Wherever there are dogs who have not been spayed or neutered, there will be mixed breeds born at least occasionally. Dogs will do the unexpected to get together when a female dog is in heat, and even top breeders sometimes have one slip past them.
Dogs from such accidents may turn out quite well, depending on their parents. The first-generation cross of two purebred dogs of different breeds is a hybrid, and may possess superior traits in terms of health and intelligence. The “hybrid vigor” as this is called applies only to the first cross of two purebreds, though. Crossing those hybrid dogs produces unpredictability in the health and temperaments of their pups.
Breeding a hybrid or mixed breed dog is not a good idea. The ideal is to spay/neuter and enjoy life with that dog without breeding. Even if the hybrid is a great dog, the hybrid’s genetic traits are not reliably reproducible. Chances are the puppies of a hybrid or a mix will inherit weaknesses from their earlier ancestors. If you want a dog as a companion or working dog, the hybrid can be a great choice. It is the one kind of mixed breed dog you may do fine adopting as a puppy. But if you want a dog to breed on, the hybrid is not a good choice, nor is any other mixed breed.
What Breeds?
It might seem there is no breed research to do before adopting a mixed breed. The truth is it requires more research to make an informed and responsible choice of a mixed breed to adopt than to choose a purebred dog. That’s because you have two or more breeds to research, not just one.
Puppies look very much alike, so guessing the breeds in a pup of unknown parentage is often impossible. Guesses can be more educated when the dog is grown. This is an important reason to avoid adopting puppies of unknown parentage. You can’t even know what responsibilities you are taking on. What size will the dog be, what grooming will be needed, how strong, how active, how inclined to bark, how aggressive in guarding territory? A puppy of unknown genetics may grow into a dog you cannot handle.
Ask yourself whether you really want a dog or just a puppy. When you adopt a mixed breed puppy and get rid of it once it’s no longer cute, you have taken from that puppy the best chance of a permanent home. One estimate is that 50% of the puppies born in the U.S. are dead by the age of two years, and casual puppy adoption is a major reason.
Those who want puppies but aren’t sure about the long-term commitment of a dog can satisfy this interest by raising a pup to become a working dog. You just need to find a good program to work with. At around a year of age, the pup will no longer be your responsibility.
If you really do want a dog and a mix is your choice, get an adult. These dogs need homes desperately, and you can tell much more about what you are taking on. Responsible shelters don’t adopt out aggressive dogs, so if there are behavior problems, they’re likely to be problems typical of untrained dogs that age.
If you need a dog with more predictable behavior or if you want to adopt your dog as a puppy, you need to deal with a responsible breeder rather than a shelter. The most likely scenario of getting an aggressive mixed breed dog from a shelter happens when you adopt that dog as a puppy. The temperament and breeds involved in a puppy are not apparent. It is guesswork when you don’t know both parents.
For those who want to raise a mixed breed from puppyhood, the people to talk to are breeders with purebred dogs. These days, puppies can be DNA checked for paternity. Either accidentally or by plan, a dog can have a litter of puppies with more than one father. DNA testing can tell which pups are which! Cool, huh?
So, if you want a mixed pup to raise, do your breed homework! Locate breeders of breeds that interest you, and let them know of your interest. Then when an accident happens with one of their dogs or, more likely, a dog belonging to someone else they know with their breed, you can be contacted. Since the breeding won’t be planned, you’ll need to research lots of breeds, to decide what will and will not fit your situation.
Crosses of breeds are sometimes predictable as to what you might expect from the offspring. Labrador retriever and German Shepherd Dog, for example, is a common cross that tends to produce large, black dogs with short hair. The ear set can do anything—and one may do one thing while the other does something else. The dogs will likely be strong, high in energy, natural retrievers, protective of property, eager to learn, and not the right match for an owner who doesn’t want to get seriously involved in dog training!
Dogs with a terrier parent are likely to fight with other dogs of the same sex. Dogs with a parent of one of the giant breeds are likely to be large. A dog with a Chihuahua parent will probably be small. If both parents of a dog have long or short coats, the dog is likely to inherit the coat length of the parents. But when one parent has a long coat and the other a short one, the coat the pup will have is unpredictable.
Some surly-tempered dogs don’t have much energy, so their “leave me alone” attitudes are manageable. When you mix that breed with an energetic breed, the outcome can be a dog who very energetically expresses aggression. This is not good!
One mistake people make in considering temperament of a mix to adopt is expecting the dog to inherit “the best” of both breeds. More often, a mix inherits the most extreme traits of both breeds. Extreme traits are there in the first place because breeders worked long and hard over many generations to set those traits into the genetics of the breed. The traits needed for many of the jobs that humans have bred dogs to do may not be at all when you need. If you don’t do your homework, you won’t know what you’re getting into with a mix.
Another mistake is to expect that if you raise a dog with love, the dog will turn out as you desire. A dog is the victim of instinct, with less higher brain function than a human. As a result, there is a great deal about a dog that you simply cannot overcome with rearing or training because the dog’s higher brain function simply is not powerful enough to overcome the impulses. Bad handling can make a temperament much worse than it would otherwise have been, but even the best handling cannot rise above the limitations of the dog’s genetics. Do that homework!
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