Dog hybrids and crossbreeds

Crossbreed dogs or designer dogs are dogs which have been intentionally bred from two or more recognized dog breeds and not from dogs with no purebred ancestors, but have not been artificially bred to each other enough to breed true and be recognized as a breed in their own right.

The Encyclopædia Britannica traces the term "designer dog" to the late 20th century, when breeders began to cross purebred poodles with other purebred breeds in order to obtain a dog with the poodles' hypoallergenic coat, along with various desirable characteristics from other breeds.

The primary identifying mark of a crossbred "designer dog' is that the resulting puppies are called by a portmanteau word made up of syllables (or sounds) from the breed names of the two purebred parents, such as Schnoodle (Schnauzer and poodle cross). or Shepsky (German Shepherd/Siberian Husky cross). Other purebred breeds are being crossed to provide designer dogs described with an endless range of created labels, such as the Puggle (Pug and Beagle cross). There are even complex crosses (with multiple breeds in recent ancestry) being labeled in this manner, such as German Chusky (German Shepherd Dog, Husky, Chow Chow).

Like children in a family, a percentage of designer dogs with the same breed ancestry will look similar to each other, even though crossbreeding does not result in as uniform a phenotype as the breeding of purebreds. Often even pups in the same litter will look quite different.

Another defining characteristic of designer dogs is that they are usually bred as companions and pets. Working and hunting dogs deliberately crossbred for a particular working purpose are not generally given portmanteau names; they are most often referred to by a type (not breed) name, such as Eurohounds (racing sled dogs) or Lurchers (hunting dogs). These dogs could be considered only as cross breeds, not as designer animals, since appearance is not the main reason for them to be bred. An exception to this is the Labradoodle, which although having a Portmanteau name, is often used as a Guide or Assistance dog as well as being popular family dogs.

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Wikipedia