I have recently been looking in to purchasing a new dog. It seems I have to pick between dogs that have been bred to herd livestock, hunt rats, fight other animals, or accompany Asian royalty. I have no interest in it doing any of these things. I just want one to hang around my pad and pretend to be glad to see me. It seems that the reasons the dogs were bred make them less than ideal pets. The energy terriers need to hunt rats make them overly yappy, the strength needed for guard dogs makes them ovely dangerous, the weird faces needed to please asian royalty makes them susceptible to disease. Are there any new breeds being developed for today’s lazy pet owners? I know poodle are being crossbred with some other breeds for allergy reasons, but what about ones being bred for modern lifestyles?
It’s called a mutt.
I’ve wondered about this myself. Since the most common job for dogs nowadays is “companion”, you’d think there’d be some bred for that job.
You ever heard of a dog? Called a Labrador retriever?
A lot of the popular breeds like labs and golden retrievers are popular because they are good with kids and families. It’s not hard to find a dog that is a good companion. Also many mutts are good to hang out at home too.
That’s what the toy dogs are - companion dogs.
Yes.
My neighbor is a professional dog trainer and highly involved in Agility.
He and a buddy are cross breeding pure breds to create THE ULTIMATE AGILITY DOG EVAR.
The first genus was a Border Collie - Jack Russell Mix. Said it did it’s job perfectly on the course, but it inheritied the HARD WIREDNESS TO GO-GO-GO ALL THE TIME from both breeds. So, that round ended and dogs were rehomed ( or still with them.)
Second attempt is a mix of a Staffordshire Terrier ( very lovable, obedient dogs) with a Jack Russell ( High ENERGY GO GO GO NOW NOW ALL THE FARKING TIME.) They have three generations of this particular one and it is really awesome. Smaller than a STaffy and slightly bigger than an Jack. Short hair. You can turn off the WORK mode for a family pet that is not always in your FACE ALL THE TIME.
This particular mix is VERY attractive to me for the size/health and overall personality traits.
They decided to take a Whippet ( speed) and breed it too a Staffy ( or maybe a Jack, I think a Staffy.) Looks like the Jack-Staffy mix, but when the other are going at near full speed this dog is in second gear. When it turns on the speed it leaves the others in the dust with little effort. It’s pretty awesome to behold.
I strongly suspect there are other like minded people out there doing similar things.
I just wish someone would make a mini Labrador. I loved my LAB SO MUCH, but 100 pounds of her ( and her hair) was a bit much. 50 pounds would be good. 30 even better. (but I don’t want it to be twitchy like al bred-down dogs seem to get.)
There’s a good question…why have only some breeds been “mini-ed”? There seems to be a real desire for smaller versions of breeds like labs or goldens, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of any such thing as a “mini-lab”.
I think I’ve heard of them…weren’t they originally bred to fight aliens? Or was that something else?
(They were bred as hunting dogs…the OP seems to want a dog specifically bred as a house dog. I think there are several toy breeds that would suit, though I don’t know if anyone has ever bred a dog solely as a companion…I think most toy breeds are simply working or show dogs who have been bred down in size)
-XT
My dog is a lab mix with coonhound and she is about 65 lbs.
Some “oodles” are serious attempts at new breeds. Some breeders are selecting for certain traits, like non-shedding, but efforts aren’t fully coordinated yet. There’s still a lot of people breeding labs with standard poodles, and not third or fourth generation non-shedding labradoodles with other labradoodles. There’s more coordination among breeders of the Shiloh Shepherd, a fairly recent new breed.
There’s a lot more effort in re-establishing almost extinct breeds. In the recent past, the Shar-Pei and Portuguese Water Dog were brought back from the brink. Now, there’s renewed interest in the Lagotto Romanaglo, Spanish Water Dog, and Barbet, three extremely rare breeds related to the Portuguese Water Dog.
When I lived in Denver, where the city’s yuppies were very particular about their dogs, many Lab owners would go out of their way to make sure others knew that theirs was a “Field Lab” or “Show Lab”. The Field Labs were noticeably smaller than the Show Labs.
Pugs are pretty lazy companion type dogs, no?
So let’s see.
The companion dog for the 21st century should be:
30-40 pounds. Not a toy, but small enough that you can pick it up.
Labrador-style temperament.
Non-shedding coat.
Not mouthy or chewy.
Absolutely non-aggressive to humans, and low dominance.
Low aggressiveness to other dogs
Low prey drive–won’t eat your cats, or even your gerbil.
Favorite activity? Hanging out. Second favorite? Kicking back. But if you wanna go for a walk, hey, that’s cool too.
There seems to be a resurgence of interest in heritage “cur” breeds, too, like the Catahoula Leopard Dog (ostensibly Captain’s one of them) and the Carolina Dog.
Toy breeds aren’t bred for companionship; they’re bred to fit into a purse. They’re living ornaments, not pets.
You’d also want to select for longevity, though that would probably come along with small-medium size and low activity level. And “non-shedding” and “hypoallergenic” aren’t the same thing, either, and ideally you’d want both.
Have you known any of them? They’re just like regular dogs only smaller. If given the proper training like any other dog, they can be delightful companions.
The Maltese is almost what you want, here. They’re a toy breed (my parents’ dogs weighed between 3 and 9 pounds), they had a hair coat (no undercoat), and were absolutely not aggressive, except in seeking attention from humans. The non-shedding hair coat grows constantly, and needs to be clipped regularly. This can be done at home or at a groomer’s place. They do need to be brushed or combed on a regular basis (a couple of times a week is what my parents did) and they love the attention. Generally, they aren’t yappy, like some toys. They are absolute champions at hanging out and kicking back and watching TV on the sofa with their human. If the human takes a nap on the sofa, fine, the dogs are cool with that, they’ll take a snooze too. And they do enjoy their walkies. My parents would let the dogs out into their fenced yard for exercise, as well as to go potty, and the dogs would run around for a while each day.
Maltese are an ancient breed, and they’ve always been bred to be companions. They’re very sweet, lovable dogs. They have actual noses and snouts, they are not flat-faced. They’re generally very smart, and love to learn tricks.
Actually, they were bred to fit into a sleeve. But they aren’t just ornaments, they were bred to be companions/child substitutes, too. Some toys are absolutely delightful, very happy little dogs who only want to be with their humans.
And some humans just shouldn’t be allowed to have any sort of dog at all.
Ooh, I was just thinking this! My neighbors had a Maltese puppy whom I puppy-sat for a lot when I was in high school and she was a little dreamboat. She was good at just hanging out when you wanted to read/play computer…but she was playful. And tried very hard to listen/figure out what you wanted. Such a sweetie.