Does anyone have a Pointador?

Teaandacrunchie

Our beloved lab died at the end of Jan and we are heartbroken. We'd like to get a new pup and are considering a few different breeds. Pointador has come up but we can't seem to find many breeders in the UK and obviously want to get a puppy from a responsible caring owner.
Any advice on the breed or recommendations very welcome. We are South West England but more than prepared to travel for the right puppy.

unforeseen

Why this urge to concatenate two breed names. It's a cross breed being produced by uncontrolled breeders to cash in on a fad. Give it a 'name' and you add a few hundred pound premium on top of the £30 you would get for a cross-breed/mongrel.

I suppose i should start calling mine a Rhodesian Boxer to follow the fad. In reality she is a cross breed.

bugslet

Old joke of mine, if Ruby my mini Schnauzer met a Scottie, could they have Schnotties?:D

I like Pointers, I like labradors, I don't see the need to mix or create new breeds especially when so many breeds are in danger of dying out because not enough people are interested in them.

Fosterdog

You almost certainly won't find a reputable breeder as it is a mongrel and not an actual breed. Reputable breeders breed for one of two things.

1) Conformity to a breed standard, which cross breeds/mongrels don't have. They should take into account all health issues and temperament as well as physical appearance of both parents in an effort to further the breed.

2) Working ability or suitability to a certain role such as a gundog, sheepdog, seeing eye dog. These breeders will be more likely to breed cross breeds in an effort to obtain the perfect working dog but they are unlikely to breed them as designer breeds and give them silly names. They are also just as likely to breed pure breeds but not to the same show standard as the first type of breeder, they will breed to a working standard as most show types are no longer suitable for the work they were originally bred to do. They would also tend to be the sort of dogs that are not always suitable for family life as they are bred from working dogs to be working dogs and your average family cannot provide what they need.

Anyone else selling crosses is not a reputable breeder, they were either careless and allowed an "accidental" litter or they have deliberately bred a mongrel to sell as a designer breed with no motive other than lining their own pockets.

A reputable breeder of any breed will know the breed inside out, they will health test (not just health check which is a quick 5-10 min once over by a vet or nurse) they will know their lines, they will be honest about any potential health or behavioural issues, they will be very stringent with who they allow to have one of their pups and will likely want to stay in contact for the life of the dog. They also rarely have pups available and advertised anywhere, dogs are bred infrequently and there will be a waiting list for the pups sometimes lasting over a year. The slim chance you would have of a pup without waiting is if they have a pet quality only pup when their waiting list is all for show or breeding quality or if say they had a litter of all/mostly males when their waiting list is all for females (or the other way around).

unforeseen

bugslet wrote: »

Old joke of mine, if Ruby my mini Schnauzer met a Scottie, could they have Schnotties?:D

I like Pointers, I like labradors, I don't see the need to mix or create new breeds especially when so many breeds are in danger of dying out because not enough people are interested in them.

And so many 'proper' breeds have been inbred so much that the breed as a whole has congenital medical problems.

peachyprice

Teaandacrunchie wrote: »

Pointador has come up but we can't seem to find many breeders in the UK.

That's because it's not a breed.

Fosterdog

unforeseen wrote: »

And so many 'proper' breeds have been inbred so much that the breed as a whole has congenital medical problems.

It's not necessarily "inbreeding" or "line breeding" that has caused congenital problems, it has again been done by unreputable breeders. Reputable breeders may still use line breeding but they do it with care and attention to the genetics, line breeding can also solidify the good genes, not just the bad ones and a good breeder wouldn't use line breeding for every generation but it can be a good thing when done properly.

The same people who have carelessly bred in the medical conditions are the same unreputable breeders who have bred in physical defects such as pugs with faces so squashed they can't breath properly, bulldogs that cannot give birth without a c-section.

The reputable ones may have line bred but for the good qualities and breeding away from such defects. In the same way that breeding father to daughter both carrying a defective gene can increase the chances of that gene carrying to the next generation, breeding uncle to niece that both have good genes is more likely to solidify those good genes. It's not only the bad that can pass on through line breeding but the good too and a reputable breeder knows the difference and uses it to better a breed. They also do usually try to avoid extremely close links such as sibling breeding or parent to pup but instead go for maybe grandparent to pup or cousins or aunts to nephews etc. (just using human terms to make it easier to explain).

The hard part is finding the good breeders because there are far more bad breeders out there and some of them can be very convincing, which is why I always choose to rescue instead, I've never actually had a dog from a breeder partly because I love rescuing and partly because it is so difficult to find the good breeders. Saying that there is one breed, still relatively new in this country, that I would consider getting from a breeder and have actually been in contact with a breeder for almost ten years after meeting them by chance, they have one litter roughly every two years and if I went on the waiting list now it would be four to six years until I got a pup depending on litter sizes or luck getting pet quality pup as that is what I would want.

bugslet

unforeseen wrote: »

And so many 'proper' breeds have been inbred so much that the breed as a whole has congenital medical problems.

Very true. I avoid long dogs, dogs with flat faces, love GSDss, but they are out as well.

People have crosses, I get that, all breeds were a cross at some point, but a 'designer' cross is not going to have a good breeder for all the reasons Fosterdog pointed ( no pun intended) out. Few months back, I met a gorgeous Cardigan Corgi pup,IIRC less than a hundred were registered and I just wonder why people don't look at all the existing breeds that are vulnerable.:(

krlyr

bugslet wrote: »

Old joke of mine, if Ruby my mini Schnauzer met a Scottie, could they have Schnotties?:D

I like Pointers, I like labradors, I don't see the need to mix or create new breeds especially when so many breeds are in danger of dying out because not enough people are interested in them.

I sometimes joke that my Rottie x GSD is a Rotten Shepherd. Though her farts after eating lamb...it's quite fitting then!

As others have said, these Oodles and Poos and This-and-that-adors etc. are all essentially crossbreeds. You might find some responsible breeders of crosses, but you will find a large number of people latching on to their popularity and making a quick buck. This is my reply on a similar post a few weeks back, if it helps:

krlyr wrote: »

I would just say proceed with extreme caution. I am sure there are some responsible breeders of crossbreeds, but at the end of the day, you need to consider what the benefit of breeding a cross is.

A "good" breeder generally finds a great example of the breed, so one with great temperament, health, build (e.g. not too dainty in the face, if it's not meant to be a dainty breed), etc. and then finds the best stud they can to compliment all those features. To purposely take a good example of a breed, and then breed it with a completely different breed, then brings up the question of how you identify what features you want to pass on and why.

You'll probably be best off finding a breeder who breeds for "purpose" - these crossbreeds can't be shown in the same way as purebreeds, but it may be that a particular cross makes a brilliant agility dog, it may be they breed a cross to be put forward as service dogs, or working gun dogs, etc.

What you definiately want to avoid is anyone who breeds them simply because these "designer crosses" are so popular these days. A high price tag is something to be wary of - these crossbreeds should certainly not be worth more just because they're trendy, a good breeder will put a pricetag on that is justified by the health tests, stud costs, etc.

A good breeder will also be happy to be grilled with lots of questions - infact, they'll love the fact you're asking those questions. They should be happy to prove the health test results they claim, they should be able to show you mum (dad might be a stud elsewhere), and shouldn't seem like they've got anything to hide.

Be wary because some iffy breeders have cottoned on though - some will bring a random female to their house to pose as mum (real mum may be in poor condition from being overbred, or pups may have been removed from her too early - or they may just be a puppyfarm taking in pups and selling them in a staged home environment), some will say all the right things without necessarily doing them.

I would normally suggest finding breeders through recommendations, shows like Crufts/Discover Dogs etc. but I'm not really too sure of the best way to find a responsible breeder of crossbreeds. Is there any particular reason you wouldn't consider a Min Pin or a Chihuahua purebred? Not a pedigree snob (got a crossbreed myself) but may be easier to locate a good breeder. And it's more about the breeding and raising of pups that make them wonderful, rather than the cross itself.

http://www.apbc.org.uk/articles/good_breeder

We couldn't bring ourselves to adopt another GSD when we lost our girl at a young age, so we ended up getting a GSD x Rottie instead - some similar traits but different enough that it wasn't a big reminder of our girl. We found her needing a home at 9 months old though, so no supporting unscrupulous breeders. How about looking at rescues for some Lab crosses?

unforeseen

Not forgetting that for some breeds the inbred defects are now an expected 'feature' for a dog to do well at shows thanks to the Kennel Club, Crufts and their judges.

Silvertabby

I'd go for a pure lab from a reputable breeder.