Do you remember the days when a dog was just a dog, you didn’t care what breed it was, in fact, the only breeds we knew where dulux, andrex and lassie. Now dogs are almost a status symbol. Over the last few years we’ve seen a multitude of stars with their new four-legged designer friends. The Pekinese, the French bulldog or the handbags favourite, the Chihuahua. But as with all great trends times have moved on, it’s not enough to own a shar-pei, now it has to be cleverly mixed to create something as trendy as a shar-perd, a shar-pei- german shepard hybrid.
So much so in fact, while sitting on the train not so long ago, I overheard a young girl, no more than 7 or 8, asking her mum if she could get a jug for her birthday, what a strange request I thought, upon further eaves-dropping I discovered it was in fact a jack-russel-pug cross. No longer is the common mongrel adequate.
But for once, celebrities slavery to fashion may actually be a good thing. It has long been recognised that pure breeds come with their own set of inter-breeding problems, for example, spaniels are prone to hip dysplasia, which can cause malformation of the hips joints. Cross-contaminating their DNA could eliminate a lot of these issues.
So as an animal lover I feel I should do my bit. I’m off to get myself a bull-dog/shihtzu cross, and shall call it billy.
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About the author : The above article was written by Clare Nixon.