How healthier are designer dogs?

Before we take a closer look at designer dogs it is helpful to state the difference between a designer dog and a mutt. Mutts are cross breed dogs with unknown pedigree and are usually the result of an accident i.e. two different breeds mate to produce a mutt whereas a designer dog is a conscious effort that involves two or more purebred dogs i.e. dogs with known ancestry.

In simply words, a mutt is a cross breed with unknown parent breeds which may make it more challenging to truly care for a mutt since the knowledge of the parent breeds makes it easier to understand cross breed.

So the big question is: are designer dogs healthier? Designer dogs can still have the same genetic health problems of any of its breed parents; however the percentage of designer dogs with genetic health disorder is far lower than purebred dogs because the gene pool has become widened. The widened gene pool increases the probability that a recessive gene will only be inherited from a single parent breed and therefore will not manifest in the puppy.

When two purebred dogs are crossed such as the golden retriever husky mix their offspring is the first generation and in order for the first generation pup to inherit the health problem that is caused by a recessive gene, the pup must inherit the recessive gene from both parent breeds.

Since recessive genes will only manifest when it occurs in pairs i.e both parent breeds have the recessive gene which they passed down to the pup but a dominant gene will always manifest either singly or in pair. So even if the first generation pup is a carrier (has only one recessive gene) it will not suffer from the health problem.

However designer dogs are not immune from genetic health disorder in subsequent generation of that hybrid e.g. if two goberian dogs that are carrier of the recessive diseased gene mate then the genetic health problems of the original breed may show up or if a dominant gene is responsible for the disease. Therefore in terms of health issues, the first generation designer dog may be the best option.

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