Crossbred dogs have been enjoying a glorious reputation for years. Known for their healthier genetics and potential longevity, they seem like the obvious choice on paper. But it turns out that a blended pup could actually come with one major problem.
According to a recent study, led by a team of researchers at the Royal Veterinary College, crossbred dogs could be more prone to undesirable behaviours than their purebred counterparts.
These behaviours include fear of traffic, sensitivity to being touched, separation-related problems and excitability such as difficulty in staying sat down or jumping up too much.
In some cases, the difficult behaviour analysed including aggression, biting or increased hostility to other dogs.
The team found this link by analysing data from dog owners of 3,424 crossbred and 5,978 purebred dogs, collected using an online questionnaire. Specifically, the study looked at owners of cockapoos, labradoodles, cavapoos, cocker spaniels, labrador retrievers, cavalier king Charles spaniels and poodle dogs.
Owners were asked questions about themselves, about their dogs and the methods that they used to train them. Using 73 questions, each dog’s behaviour was ranked on 12 different scales.
What was the worst-behaved crossbreed?
Of all of these breeds, cockapoos were the most undesirable, scoring worse than both cocker spaniels and poodles in the majority of categories. Cavapoos also scored poorly compared to poodles and king Charles.
"This certainly corresponds to the reality of what we see in practice. These crossbreeds are often lovely pets, however the incidence of behavioural issues with them does seem higher than in some other breeds and can be a real challenge for the owners,” Graham Lewis, a veterinary surgeon and writer, told BBC Countryfile Magazine.
“Environment plays a part in this of course, there is perhaps a shift in how we interact with our pets over the last few years and this could be a factor. Getting good advice on training and socialisation from a very early stage can often help, this is one of the reasons we have one of our qualified nurses doing basic behavioural training in practice."
The team behind the study acknowledged that, while there was a clear link between these behaviours and crossbred dogs, there could also be other factors that align these two points.
Those who choose designer-crossbreeds may have different training styles to those who opt for purebreds. There is also room for interpretation where the study has relied on data from owner's own opinions.
While more research is needed to form a clear connection, this could be the news you needed to hear if you’ve been scratching your head trying to work out why your cockapoo won’t stop barking at every single human it sees each day.
