Trendsurfing: Designer dogs (The Times)
By David Rowan
Talk about Year of the Dog. In the past six weeks, I have heard three separate American friends express unalloyed yearnings to own what I would have previously classed as a mutt. Where normally they would be coveting the latest European sports car or Japanese home-cinema, today it's the novelty cross-bred dog that has somehow become a metropolitan objet du désir. Now, when anything unusual occurs a third time, a journalist's internal pattern-recognition meter will unconsciously ping: "Trend!" My mission, then: to discover how the blended-to-order dog became "hot".
So to a little canine digging. When a fashion accessory starts to generate buzz, you can usually find an A-lister or two pawing over it first. Sure enough, the designer pooch has for months had the showbiz commentators yapping. Jake Gyllenhaal and Uma Thurman have both been photographed walking their "puggles", a cutesy cross between a pug and a beagle. Word is that Julianne Moore has bought one too, as has James "Sopranos" Gandolfini. Then there's Jessica Simpson's dainty "maltipoo", a combo Maltese-toy poodle, not forgetting Jennifer Aniston's "labradoodle" (think labrador mating with poodle), which the glossies determined helped her over the pain of losing Brad. In New York and LA, such endorsements are the fashion equivalent of papal encyclicals.
Sure enough, the high-end pet emporia trading in these whining genetic experiments have reported soaring demand since the autumn. At Puppy Paradise, a kennels in Brooklyn, puggles are so sought after, even at £600, that we're told even the stars are having to join waiting lists. The attraction? "It's like mixing a Versace bag and a Coach bag together," according to the manager, David Barber, who claims to have developed the puggle seven years ago. "You get the best of both without adding any of the problems."
If that designer combination fails to suit your lifestyle, you can now also mix and match from a menu flexible enough to make the Starbucks experience seem restrictive. Fancy something small and portable? Try the chi-poo, bred from a chihuahua and a poodle. Want a perkier look? That'll be the snorkie, a cross-breed of miniature schnauzer and Yorkshire terrier. Along with pomchis, cockapoos and doodleman pinschers, the American Canine Hybrid Club currently also recognises the bodacion (bearded collie plus dalmatian), the labradinger (springer spaniel and labrador) and, my personal favourite, the Pekingese-poodle mash-up known as the "peek-a-poo". I suspect that the trend's greatest asset is the chat-up potential of uttering such colourful words in front of strangers.
There is a serious side to such genetic innovation. The labradoodle's heritage goes back to the 1970s, when an Australian supplier of guide dogs was asked for a low-allergy breed that tended not to shed its fur. Proponents claim that these breeding programmes can combine the healthiest, most robust and endearingly attractive qualities of both parents. Yet there have also been complaints about unscrupulous breeders charging extortionate prices - in some cases more than £1,000 - for dogs that are currently considered chi-chi. Shelters are also reporting high rates of abandonment when the novelty value wears off. Then are the ethical concerns based around genetic meddling, which in some cases produce animals unusually vulnerable to disease. Critics already have a word for them: they are known as "Frankendoodles".
The UK Kennel Club says it refuses to recognise these new varieties, and although a number of British breeders will sell you a labradoodle for rather more than a poodle, most of the other poetic combinations have still to establish much of a presence here. So, trendsurfers, you could get in there early. Although if you truly want to impress, how about a "tigon", as bred last year by an Indian zoo from a lion and tiger?
(The Times Magazine, February 4 2006)
. . . AND READ MORE TRENDSURFING COLUMNS HERE . . .
Talk about Year of the Dog. In the past six weeks, I have heard three separate American friends express unalloyed yearnings to own what I would have previously classed as a mutt. Where normally they would be coveting the latest European sports car or Japanese home-cinema, today it's the novelty cross-bred dog that has somehow become a metropolitan objet du désir. Now, when anything unusual occurs a third time, a journalist's internal pattern-recognition meter will unconsciously ping: "Trend!" My mission, then: to discover how the blended-to-order dog became "hot".
So to a little canine digging. When a fashion accessory starts to generate buzz, you can usually find an A-lister or two pawing over it first. Sure enough, the designer pooch has for months had the showbiz commentators yapping. Jake Gyllenhaal and Uma Thurman have both been photographed walking their "puggles", a cutesy cross between a pug and a beagle. Word is that Julianne Moore has bought one too, as has James "Sopranos" Gandolfini. Then there's Jessica Simpson's dainty "maltipoo", a combo Maltese-toy poodle, not forgetting Jennifer Aniston's "labradoodle" (think labrador mating with poodle), which the glossies determined helped her over the pain of losing Brad. In New York and LA, such endorsements are the fashion equivalent of papal encyclicals.
Sure enough, the high-end pet emporia trading in these whining genetic experiments have reported soaring demand since the autumn. At Puppy Paradise, a kennels in Brooklyn, puggles are so sought after, even at £600, that we're told even the stars are having to join waiting lists. The attraction? "It's like mixing a Versace bag and a Coach bag together," according to the manager, David Barber, who claims to have developed the puggle seven years ago. "You get the best of both without adding any of the problems."
If that designer combination fails to suit your lifestyle, you can now also mix and match from a menu flexible enough to make the Starbucks experience seem restrictive. Fancy something small and portable? Try the chi-poo, bred from a chihuahua and a poodle. Want a perkier look? That'll be the snorkie, a cross-breed of miniature schnauzer and Yorkshire terrier. Along with pomchis, cockapoos and doodleman pinschers, the American Canine Hybrid Club currently also recognises the bodacion (bearded collie plus dalmatian), the labradinger (springer spaniel and labrador) and, my personal favourite, the Pekingese-poodle mash-up known as the "peek-a-poo". I suspect that the trend's greatest asset is the chat-up potential of uttering such colourful words in front of strangers.
There is a serious side to such genetic innovation. The labradoodle's heritage goes back to the 1970s, when an Australian supplier of guide dogs was asked for a low-allergy breed that tended not to shed its fur. Proponents claim that these breeding programmes can combine the healthiest, most robust and endearingly attractive qualities of both parents. Yet there have also been complaints about unscrupulous breeders charging extortionate prices - in some cases more than £1,000 - for dogs that are currently considered chi-chi. Shelters are also reporting high rates of abandonment when the novelty value wears off. Then are the ethical concerns based around genetic meddling, which in some cases produce animals unusually vulnerable to disease. Critics already have a word for them: they are known as "Frankendoodles".
The UK Kennel Club says it refuses to recognise these new varieties, and although a number of British breeders will sell you a labradoodle for rather more than a poodle, most of the other poetic combinations have still to establish much of a presence here. So, trendsurfers, you could get in there early. Although if you truly want to impress, how about a "tigon", as bred last year by an Indian zoo from a lion and tiger?
(The Times Magazine, February 4 2006)
. . . AND READ MORE TRENDSURFING COLUMNS HERE . . .
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