This article aims to discuss some of the main advantages and disadvantages of choosing to adopt a crossbred dog. Buying a dog of any kind is a very big decision after all, so it’s imperative that you know your stuff going in.
Well, in essence, there is no right or wrong answer – the choice really comes down to the owner and the strength of their beliefs. As with most controversial topics, there are pros and cons to each side of the argument so it’s not as simple as saying that one view holds more merit than the other.
Most of the distaste towards cross breeding comes from purebred breeders who worry that it poses a danger to dog breeding in general. Therefore, with the aim of being as impartial as possible, let’s take a look at when cross breeding isn’t such a good idea:
Cross breeding is the process used to breed two separate breeds of dogs together. Take a goldendoodle for instance – this breed of dog is made up of the combination of a golden retriever and a standard-sized poodle. In turn, this provides owners with the hypoallergenic properties of a poodle, and the personality of a retriever.
OK, now that we know what cross breeding is, it’s time to look at whether it is a good idea or not. Let’s start by discussing some of its main advantages:
We’ve sped up dog evolution – but not enough
Charles Darwin pointed out that humans have accelerated the process of selection by choosing particular individuals for breeding, based on certain desired characteristics – what we call artificial selection. Natural selection generally requires much more time, because it acts on novel variants introduced into the gene pool through the slow process of chance DNA mutation. Nevertheless, the power of artificial selection in generating extreme phenotypes does not change the fundamental fact that dog breeds have been separated for only a short evolutionary time.
This means that dog breeds differ drastically in their appearance and other characteristics, while most of their genomes are still very much alike. Comparing different breeds, most of their genomes indeed show only little differentiation. In other words, Chihuahuas and Great Danes are overall very similar to one another. The vast physical differences are largely driven by relatively few loci (regions) in the genome. These loci have a large phenotypic effect, leading to strong differentiation among breeds.
This is particularly interesting for evolutionary biologists, and pinpointing such regions in the genome has for example recovered the genetic basis of size variation among dog breeds. We now also have an understanding of the mutations that control traits such as coat characteristics and ear floppiness.
So, can puppies in the same litter have different fathers?
Yes! Female dogs can be mated by more than one dog during their fertile period meaning a mixture of sperm is present and waiting to fertilise her eggs when she ovulates. The technical term for this is superfecundation. This can also happen in other species, including humans where fraternal twins could each have a different father.
Why Dogs Get Stuck After Mating – Breeding Process Explained
How can puppies from the same litter look so different? Discover the two reasons in this post about sibling genetics in dogs.
Have you ever noticed that puppies from the same litter often look very different? If you take a peek at the DNA of such puppies, you’d likely also find that they have different ancestry trees.
There are a couple of reasons litter mates may look different. One relates to how dogs inherit genes. The other has to do with the reproductive systems and mating habits of dogs.