Designer dogs are the latest pet craze

WHAT do you get when you cross a pug with a beagle, a shihtzu with a Yorkshire terrier, or a maltese with a poodle?

The answer is Britain’s latest pet craze – as “puggles”, “shorkies” and “maltipoos” have seen the number of designer dogs rise almost eightfold in a decade.

Last year, the most popular were the “cockapoo”, a cross between a cocker spaniel and poodle, and the “labradoodle”, a mixture of Labrador and poodle, according to research.

White Cross Vets, which has 16 practices, said that in 2006, it had just 115 designer cross-breeds registered with it. But by 2016, this had risen to 886.

Their popularity has overtaken that of traditionally larger, pedigree dogs such as German Shepherds, Rottweilers and boxers, whose numbers are down in recent years.

Andrew Miller of White Cross Vets said: “There has been an explosion in poodles and cavalier King Charles spaniels being crossed with virtually everything. We now have more cavachons, cavajacks, cavapoos and pugaliers registered with us than cavalier King Charles spaniels, and more cockerpoos than cocker spaniels, as well as many more poodle crosses than pure-bred poodles.”

Cross-bred dogs are often family-friendly, having inherited some of the best personality traits from their breeding pairs. They are also hypo-allergenic, which means people with allergies can own them.

Celebrity owners of designer dogs include Jennifer Aniston, who owns a labradoodle, Justin Bieber, who owns a maltipoo, and Sylvester Stallone, who has a puggle.

‘WE NOW HAVE MORE CAVACHONS, CAVAJACKS, CAVAPOOS AND PUGALIERS’