Daily Mail

I’d kill for a cockapoo or two ...but I don’t approve of Franken-pooches

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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.

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more Picture: ALAMY

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