The everyday universe of each of us is far too complex and overloaded with information to cope with it (even without Facebook). We are influenced, overwhelmed by the vast amount of data in our environment, face situations where we need to make choices or decisions, or just simply meet people, and evaluate their motives. Just to pick up a few of the thousands of interactions we (and of course our brain) process even during an ordinary, average day.
Our brain has its own tactics for understanding the world around us. It gives guidance how to estimate a situation, how to predict the intentions of others, how to calculate risk, how to form our ideas about events, and how to make decisions. All these things happen within just a millisecond in many cases, thanks to all the pre-packed knowledge placed deep in our unconscious.
We have categories for emotions, personality types, good manners vs. bad manners, and so forth. The way we perceive, evaluate, and react to the outer world is based on how we form our own categories which all have their labels.
Each of us has different terms and descriptions for what successful means, what personality a tall man has, or what to think about someone with a certain sort of addiction.
We all have the internal software to help us understand and categorise the world around us. This we use to help us to successfully navigate the world. We all have it, though if it is written down and becomes a rigid set of rules, it can lead us to completely misinterpret the world around us.
The same is true regarding how we see dogs.
We build up our ideas and labels in the same way, and pull them out automatically, especially when we are challenged with questions about health, behaviour, and other doggy social matters. The general tendency is that many of us see and distinguish between just two categories: crossbred and purebred dogs.
These are the labels we use to gather our knowledge, points of view, reasoning. Mostly based on our own experiences, what our friends have told us, or what we have read, or have heard. We do all this information-gathering, then try to separate and file each piece of information into one of the two boxes we think are appropriate.
The only problem with discussing or debating matters about dogs based on solely two categories, is that dogs represent a far more complex species.
Without going into any specialised genetic knowledge or study, we need to face the simple fact that this is the species with the widest variety on Earth. Within the species, there are approximately four hundred different breeds, meaning four hundred unique genomes exist with their own characteristics. These genomes derive from the combination of about twenty thousand genes, and through reproduction, the offspring of the forthcoming generations, and really not only one litter, are capable of bearing the specific traits representing the breed, both in appearance and in behaviour.
Due to the complexity of genetics, when we are talking about breeds, the origin of a dog matters a great deal. The genetic background of the ascendants, not exclusively just the parents, the circumstances of how the mother had been kept, how the pup was reared, nurtured, socialised, all these factors add up, and in case of inefficiency, it has a huge impact on the ‘quality’ of a dog.
Regarding crossbred dogs, and also mongrels, this variety is on a much broader range.
Crossbred dogs are those which originate from the mating of two breeds, meanwhile mongrels are the descendant of previously crossbred dogs. Due to this mixture, a vast variation of genomes exist in each of these dogs.
We could go on much deeper, but I guess it’s perfectly clear that there are so many different individuals existing within the species, though we tend to recognise and make a judgement on them based on the really simple fact that they are either purebred or crossbred.
And why does it matter anyway?
Because this sort of over-simplification of complex topics happens every day and usually leads to the complete misunderstanding of the nature, health, and behaviour of the canine. Consequently, not only does misinformation lead us to be incapable of solving the problems, even worse, it just triggers further issues.
When we use these two stereotypes we also set solid attributes. We are saying, in effect, purebred dogs, all of them, look like this, behave like that, and have this or that health issue. We have the same prejudice, either negative or positive, towards crossbred dogs.
At times, it is similar to a discussion about whether you prefer an iPhone to a Samsung with Android. In this case we are talking about manufactured products and you can easily set up your preferences and you can predict what you will get for your money, otherwise you can complain.
But dogs are different, and how a dog looks, behaves, what sort of health issues it might have, or might develop in the future, is a much more complicated issue which cannot really fit into these two rigidly-defined stereotypes which have nothing to do with reality. This scenario also excludes and neglects one vital aspect: the effect of environment.
If a person believes that crossbred dogs are the healthy ‘type’, and even if the specific dog is very healthy indeed, what happens when the owner doesn’t take enough care over proper nutrition or enough outdoor activity? The dog is actually said to be a healthy dog. Why would it be important to worry about proper food and exercise? But that is not how the health of an animal works.
What happens if a person believes that their purebred dog is already really intelligent, so they skip taking the dog to enough and different activities to stimulate its brain to achieve its full potential? The dog is already said to be a smart one. Why should anyone bother to take further steps? Because no matter how smart a dog might be, there always needs to be stimuli to ensure the dog achieves its potential.
I could write dozens of further examples presenting how dangerous it is to forget that dogs are not just products tailored in advance on an assembly-line to meet our expectations, and there is no complete user’s guide either about how to do this or that without complications.
Dogs are a unique and complex species with an incredibly varied genetic code, carrying both their vulnerabilities and potentials.
Whatever your idea is about a purebred or a crossbred dog, you can never take it for granted, because the process of how traits, behaviours, and the health of a dog builds up, depends on too many variables which make it impossible to create only two labels to cover all dogs.
Image: Dreamstime
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