sprollies!

Beckyess

Each person to their own I suppose. I think poodles are the cutest dogs around and so do many people, why do you think they are used so much in cross breeding, because they are the perfect dog, so why mix them and give the pups silly names? It's wrong to imply they are anything other than a cross breed by giving them a 'breed name'
Becky
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Love is a Posse of Poodles and Percy

coliel

i do agree about the names as as far as i am concerned the cross is who they are and the first cross is the best so a collie/spaniel should have a dad who is either breed and a mum af the other it doesnt seem to work when you breed 2 collie/spaniel together!
the reason for crossing is to get the best dog for "you" so a poodle for example doesnt loose its hair all over the place but can be quite scatty while a lab is often a calmer dog so you get a dog who is a little calmer and easyer to train with a coat that dosent malt all year round and with a lovely temperament.
love coliel

Beckyess

Labs calm

I've never heard of a calm lab! I've also never heard of a lab that doesn't moult all year round! With the lab/poodle crosses most people are finding they have a very large powerful intelligent boisterous dog that moults continuously. As a poodle owner I wouldn't say poodles are scatty at all, they have a great sense of fun but they are incredibly easy to train, very loyal, definately don't moult why cross them?
Becky
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Love is a Posse of Poodles and Percy

coliel

now that is very intresting!
as i know lots of labs and they are all good, calm dogs only when they are young are they boistrous and the poodles iv known have been complete nut jobs lovely but crazy! the malting bit - i meant that labs moult all year round and poodles dont so the idear is that they should only malt twice a year
i do find it all intresting and when you think about it all dogs are crooses realy!
love coliel

_Jules_

Well here is where I stand on this debate.

All the pedigree animals I have every had come through my hands have had inherited health problems....My Labrador (calm btw) has elbow dysplasia, my Toy Poodle had Legge Perthes and Glaucoma which caused her to go virtually blind at only 18 months old....My Rex rabbits dropped like flies....Even my Siamese cat had endless health problems and ended up living a rather shortened life.....Yet all the cross breeds I've had have never had anything wrong with them, barring when the odd accident happened.

Now I will be looking for another dog to join my clan when eventually my old Lurcher is no more (Bless her soul.... and isn't it funny how no one flinches when the word "Lurcher" is mentioned, yet she is only a crossbreed after all Wink

).

I like intelligent and fairly athletic dogs and I intend to do agility with it (which I did intend doing with my Lab before the ED stopped us in our tracks)....so what do I get??? If I was looking at pedigree dogs I would yet again look towards working type Labradors (not the chunky, short legged show type)...but then there is the ED, HD and eye diseases to worry about , plus a whole host of skin, allergy and epilepsy problems within the breed.....So maybe I'd look towards a Standard Poodle.. I really like SP's but then you have Sebaceous Adenitis, HD, Haemophilia and eye diseases within the breed... Confused

...So maybe I'd go the whole hog and get a Border Collie, knowing that some can be incredibly sensitive, noisy, nervous, hyperactive...and are generally smarter than the average human Wink

...Probably not the best of choices to fit into my family....So where do I go from here???? I don't wish to have any of the traditional guarding breeds.....and so many other pedigree dogs have the chance to inherit diseases. Even if the parent dogs are screen, so many diseases are recessive (so the parents may not actually have the disease but can still pass it onto their offspring if the gene finds a partner gene from the other parent dog).

Vets bills are so expensive and even if my dog is covered by insurance, there is only so much it will cover, then there is the excess to pay out. Rolling Eyes

So I feel I have no option but to look towards a crossbreed pup. I would really like to have a rough idea of what I'll be getting, so just picking up a pup from the local shelter is not an option...That is how I ended up with a huge hairy Lurcher....the Rescue told me she would be a smallish whippet, collie cross.....and then she just grew and grew until I had this huge, hairy Greyhound/Deerhound dog...Beautiful though she is, she was not what I was after at the time...but thankfully turned out to have the most wonderful temperament which more than made up for it Wink

.

So I will be looking towards getting either a Labrador/SP cross or a Lab/BC cross...with the hope that I finally get my athletic, intelligent agility dog...which isn't too highly strung.....and as it'll be a first cross hopefully there will be virtually no chance of any inherited problems, as even though both Labs and SP's can have HD (for instance) it is carried on different genes, so will not find pairing to cause HD to occur. I realise some rare diseases are carried on Autosomal Recessive genes, so there are still possiblities of inherited diseases being passed on by one parent dog alone...but hopefully these are so rare that I'll get away with it...Hopefully...fingers crossed... Wink

And I have absolutely no qualms about people calling my dog whatever they want...whether that is a mongrel...a crossbreed....or a Labradoodle, or Colliador....to me a dog is so much more than a name...It is a friend for life...and I want it to be able to live that life to the full. Very Happy

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Jules and the Ark

coliel

well done you put it perfectly with your last statement harar to you
love coliel
ps id go for collie/springer spaniel if i was you go on the google to read about "sprollies" their is lots of info and bothe my dogs were and are the fittest friendlyest best all rounder dogs in the world!

_Jules_

Thank you ....I shall go and Google Sprollies too, as nothing is set in stone yet and hopefully I have a few years to go before having to make the decision. I want my Lurcher to live forever, but at the grand age of 13 years I'm realistic enough to know that she is definitely in her Autumn years now......and every day is a bonus. Wink

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Jules and the Ark

coliel

let me know what pup your going for
also how about an airdale they are the dogs my father and grandfather have had and they are perfect dogs realy good for agility! friendly, strong etc but pricey!

Hcollie85

I had a search on Sproilies and i saw pictures of them, they look real nice and friendly dogs

Heather
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Violette

_Jules_

coliel

it is true that you can get the worst of the mixes but this is ever so rare in my experiance i think you mostly get the best but with out all the trouble!
as for the airdales again i can only say what i have seen of them and i think their great! the ones my fammily owned were incredably obediant, brill with other dogs, kind to children, infact i have great memorys of one in paticuler called meg he was my dads dog we got him when i was 3 and she died when i was 16! so all my child hood the only thing is their stubbon so you do have to be firm from the start with them and they wont take any nonsance from other dogs soon putting them into place their also fab guard dogs and very loyle i am a fan but prefer collie/spaniels as you get all the above but in a medium sized dog - airdales are realy quite big and you have to spend ages grooming them as well as spend a fortune on having it clipped! but they are fantastic dogs.
love coliel

VJH

Jules I have one word for you

DALMATIAN

hehrhehehehhehehhhehehe

Ruby is a working lab and lord is she clever - she was hard work as a pup as you have to watch the exercise for a growing pup until a year old for the joints but she needed something to do - constantly. She gets a 1 hour offlead run every morning and after that yes she is calm - but she is nearly 2 and she gets everthing she needs. People perceive labs to be easy - and fit in with a family and virtually bring themselves up NOT TRUE NOT TRUE. I am not the kind of person to do anything twice so Ruby is my first and will be my last lab - after all none otherwill ever match up Wink

We are getting a dally pup soon - and believe me the amount of people who have never owned one who have an opinion on how 'mad' we are is unreal!!!!!!!!!!!

Just go with your gut - whatever a dog is called it doesnt bother me in the slightest
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Vicky, Daisy and Ruby xx
Ruby´s album
Daisy´s album

Beckyess

Its the fact that people who breed these crosses use a breed name to make them more than they are, it is a con and people are gillible enough to fall for it. If breeders of these crosses where honest about what they breed and don't tell porkies about the non moulting aspect of a poodle cross (first crosses all moult) then I'd have a lot more respect for them.
As to dogs with problems, all dogs have problems as they have found out in Australia with the 'labradoodles' because they themselves believed their own myth about hybrid vigour they introduced all the labrador problems AND all the poodle problems.
If you want a decent puppy then go to a reputable breeder that health tests their stock whether pure or cross.
Becky
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Love is a Posse of Poodles and Percy

coliel

i think its good that crosses are costing more as hopfully it will stop people buying them with out realy thinking about it a dog is a dog so why should a lab cost£450, airdale £700 and a collie/spaniel only £150 if all dogs were say £500 including licence inocs etc i think you would get far less dogs in rescue and a much better lot of dog owners what do you think
love coliel