home this weekend.  Bramble is a very sweet girl who loves affection and attention, and she'd make a perfect family member.

Holly

Holly and Ivo are siblings, and also smaller-sized and totally adorable.  We know from the AFCD staff that their mother is also mother of Carlo, a shiba inu-looking shape and size with the same curled tail.  Holly also has that distinctive "snail tail", and she and Ivo have also had the benefit of a lovely foster home.

Carlo has the same mother as Holly and her litter

Ivo

Sisters Rose and Pollen may not have a fancy coat or colouring, but they are quite petite and have the best personalities.  They will also be at the smaller end of medium sized as adults, and at five months they are already almost fully trained and are lots of fun and very loving.  You won't find any puppies easier than these two girls.

Rose and Pollen are petite and very sweet

Finally, and I know there will be a rush for these gorgeous little babies, Cara and Bella came as part of the group from the horrendous breeder.  They look like Cavalier King Charles-cross, so maybe we should give them a fancy name like a Cavapoo because that's what people will spend thousands on to buy.

Cara and Bella (centre)

It's all in the marketing, and has really nothing to do with the actual dog. These designer cross-breeds are the saddest of all, pandering to the public's desire to have the latest label.  No thought is given to the facts of interbreeding or what happens to those pups that aren't born looking right.   If you cross a poodle with a labrador to get the "labradoodle", some of the pups will have a curly coat and others the unwanted flat labrador coat and are immediately disposed of (killed).  The surviving pups are then desexed at eight weeks of age before being shipped off to unknown buyers in faraway countries.  Early desexing plays havoc with the healthy development of a puppy, and the only time I can say it's justified is for TNR when puppies must be caught and desexed before they're old enough to be impossible to trap.

If you want a larger-sized curly-coated dog, what happened to the Standard Poodle, a breed that is almost never seen these days.  It's a sad state of affairs when dogs are fashion items rather than family companions.