Can these dogs mate ?

[1point618]

I have a friend who is in the dark as to whether or not it is possilbe to get a mix of a Malamute and Irish Wolfhound. She has a way to get at male and female of both, and is wondering what the perfect equation is to get a dog with the "size and height of the Wolfhound, with more of the look of the Malamute." I know absolutely nothing about dogs and how to breed them, so if anyone else has any insightful ideas, that would be great.

Adrian

PS If there is another dog besides a Wolfhound that would be good to breed the Malamute with to get a large, Malamutish dog, that would work also.

[inkleberry]

I've always wondered myself about such issues- can a male chihuahua and a female great dane have offspring? What if artifically inseminated to avoid logistical problems?

[1point618]

I've always wondered that myself too... interesting side thread, but lets please not get too off course.

[Hoodoo Ulove]

Does your friend want such a dog just because it would look cool? This is not a good reason to breed dogs. Please remind her of the thousands of dogs euthanized every week in shelters.

[CrazyCatLady]

Yes, they can breed. Yes, chihuahuas and Great Danes can breed, especially if you get the chi a stepstool.

No, I will not give advice to someone who doesn't even know that mixed-breed dogs are possible advice on how to breed her dog. That's just a disaster waiting to happen.

[vetbridge]

No, I will not give advice to someone who doesn't even know that mixed-breed dogs are possible advice on how to breed her dog. That's just a disaster waiting to happen.

Ditto. Good call.

[bouv]

All domestic dogs are the same species, Canis Familiaris, so yes, they can,but it is not advisabel that just because they can, thet they should. It's pretty irresponsible to just breed dogs if you have never done it before and are unsure of the outcome. So she wants something with "size and height of the Wolfhound, with more of the look of the Malamute." Well, there's no guarentee that's what she will get. In fact, odds are she won't get anything like that. it takes generations of very careful and selective breeding by experienced professionals to achive proper mixes.

[Sequent]

Just an example of how this can be a very bad idea even within the same breed, if you don't know what you're doing: misguided Australian Sheperd breeders routinely try to cross "merles" (the ones with the really pretty patchwork coats) with one another in order to produce more merles (which fetch more $$ than the bi- or tri-color aussies). Recessive genes + recessive genes = bad idea. Many of the puppies of such unions are blind, deaf, both, or worse, and often completely white, which has earned them the nickname "lethal whites," because they are often put to death early on. My dog, Esther, is one such aussie, who I was lucky enough to be able to rescue. She's deaf, but she doesn't know anything's wrong with her. As happy as I am to have her, it continues to be a problem among certain breeders. You want a mixed breed? Rescue a mutt! Leave the mixing to nature.

[1point618]

Good advice, which is why I posted here first. Thanks mucho.

[pinkfreud]

Regarding the Chihuahua/Great Dane question, it is not only possible, it has been done. I am a volunteer with an animal rescue organization, and once at a citywide dog adoption fair I met a Chihuahua/Great Dane mix. He looked much more like a Great Dane than like a Chihuahua, but his voice was a bit yappy and Chihuahua-ish, compared to the voice of a fullblooded Great Dane.

So how did a tiny male Chihuahua manage to inseminate a huge female Great Dane?

My theory is that someone must have put him up to it. :D

[Loopydude]

Yes, they can breed. Yes, chihuahuas and Great Danes can breed, especially if you get the chi a stepstool.

No, I will not give advice to someone who doesn't even know that mixed-breed dogs are possible advice on how to breed her dog. That's just a disaster waiting to happen.

Yep. And I'd avise the OP that if she starts talking about "Toy Poodles", hide all the batteries in your friend's house.

[Smeghead]

OTOH, if you try to breed a male Great Dane to a female Chihuahua, she'll probably die. When I was a kid, we had a beagle/Chihuahua mix that nearly died having puppies fathered by a collie.

[Loopydude]

That's why God created C-sections, man.

[blackhobyah]

1. The world is full of mutts, like the puppies of this cross would be, and many of those mutts end up dead in pounds because nobody wanted them.

Malamutes and Huskies, in Australia at least, turn up in pounds ALL the time, because people buy cute, fluffy puppies and aren't ready for the responsibility of a big, independent dog. I could pretty much guarantee that some puppies out of this kind litter would end up in the pound sooner or later.

It's not as if there aren't enough pound puppies out there already, the product of puppy mills and backyard breeders.

2. There's a lot more to breeding dogs responsibly than just putting a male and a female together. There are any number of inherited diseases which good breeders spend years trying to breed out ... just because you're putting two different types of dog together doesn't mean you're not going to get inherited diseases.

Hip Dysplasia is one which comes to mind, it's certainly a problem in Wolfhounds, but there are others.

3. Malamutes and IWs are very different types of dog in terms of temperament ... bred for different purposes out of different dog types. This kind of breeding could result in something very big with a fairly unpleasant temperament. Is your friend prepared to handle big dogs with the independent temperament of Mals and the prey drive and "yeah, yeah, I'll recall sometime in the next century" of a sight hound?

[Fear Itself]

She has a way to get at male and female of both, and is wondering what the perfect equation is to get a dog with the "size and height of the Wolfhound, with more of the look of the Malamute." I don't understand the 'equation' part; what other combination is there besides one Malamute and one Wolfhound? There is an equal likelyhood of getting a mutt with the size and height of a Malamute, and the look of a Wolfhound.

[vetbridge]

That's why God created C-sections, man.

Average price for a C-section on a 20 pound dog at my practice is $1200.00. Because I am in a relatively economically depressed area, this means that dystocia often results in euthanasia. Just saying.

[Gymnopithys]

Regarding the Chihuahua/Great Dane question, it is not only possible, it has been done. I am a volunteer with an animal rescue organization, and once at a citywide dog adoption fair I met a Chihuahua/Great Dane mix. He looked much more like a Great Dane than like a Chihuahua, but his voice was a bit yappy and Chihuahua-ish, compared to the voice of a fullblooded Great Dane.

So how did a tiny male Chihuahua manage to inseminate a huge female Great Dane?

My theory is that someone must have put him up to it. :D

Wouldn't there be a delivery problem if a female Chihuahua is inseminated with Great Dane semen ?

[irishgirl]

Why doesn't she just get another big breed of dog.
Newfoundlands, Pyreneans, St Bernards, Bernese, something like that.

That's got the size and height bit sorted, and those dogs have nice temperaments and are fluffy like Huskies (but aren't necessarily the brightest bulbs in the box-our Pyrenean used to jump through windows).

She needs to think very carefully about the type of dog she want, the life expectancy of the various breeds, the amount of space and time she can give the animal, and how much she is willing to pay on food and vet bills. Then she needs to go and find a breed that suits, rather than create one herself.

My mother's friends ended up with a litter of Yorkshire Terrier/English Setter pups shortly after they moved in together (hello? neuter your animals!) which she has described as "an abomination before nature". From what I gather, there is a good reason that particular crossing has never been popular. Think small, ugly dishmops with the quick temper and yappyness of terriers and the boundless energy of setters.

[Loopydude]

Average price for a C-section on a 20 pound dog at my practice is $1200.00. Because I am in a relatively economically depressed area, this means that dystocia often results in euthanasia. Just saying.

That's why God created credit, man.

[Chronos]

Of course, sometimes peculiar crossings work out well. My mom's dog is, as near as we can figure, a cross between a German shepherd and a beagle (pound puppy, and stray before that, so we don't exactly have pedigree charts), and he's a great dog: Smart, well-behaved, and very good-looking. Of course, it's impossible to tell how much of his good characteristics are due to genetics, or if those traits would be consistent in other crossings of whatever-he-is. And he has a broad spectrum of food allergies to every single brand of commercial dog food, too.

The point being, that dog crossings are almost impossible to predict. Sometimes you get good results, sometimes you get bad, and sometimes you get a mix of them in the same dog.

[1point618]

Why doesn't she just get another big breed of dog.
Newfoundlands, Pyreneans, St Bernards, Bernese, something like that.

That is pretty much what she is planning on.

My friend actually works at a pound and so sees bad mixes and such all the time, and has some experience in breeding, and this wish of hers for a Malahound was more theoretical; I did a poor job representing it in my post. The question was more "Could this ever come out good?" rather than "I'm gonna do it, how should I?". Thanks for the advice though, I learned much about dog breeding from this, but also, you don't always have to act like an ass just because someone knows less than you do (as a few people in the first few posts did). Everyone here is here to learn, not get bitched at.

[Eliahna]

I Googled various combinations of "Malamute" and "Wolfhound" and found few matches. Under Google Groups in rec.pets.dogs.breeds I found this thread (http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.pets.dogs.breeds/browse_thread/thread/2fe552ca593b11bd/c8b3a6580028fb47?q=%22wolfhound+malamute%22&rnum=1#c8b3a6580028fb47) discussing an attack by a rumoured Wolfhound/Malamute cross in which Wolfhound breeder Alan Cowen states that This is the reason that Wolfhound owners and breeders are so protective of their breed and do whatever they can to retain and maintain their stable
temperament. Crossing a wolfhound with any other dog known to have a less
stable temperament is totally irresponsible.

Perhaps a more specialised board/group such as the newsgroup quoted above could provide a more in-depth summary of the pros/cons of crossing the breeds?

[Abbie Carmichael]

On a semi-related topic:

Say we have a boy Irish Wolfhound and, oh, a girl toy poodle.

Natural conception would probably really difficult, of course, so let's say we do artificial insemination.

Wouldn't the pregnancy kill the mother? Irish Wolfhounds are huge, I imagine even a half-breed would be too big in the womb for Mom to handle.

[duffer]

No, I will not give advice to someone who doesn't even know that mixed-breed dogs are possible advice on how to breed her dog. That's just a disaster waiting to happen.

A-freaking-men. I won't give advice on breeding Pugs if I even suspect the person wants to do it for profit only. Want to breed a litter to pass some quality traits, only to sell them? Fine. As long as there aren't any genetic flaws, you're breeding a quality set to continue the Pug health and disposition. The health problems still exist, but eventually the breed gets healthier with responsible breeding. My youngest has excessive flesh in the nose-folds which could be passed on. She's fixed.

Want to breed them so you can make the $300-$700 (depending on where you live) per pup just to make some money? Nope, see ya later. Breeding is done for the breed, not the wallet. (I've owned Pugs for over 20 years now)

And cross-breeding? If you're doing it for shits and giggles, you're going to do it. Some breeds are the result of cross-breeding, but they (AKC and UKC accepted) were done with an interest in the breeds selected. Not just a thought of "Hey, let's get these two to fuck and see what we get!"

[duffer]

On a semi-related topic:

Say we have a boy Irish Wolfhound and, oh, a girl toy poodle.

Natural conception would probably really difficult, of course, so let's say we do artificial insemination.

Wouldn't the pregnancy kill the mother? Irish Wolfhounds are huge, I imagine even a half-breed would be too big in the womb for Mom to handle.


Reverse the sex and that's how it starts. A poodle may never want to leave with all the room.

Though why anyone would want a Poodle line to propegate (sp?) to another breed is beyond me. :dubious: ;)

[StarvingButStrong]

Though why anyone would want a Poodle line to propegate (sp?) to another breed is beyond me. :dubious: ;)


Actually, there are a lot of very popular poodle crosses, many with cutesy names likes cockapoos (cocker spaniel) and schnoodles (schnauzer.) Apparently the idea is to get from the poodle side the (relatively) non-shedding coat and its (relatively) high intelligence/trainability with something of the looks and personality of the other side.