Oh, bless it! Our friends is equally thick with ALL of the health problems, it’s about as smart as a hair covered potato and sounds like it’s about to die with every loud and gasping breath. Another acquaintance has one that they have to drive 8 hours to a speciality vet school every two months to have the rotting skin between its toes cut away and then re-grow before they do it all again 8 weeks later - apparently this will improve with age, but that poor bloody animal.
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So the “breeders” could call it a “Cockapoo”.
Seriously, that’s the only reason.
This is really why I hate all the crosses. Not one of them has produced a “breed” that is better than any already existing breed. But they bring out the worst “greeders” and stupid buyers.
People who buy a puppy because it’s called a “puggle” or “skipperdoodle” are almost worst than the ones who breed them.
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Here are a few more:
Silken Windhound - developed in the mid-1980s and seems to be suddenly experiencing an upsurge in popularity: They look like miniature Borzois and were developed mostly from Borzoi/Whippet/Lurcher crosses but may have also had a bit of Sheltie in there at one point. They are recognized by UKC but not by AKC. I can almost see the appeal - I love Borzois but they are big dogs and the Windhound is a much more manageable size for many people.
Silken Windsprite. This is essentially a long-haired Whippet, reportedly developed by deliberately breeding Whippets with a recessive for long hair. Rumored to also have Shetland Sheepdog in there (the original breeder apparently had Whippets and Shelties), and I believe researchers have found a gene in the Windsprite that is common in Shelties but not in Whippets. UKC recognized but not AKC. I’m not how the original breeder discovered the long hair recessive. The AKC Whippet standard calls for a coat that is “Short, close, smooth and firm in texture. Any other coat shall be a disqualification.” And this breed has been around since the 1800s and I would think a recessive for long hair would have been mostly eliminated by now.
And in the clever name department.
Snorkie - Yorkshire Terrier/Schnauzer cross. WTF on this one.
Wowzer - Welsh Terrier/Schnauzer cross. Another WTF! I have yet to see one pic of these things that looks cute. Most of them just look like really bad Schnauzers.
Wirelesh or Weewire. Welsh Terrier / Wire Fox Terriers cross. Most of the ones I have seen are referred to as Welsh Wire Fox Terriers, but some breeders are starting to use the “cute” names (I assume in an attempt to get the puppies sold faster). Another WTF. These breeds are so similar, why not just get one or the other? And from what I have seen, the puppies tend to get the Welshie coloring (black and tan/rust, with very little white).
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Have commented elsewhere that I’ve always been a 'mutt" fan as there is no one breed that calls to me. The years and the rescue world have been good to me and have some lovely dogs. When deciding to downsize from 60 lbs, I came across this guy. There was some speculation that he was a designer attempt, but was found on the road in central Fla so who knows. 27 lbs, low maintenance coat, cute, a ‘real dog’ wicked smart and has been healthy for the 9+ years I’ve owned him. IF someone were to make a designer breed like him, I might actually consider it…
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Lurchers are the original F1 cross, I believe. A whippet x terrier. Apparently excellent for poaching in the British countryside in days gone by. Never seen one IRL, Googled when I saw one on a British nostalgia TV show.
Some F1 crosses make sense like all the TB x draft lower level jumpers. But they can come out anywhere along the TB to plow horse spectrum. Also Anglo-arabs and Appendix QH and Quarabs and Aztecas and Iberian sport horses.
I’m sure there are functional dog F1 crosses as well, but not from puppy mills.
“A hair covered potato” - I LOVE IT!!! It sums up an intelligence level so brillantly, I am going to have to nick it 
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Apparently, a “lurcher” is anything crossed with either a greyhound or a whippet.
(Source was an English woman whose Dad bred lurchers for “hunting”. Usually a wolfhound/greyhound cross as both breeds were similar enough in hunting style and the greyhound shrunk the wolfhound down. She was competing a very nice BC/Greyhound in obedience and agility.)
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Ah that makes sense!
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My friend has one of these, sweet dogs, she does tunnels & freestyle obedience, so her dogs are well-trained & get lots of exercise. but I admit, I still can’t even read the name without giggling a little bc I’m sorry, but "silken windhound " just sounds like a hairy fart!
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I think Silken Windhounds are gorgeous! A few years ago I was bikeriding on a trail and passed a farm where two of these live. The owner was outside talking to someone and when the dogs came over to say hello to me, I gasped and asked if they were SWs and she was surprised that I knew. A bit like a mini Borzoi or a sighthoundish Border Collie. They leaned against my legs like a greyhound. Very feathery elegant dogs.
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I have some girlfriends who compete in high level Cani-cross (cross country running attached to a dog via a waist belt) and they breed specifically for this sport, crossing in lurcher lines and greyster lines to GSPs for speed, agility and vague attempts at steering. I hadn’t heard of greysters before, but “Greyster is a type of dog that is bred in the mid 1980s in Norway through a series of crosses between the German Shorthaired Pointer and the Greyhound for the purpose of sled-pulling, skijoring, pulka races and other such sled racing” - and the few I’ve met are FAST.
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What else is “greyster” mixed with?
I can’t imagine why you would mix a greyhound into a sport that involves a human running. There is no way to keep up with that speed on two legs.
My boss has 2 greyhounds and she has a poster in her office that I read yesterday - a greyhound can get up to 45 mph in 6 strides. A GSP is much faster than a human without any crossing necessary.
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He looks like he has Border Collie in him, and “wicked smart” certainly applies to BCs. He also looks to have a longish body - maybe he has some Dachshund or Basset Hound in there. I can’t see his ears very clearly - are they long drop ears or shorter? Love that plume tail!
Re: lurchers - way back in the early to mid 80s, a couple of farms in this area kept lurchers for coyote control. These were big farms with lots of acreage in very rural areas - they grew hay, kept cattle, and also catered to the eventing and foxhunting crowds. All these lurchers were Irish Wolfhound crosses with various other breeds - I was told one was a Wolfhound/Airedale cross and another one was a Wolfhound/German Shepherd cross. Not sure of the others, but they had apparently come from the same original Wolfhound/cross breeder (the scion of a very wealthy old Georgia family with huge landholdings in several parts of the state).
The dogs were reportedly h*** on coyotes, and the ones at one farm ran with the foxhounds during hunts. I was told they got so good at “foxing” on their own time, they drove out all the foxes for many miles around and the hunts eventually had to resort to drag hunts (isn’t that what they are called?).
That variability represents the challenge with F1 crosses. Everyone wants the heavy boned TB with a little less energy while the market for an 1800lb fire breathing dragon remains largely untapped … But as you say, you can get anything along the spectrum, and people do not want most of the types that you can get. So if breeding an F1 is your plan, you should have a plan for the offspring that don’t come out according to plan.
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He is definitely a heavy dose of dachsie- very obvious in the face and the ears are long-haired dachsie ears. He is a towering 14 inches at the withers. Many people agree on the border collie part and I will say that though he is not neurotic about it, he does have a job. That chair is is guard post and even when napping he misses nothing that comes down the street. In the large backyard, always on the move making sure there are no uninvited guests
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They cross greysters into GSPs for stability and speed, the girls absolutely fly behind their dogs (it helps that they weigh about as much as one of my thighs). Check out Cani-cross, it’s big in Europe, two of my girlfriends travel throughout Europe competing in it.
I don’t really have an issue with crossbreds like the greyster or eurohound when they’re being produced by someone responsible who is attempting to produce purpose bred pups for themselves. However, you start a trend and the wrong, ie unprepared owners get a hold of them and it’s a disaster.
Greysters were initially bred for pulka and skijoring, adding some size for pulling. Totally unnecessary for canicross. Could be nice for bike-joring.
And I say that as someone who regularly attends skijoring events and races. GSPs are still the most popular. Results typically come down to the ability of the human at the higher levels.
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I have a lurcher. I’d read about lurchers in books and seen some on UK TV programs, but had never met one.
Our Rose was a rescue brought up from Georgia to Vermont so we don’t know her backstory. She appears to be a Whippet x Catahoula based on physical and behavioral characteristics. (We adopted her after losing both our two previous dogs within 6 weeks of each other and found ourselves without a dog in the house for the first time since we graduated from college more than 30 years ago.)
She’s a cool dog. Super intelligent and very athletic.
She’d been at the shelter for more than 6 months when we got her. This is Rose a few days after she came to us.
She has some merle markings and a partial blue eye
For a dog born in the south, she enjoys our Vermont winters. She has a fleece lined coat for the really cold days (below 20F). She dislikes rain, but enjoys snow!
She’s a bossy female (spayed) so finding a suitable companion dog took us a year. We finally ended up with a male Labrador pup. They bonded quickly and remain well matched companions several years later.
I’d heard of lurchers via books, but had never encountered one before we saw Rose at the shelter. The VT shelter had her down as a Greyhound cross, but she is too small (47 lbs) compared to the few Greyhound crosses I met in my vet tech job. Whippet crossed with something a bit larger makes much more sense for her size. The Catahoula seems most likely based on options that could have provided the merle coloring and some of her behaviors that are similar to the few Catahoulas and crosses that I’ve encountered.
She would be a very challenging dog for less experienced dog owners. We adore her.
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That makes sense.
I hate running with my dogs because they are way too fast, and not even bred for speed. And I guess I’m way too old to think about letting my dogs pull me while running. That’s one squirrel away from a ruptured ACL.
I can see how handling skill could make a big difference in the outcome.
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