I’d kill for a cockapoo or two ...but I don’t approve of Franken-pooches
INSTAgrAm is to blame for many modern ills, the latest being the increasing demand for photogenic designer dogs, such as labradoodles, cockapoos, puggles (pictured), chiranians and other genetically engineered novelty pups who look good in photographs. Say cheese, rover! Personally, I would kill for a labradoodle and wouldn’t be sniffy about a cockapoo or two either. They are so adorable.
A schnoodle with a side order of puggle? Yes, please. Do they come with French fries? Oh, I don’t care, I’ll take them anyway.
Yet the ferocious demand for canine cuteness has encouraged unscrupulous breeders to create even more and more outlandish Franken-dogs.
With desirable pups fetching about £900 each, there is a scrabble to mate them into the fluffy acme of ultimate doggy beauty, with little or no consideration for the health and life-prospects of the animals themselves.
They become highly strung, gorgeous but fragile — the Barbies of the canine world.
Some of the tiny teacup ones are like button- eyed toys; sweet but not fit for a world beyond the hearth rug, the handbag and the back door.
A friend has a rather nervous mal- shi (a cross between a maltese and a Shih Tzu) which looks lovely, but when you hold him in your hand, he trembles like a little jelly. He’s the kind of dog who has been bred for the beauty catwalk and nothing else; just another ball of fluff to play a role in another middle- aged woman’s baby-substitute fantasy. So typical of us selfish humans, mucking it up for other species. I’m still desperate for a doggy of my own, but I don’t approve. And to be honest, it’s a struggle for me to keep a supermarket herb pot on the windowsill alive for more than a week. What? You want water? So I really don’t fancy rover’s longterm chances.