I have absolutely no time for people who deliberately breed crossbreeds! The rescues are full of them. Just like the fad of anything people can add a "Poo" onto including, Shihpoo, Maltipoo and anything else the unscrupulous can add a poo onto and charge inflated prices for.
Almost none of these dogs have, in my experience, been health tested. The story is "Hybrid vigour" which, I’m sorry is just a load of rubbish! Labradors at the moment, for example, have a total of 6 different inherited eye problems Poodles fair rather better, but do have one, Optic Nerve Hypoplasia, which Labradors do not. Take the case of a simple Recessive problem. It needs to be on both sides for the dog to be affected but only one side for the dog to be a carrier. If for example the Labrador side carried those 6 bad genes and the poodle carried their faults, the puppies could be carrying all 7 faults. At the time of mating Lab/Poodle cross back to Lab/Poodle cross any or all of these 7 ailments could come out.
Now on to the moulting question. If you mate dogs which differing characteristics then on average half will carry one and half the other. Very simply, half will moult, half will not!
All new breeds brought about in recent times were bred for specific purposes, Lucas terriers, Plummer terriers and Patterdale terriers to name three. Because these are working terriers there is an aim, a reason for being and a benchmark as to the success. Any attempt at creating a breed is full of blind alleys. Failures, where the resultant dogs just do not gel. Any fool can stick too breeds together but that will not make a breed.
I know people will accuse me of being against crosses and mongrels but that is not the case. My very first dog was a Wire Haired Fox terrier cross goodness knows what. He was a cross and was not credited with fancy names or even more fancy price tag but he was wonderful all the same.
Regards, John
