Last Updated on February 21, 2014 : :

Health – are they more healthy than a pedigree?

A reputable Spinone breeder will have a great deal of knowledge and experience of the dogs that are in their pedigrees.  They will know what goes with what, they will know the health issues in their lines and are breeding to improve on the previous generation.  They will test their breeding dogs for known health issues and care about the welfare of both parents and puppies for the whole of their lives.

With a cross breed puppy you are stepping into the unknown.  The breeder cannot know what health issues may emerge because they are mixing two breeds.  They have no history or experience on which to base this aspect of breeding.  Generally cross breeds are first generation, that means that each parent is a purebred dog but are a different breed. So you are always taking a chance with this type of alliance, there is no history to be able to develop any patterns or consistency.

You are very unlikely to find a cross breed with cross breed parents or grandparents.  If you did you would be wise to steer well clear as the gene pool would be tiny and therefore any puppies would be very closely interbred.

You may have read that pedigree dogs purely bred for showing have developed unhealthy features as a result; this is simply not true and the media like to use extreme examples to make good headlines to sell their publications.