One Day at a Time

We all know my position on designer dogs...mixed-breeds with fancy names and high prices. Maybe shelters are taking the wrong approach. Instead of saying they have lab-mixes who need good homes, they should go out and market Labraweilers or Rottradors. How about German Sheprador Retrievers? Lab- and -(r)ador seem to go with a lot of different names.

For the smaller set, you could have the Puget Hound or the Jack Russell Cock-a-poo. Or the Pootzu? Dogs would fly out of shelters if the staff could figure out the right combination to advertise the dogs.

Okay, so why am I ranting right now? I'm reading Susan Conant's Gaits of Heaven: A Dog Lover's Mystery and was laughing at what I thought was her over-the-top deslgner dog breed called a "Golden Aussie Huskapoo." Surely designer dogs haven't gone that far yet, have they?

Until I saw today's Daily Puppy: a Standard English Goldendoodle. Hence the title of this post: NO, NO, NO, NO! I assume the "standard" goes with the "oodle", and "golden" is fairly obvious. But "English?" There is no "English Poodle" or "English Golden Retriever" that I know of. (Yes, the puppy is cute, adorable, and I'm sure very sweet, and, of course, he must be smart. But he's still an over-priced mixed breed.)

A mutt with any other name is just as sweet. Adopt a shelter dog if you absolutely must have a mixed breed.