Designer dogs - are they good value?

Designer dogs aren't free but a good dog breeder puts in lots of hard work long before you adopt your puppy. It is important to find out from the breeder what your pup's parents are like and also how your puppy will be raised in the 8 weeks before you adopt him or her.

As you can see from the photo, Annie and her family also handled the pups a lot, so they were able to get used to people from birth.

We think that Annie's dogs are excellent value, especially considering how much time and care she takes with them. Some designer dogs can sell for up to $3000 - according to a recent SMH article!

Why get a "designer" or hybrid dog?

There was a great article in the Sydney Morning Herald recently about designer dogs, A Bit of Ruff , which says "Cute pet or unwelcome mongrel? The rise of the hybrid pooch has rocked the dog world."

A great article which debunks some of the arguments that have been put forward against designer dogs, also known as hybrid dogs or purpose-bred dogs. So yes, we do understand that a cavoodle isn't a real breed of dog, really it is just a glorified mutt.

However, in choosing a hybrid dog we were hoping for a pet that had the best qualities of two dog breeds, without some of the hereditary problems of a pure breed dog.

PS - 6 months later we are very happy to report that Buddy seems to be the ideal cross-breed, he has the gentle, loving nature of the cavalier, he is smart and he doesn't shed at all!

Choosing the right dog for us (part 1)

It took us a long time to decide we were ready for a dog. And while we were thinking it over we spent a lot of time researching what kind of dog would be best for our family.

We wanted a dog that was going to be good with children but that would happy inside most of the time and didn't need a lot of exercise. My hubby was also pretty keen on a low-shedding kind of dog, so we were attracted to the idea of a poodle-cross.

This photo is Peppy the poodle, he is Butterscotch's dad. We liked the idea of a poodle because they are so smart and the new poodle crosses (hybrid dogs) are supposed to be great with kids.

See Burke's Backyard website for his road test of various dog types:
Top Ten Dogs (both cavaliers and poodles get a mention)
Cavoodles (a dog that combines the best of two breeds ... we think so!)