A pug and a beagle walk into a bar...

I have a problem with Puggles. Here you have two perfectly nice breeds of dogs, each with their own loyal band of followers, why mess them up? I originally thought that Puggles were an accident, a famous person somehow ended up with one, other famous people wanted one, regular people wanted one because a famous person had one - and so on. Not so. Turns out Puggles were created by Wallace Havens, who owns Puppy Haven in Wisconsin. This is a puppy mill. He also offers Cairnese (Cairn x Havanese), Shnoodles (Schnauzer x Poodle) and maybe another dozen bizarro crosses. And why not call them Poozers? Think they wouldn't market as well? Not to mention some suspiciously impure looking purebreds. Does that Rat Terrier look like a funky colored Chihuahua or is it just me?


Growing up, spaying and neutering was pretty much a non-issue. All of our dogs ran around intact until in the mid-70's, when my mother got a 9 month old female Cairn Terrier (free, through a local paper). The neighbors had a German Shepherd/St. Bernard cross and he trashed our fence to get into the yard when she went into heat. She was spayed as soon as possible after that. Despite dire predictions of bizarre behavior and obesity resulting from this unnatural surgery, the dog remained her quirky funny self until she died some 14 years later.


In any case, mixed breed dogs abounded. Shepherd/Collie crosses were everywhere, so were Lab/Shepherd crosses. No one suggested creating a new breed because of this. You had junkyard or garage dogs, true mutts, products of a dozen random breedings. Those dogs had hybrid vigor - living outside, with no vet care, only the healthiest dogs survived to breed. I'm not advocating random breeding or no vet care - all of my mammals are spayed or neutered where species appropriate.







Breeders of designer dogs *eyeroll* claim that their dogs have hybrid vigor. Um, no. Straight crosses - Pug x Beagle, Poodle x Schnauzer - are still going to be at risk for all the diseases/genetic defects of the two breeds. Especially if the two dogs haven't been tested to see if they carry any of the problems that affect their breeds.





A dog that I walked for all 14 years of his life, Hobbes, was a Shepherd cross that his owners got through North Shore Animal League. He was not a designer dog, just the randomly bred product of irresponsible suburban pet owners. In the genetic crap shoot of life, this dog got snake eyes. He had exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, which meant that he couldn't digest a whole lot of things (including protein) without having an enzyme added to his food. This condition is present in German Shepherds and Rough Coated Collies. Next, he was diagnosed as hypothryroid. Then anemic (hmm, perhaps a beagle was involved there, too?) and much later in life he began having seizures. Here was a family who tried to do the right thing by adopting a dog through a shelter/rescue, thinking that a mixed breed dog wouldn't have all the problems you associate with purebred dogs, and they got screwed. Big time. Yes, Hobbes got the best medical care throughout his long life. But I have to think that the dogs who created him must have shown signs of all of these problems.



Back to Puggles. Most of the ones I've met on the street are not social with other dogs, are overweight, and not particularly attractive. I did meet one friendly female who showed appropriate behavior, but I still think the whole Puggle thing is just ridiculous. Beagles are cheap, get one of those if you can't afford a pug. Go to Pug Rescue. Just don't support puppy mills. Buy from a responsible breeder with a track record of healthy dogs and a rational, humane sales contract.



Next time? Labradoodles.