Hounded out: Fur and loathing in the dog world

What do you get if you cross a cocker spaniel with a poodle? Or a pug with a beagle? Or a poodle with a labrador? This is not the start of a joke - anything but. Designer crossbreed dogs - of whom the puggle and the labradoodle are the most famous examples - are at the centre of a vicious barking match among Britain's canine classes.

Ranked on the one side of this row are pedigree breeders, whose champion, the Kennel Club, tomorrow welcomes owners to its annual purebred jamboree, Crufts. On the other are the crossbreeders: owners of pedigree dogs who have seen the British market for designer crosses inflamed in the past three years, and have decided to supply the demand. In fact, the stampede to acquire one has become so furious that puppies now sell for as much as £2,000.

Despite the ever increasing popularity of crossbreeds, the Kennel Club refuses to bestow its blessing. Even organising Scruffts, a second-tier showing competition for crossbreed dogs, has not blunted its disdain. "The crossbreed phenomenon seems to be fashion-motivated," says a Kennel Club spokesman. "So we can't condone it. We wouldn't want unscrupulous crossbreeders, who are out to make a fast buck, to compromise the welfare of dogs for purely commercial reasons."

These are, one might think, legitimate areas for investigation. And, added to the more general concern about the dangerously low numbers of some pure-blood breeds - such as bloodhounds and smooth collies - and the increasing numbers of dogs without a home in Britain, it is easy to see how crossbreeding could seem unscrupulous.

But if the experience of Shelley Hargreaves, a PA from Poole, Dorset, is anything to go by, not all pedigree breeders have taken the moral high ground. Last week, Hargreaves provided a home for an amiable Jack Russell-chihuahua cross (a jahuahua? A chirussell?) called Ringo. But she is a lover of all crossbreeds.

A year ago, she started the pugglelove.co.uk website for puggle enthusiasts all over the country. The website was, says Hargreaves, designed as a source of information for puggle owners, and a forum for those interested in buying a puggle from an ethical breeder. But, within days of starting the site, Hargreaves was bombarded with hate mail. In fact, so vicious was the abuse that she took all her personal details off the site.

"I'm not even a puggle breeder," she says. "But I was told I was an evil person; a wholly irresponsible person; that I was the worst thing to happen to the dog community in years. [The mail] was almost entirely from pug and beagle breeders.

"They kept telling me that I was being irresponsible in terms of dog health. But I had researched it extensively with the Dog Trust, and, in terms of canine genetics, puggles seem to be a lot healthier than pugs. I have a feeling that a lot of them were upset because puggles are going for so much more money than pugs or beagles."

The pedigree breeders disagree: money, they say, isn't everything. Dianna Spavin, whose family has been breeding beagles at the Dialynne Kennels in Solihull since 1950, and has produced more prize-winning beagles than any other kennel in the country, is incensed at the "new fad". She says: "I do not agree with these crossbreeds and I think it's disgusting that people breed them. I find it very upsetting. It's for the dog's sake, really. If a pug has a litter of puppies where the father is the beagle, then the stud dog is bigger than the bitch. That's going to cause all sorts of problems, and the bitch will probably have to have a Caesarean." But David McDowell, the acting chief veterinary adviser to the RSPCA, seems to take Hargreaves' position.

"All the evidence seems to point to crossbreeds being much healthier than purebreds - it's something called hybrid vigour," he says. "In-breeding leads to health problems. As long as crossbreeds don't produce what you might call a grotesque dog - with legs too short to support a big body - then we've got very few veterinary concerns.

"Of course there might be some unethical breeders out there. But, if you're talking about ethical breeders producing new types of dogs in a caring way - well, that's how new breeds develop, isn't it?"

Well, yes it is. All the dogs that we now think of as pedigree were, at some point, cross-bred. The golden retriever, for instance, was developed on the Glen Affric estate of Sir Dudley Majoribanks in 1865, when a yellow-haired dog called Nous bred with a Tweed water spaniel called Belle. It took almost 50 years for the golden retriever to become an official breed, when, in 1911, the Kennel Club charted the "retriever (golden and yellow)" in its registry.

Now you can't swing a cat in the Home Counties without hitting a golden retriever. The Tweed water spaniel, meanwhile, has ceased to exist. Pedigree fanciers fear the same fate will befall many of the nation's most beloved pedigree dogs.

But Mark Hayhurst, an art agent who not only runs the UK Labradoodle Society, but has a playful labradoodle of his own called Dougal, says crossbreeding development was inevitable.

"If you look at that story about there being only 70 bloodhounds born in the UK last year," says Hayhurst, "it shows you that the strength of any breed with a tiny gene pool is limited. The thing about labradoodles is that you can produce a dog that is hopefully healthier and stronger than its antecedent breeds, and that exhibits qualities that are desirable to people.

"My wife is asthmatic, so having a labrador wasn't practical. We did look at poodles, because their coats are so much better, but our son wasn't keen. So we went for a labradoodle. I've now met hundreds of labradoodles, and I've never yet come across much variation in temperament. You get trainable, intelligent, lively dogs."

In fact, precisely for the reasons that Hayhurst outlined, the labradoodle has become the most established crossbreed on the market. They were popularised in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s, initially as a guide dog for blind people who had allergies.

But, says Hayhurst, they have been around longer than most people think. In 1956, Donald Campbell, who raced Bluebird on Coniston Water, for example, had a labrador/poodle cross that he referred to as a labradoodle. And Campbell is not the only speed freak to have fallen for the labradoodle. The Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson and his wife Francie recently bought a labradoodle named Dodger. What's he like?

"It's an appropriate name for him," says Francie. "He is wily, and he's a very comical dog. Although he's very skinny - Jeremy refers to him as 'bones in a bathmat' - he's already much bigger than a labrador. And, strangely, he doesn't look very much like a poodle or a labrador. He looks more like an Irish wolfhound. But he is the most wonderful-natured dog: not as stupid as a labrador and very kind, too."

For those who don't want a fully-grown labradoodle romping around their house, but who still want the non-malting hair of a poodle, the cockapoo is the crossbreed option of choice. Sophie DeRechter, an Australian expat living in West Sussex, gave up her job as a regional manager of a gym chain in order to look after her new cockapoo puppy, Alfie. But getting her hands on him was harder than she'd thought.

"I saw a dog in Melbourne a while back and thought it was the cutest little thing I'd ever seen," she recalls. "The owner said it was a spoodle [the Australian term for cockapoo]. I've never had a dog, but I thought it was the perfect dog for me because of its size. So, as soon as I got to the UK, I got in touch with a cockapoo breeder, but it took about two years before I finally got him.

"The breeder gave me a kind of job interview over the phone. She asked: 'Why do you want him? What's your background? Do you have children? What's your house like?' She definitely selected me, rather than the other way round. And when I went to pick Alfie up, I asked her whether anyone else had been interested. She replied: 'Are you joking? I had 20 people on the waiting list.'"

Eddie Cumberland, who runs Foxisle Gundogs in Yorkshire, Britain's biggest puggle kennel, has witnessed a similar boom in demand. Indeed, one of his bitches is due to give birth to a litter this week - and he has sold every prospective pup for £1,800 each. Like almost all puggles, they are the product of a male pug and a female beagle. But how, one wonders, do the pug and a beagle ever seal the deal in the first place? Unless the pug is extraordinarily well-endowed, he must need a little assistance.

"Ah yes, well it is difficult," says Cumberland. "Perhaps that's why so few people breed them. It's normally a job for the telephone directory."

Until two years ago, Cumberland bred pedigrees exclusively. Branching out into designer crosses has been an enormous success for the kennels, even if Cumberland has, in his own words, "got the beagle people's backs up".

But what happens after the first generation of crossbreeds? Do puggles breed with puggles? Or does one breed back with a pug or a beagle? A cross breeding with another cross, warn geneticists, is liable to create "extremes of confirmation" - throwbacks to the original species. And that could lead to a puppy that is too large for a mother to safely give birth to.

"The truth is that we don't know what happens next," says Cumberland. "I personally don't think you can beat the first generation, and as a kennel, we're not going to venture past that point. It's just that first cross that is so much hardier, and healthier than the two species it comes from."

The history of the labradoodle, though, holds some clues. The big poodle crossbreeders in Australia have carefully bred labradoodles back to poodles a number of times to maintain the labradoodle's biggest selling point - its coat. After three decades, breeders have now created a reliable new breed. Still, don't expect to see a labradoodle or, indeed, a puggle, at Crufts any time soon.

"The breeders out there aren't happy," says Cumberland. "That's a great sadness to me because we are pedigree people and our daughter still shows pedigrees herself. They don't like us because they want to keep their breed pure. But, as far as I'm concerned, it's a lot of hot air over nothing. They just don't want anyone else to breed, full stop."

Crossbreeds, say the Kennel Club, are a "fashion-motivated" phenomenon. The canine establishment hates fashion. It deplores change. Since the first dozen gentlemen met in a boardroom on 4 April 1873 to form the Kennel Club and legislate on the sex life of man's best friend, the rules of the game have stayed the same. To appear on the registry of purebreds, a dog does not have to have celebrity sponsors, or its own line of designer collars. It only has to prove its unsullied parentage.

But the Kennel Club's stated objective is also to "promote in every way the general improvement of dogs". Responsibly bred crossbreeds seem to do just that - improve dogs. Puggles combine the warmth of pugs with the athleticism of beagles, and, moreover, have none of the breathing problems associated with pugs. Labradoodles live longer, have less joint problems, and have more asthmatic-friendly coats than labradors. And they're not as prissy as poodles.

That argument, however, is unlikely to cut much ice with the Kennel Club, because it requires an entirely new way of thinking about dog breeding. Indeed, in a country where one's canine companion is not just a pet but a clear social denominator, this argument has become about so much more than dogs. It is, one might say, a battle between Roundheads and (King Charles') Cavaliers. At least it would be, if the monarch herself had not unintentionally waded into the row. Since Princess Margaret's dachshund bred with one of the Queen's Welsh corgis at the start of the decade, producing four beautiful dorgis (named Cider, Berry, Candy and Vulcan), the head of state has become a standard-bearer for crossbreed lovers everywhere.

As Crufts 2007 swings into gear, there has never been more demand, or, it seems, willingness to supply, designer crosses in this country. And it's not just actors and pop stars who want them. It's dog lovers - people who, until now, had always owned pedigrees. The establishment now faces a choice. It can either bury its head in its hands and continue to condemn crossbreeds. Or it can follow Her Majesty's example, and join the party.

How to make a boxweiler: the crossbreeder's guide

Afghan hound + labrador retriever = afador

Beagle + doberman pinscher = beagleman

Boxer + beagle = bogle

Border collie + Jack Russell terrier = borderjack

Boston terrier + miniature pinscher = bospin

Boxer + labrador retriever = boxador

Boxer + rottweiler = boxweiler

Bulldog + shih-tzu = bull-shih

Chihuahua + miniature pinscher = chipin

Chihuahua + pug = chug

Cocker spaniel + bichon frise = cochachon

Cocker spaniel + miniature poodle = cockapoo

Cardigan Welsh corgi + labrador retriever = corgidor

Dachshund + pomeranian = dameranian

Dachshund + pug = daug

Dachshund + Welsh corgi = dorgi

Dachshund + Yorkshire terrier = dorkie

Beagle + dachshund = doxie

Beagle + French bulldog = frengle

Golden retriever + poodle = goldendoodle

Collie + golden retriever = gollie

Golden retriever + dalmatian = goldmation

Jack Russell + chihuahua = jahuahua

Labrador retriever + Bernese mountain dog = labernese

Labrador retriever + standard poodle = labradoodle

Miniature pinscher + Jack Russell = mini Jack

Maltese + Yorkshire terrier = morkie

Labrador retriever + English pointer = pointing lab

Chihuahua + pomeranian = pom-chi

Pug + cavalier King Charles spaniel = pugalier

Pug + beagle = puggle

Rat terrier + chihuahua = rat-cha

Rottweiler + beagle = reagle

Shih-tzu + pomeranian = shih-pom

Shih-tzu + poodle = shih-poo

German shepherd dog + rough collie = shollie

Silky terrier + poodle = silky-poo

Whippet + lurcher = whurcher

Yorkshire terrier + bichon frise = yo chon