Well, here's something from people who ought to know...

http://www.naiaonline.org/articles/article/the-clinical-truths-about-pure-breeds-mixed-breeds-and-designer-breeds

Oh how refreshing is that article. Maybe someone should thrust it under JH nose !!
Aileen

LOL my thoughts exactly...followed by "none so blind that will not see"

Indeed an interesting article that proves why people should not buy designer crosses - they will inevitably be from poor quality untested animals - why, because no one who cared about a breed and who does all available tests to ensure any offspring will be as healthy as is humanly possible to control are not going to allow their dogs to be used in someone's cross breeding program and people breeding for profit do not usually bother with health testing particularly those tests that need regular testing or are expensive.

The majority of dogs in our village are poodles crossed with labrador or cavaliars or Golden retrievers. These are owned by intellegent professional people who believe that crossbreeds are healthier and will have non shedding coats. They learn the hard way that's its not true but that's after they have parted with £600 +

One labradoodle had to have an operation on her eyes as the vet said she had eyes the shape of breed but the eyelashes of the other.

Met a labradoodle on a recent walk that had just had its hips xrayed by the local vet due to worries about possible hip dysplasia.  The dog was moving really badly.  They didn't need to send these off to the BVA for scoring though since the vet said "It's ok, he has poodle hips"!!

"It's ok, he has poodle hips"!!

Well, that's good then poodles have good hips don't they well about the same as Labs actually so I wonder how the vet knew if it was the Labs hips or the poodles that this particular cross breed had. Good grief it does not encourage faith the the veterinary profession does it.

Thanks I have just pinched it and put it on Facebook. But I am afraid I may be preaching to the converted.

On this occasion I was unable to disguise the look of disbelief on my face! :-)  They liked my dogs (KC pedigree gundogs) so we chatted for a while longer and they asked me a few questions.  "Wasn't I worried about the poor health of my girls" (?!)  "Errmm, my vets get vacc fees off me and that's pretty much it",  "How far did you have to travel to get them.  We were in the car a couple of hours."  " Three hours each way and several trips before I brought my first home." "Blimey!  Was it worth it?"  ..................  and so it went on. 

I did point out that i'd had both my girls hipscored, without any intention to necessarily breed from them.  I also told them that i had travelled to a vet experienced in taking xrays for hipscoring (because of the importance of correct positioning) but that the BVA use specialist orthopaedic vets on the scoring panel.

They were pleasant, intelligent people.  I didn't get the impression any of it sunk in :-(

Ive always said if a fraction of these 'crosses' had any more care put into them.......
other than what is local, convenient or would make a funny sounding name....I wouldnt be averse to them. But theyre not!!!

With so called designer dogs its location..location...location. The number one priority when chosing the mate.

> Thanks I have just pinched it and put it on Facebook. But I am afraid I may be preaching to the converted.

Me too...

I can't tell you the number of 'doodle' owners who have stopped me to ask about my healthy, beautiful dogs!  I sometimes feel quite awkward because i can find nothing about their dogs that would make me want to own one, so find it difficult to enthuse in return.  None of them ever know what breed mine are - they are no longer on the KC rare breeds register.  However I have had people insist they do know - even to the extent they are prepared to argue with me over it :-0  My absolute favourite was a woman who was adamant that my girl was a Red Leicester!  Errmmm ............... :-)))

My absolute favourite was a woman who was adamant that my girl was a Red Leicester! 

I bet you were cheesed off.

I get this all the time with my welshies--you'd think people would get the simple fact that there is only one coat colour these dogs can have. I have any number of people coming up to us to tell me they have a dog just like them at home, "only he's black and white," or "my mum had the identical dog when I was little, she was brown and white." The best one was just last week. A very excited woman came to tell me that my three were the first she'd seen since her mother's dog--yes, you guessed it, IDENTICAL to these--except her mother's dog was a tricolour. I could feel myself going cross eyed with the tedium of it all, so I thanked her and said I'd no idea they came in that colour. She was well pleased with herself for educating me.

How refreshing! Have forwarded to someone I know from another (non-dog) forum. They'd recently made a post to see which breed of dog they should get. Somebody with a boxer who had a heart condition told him not to bother with pedigrees and get a heinz as 'they don't get any diseases'- it was hard not to come down like a ton of bricks!

> My absolute favourite was a woman who was adamant that my girl was a Red Leicester!

Ah - so that's why her son has cheesy paws!

Actually he's waving them at the ceiling at the moment and he has not so mysterious white blobs on his pads.  Why is it that of my three dogs he is the only one that hits every single one of my paint drips as he mooches through the kitchen?!  He's currently modelling white gloss :)

I like the people who, when told what breed we have, tell us we're mistaken!   Mind you I've met several puppy farmed breeds recently which genuinely look nothing like they are supposed to (and I don't know what to say) - such a shame :(

Why is it that of my three dogs he is the only one that hits every single one of my paint drips as he mooches through the kitchen?!

  It's the "pain in the ****" gene!

His sister inherited it too :-)

On the bright side - these people are obviously looking at your dogs and seeing the best of what they remember about their favourite dogs ............even if they are clueless about how special yours are!  There was a time I wouldn't have known exactly what a Welshie was - although I would have known enough to ask you :-)

There is a study on eye issues in the Labradoodle in the current Veterinary Record:
http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/content/early/2012/01/25/vr.100361.short?g=w_vr_ahead_tab

The results are very interesting!

I don't have a problem at all with Labradoodles, they're on the whole nice enough dogs, I know some that are very nice and a credit to owner and breeder. Some 'commercial' breeders of Labradoodles are seemingly putting in the same level of care (inc extensive health screening and breeding programmes) as any responsible breeder of pedigree dogs.

But to say labradoodles won't or don't have inherited health problems is cloud cuckoo. Proffessor Sheila Crispin also makes no bones about the fact that genetic diseases occur in crossbreed populations.

With any dog, responsible breeding rather than random breeding is most likely to result in good health.