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The issue is not purebred dogs. It’s breeding purely for conformation (how the dog looks) rather than for health, longevity, and performance.

A good counterpoint to the idea that most purebred dogs have health issues are gundog breeds that are still judged based on hunting and retrieving field trials, or other dogs with real jobs like police/military dogs, herding dogs, etc.

Athletic breeds with real jobs typically have much longer life spans. Even AKC Border Collies and German Shorthaired Pointers have average lifespans of 12-15 years, with it not unusual to see dogs that are 16-18 years old and still healthy. My own dog is a GSP, and I not only met his father and mother but also his grandmother, who was perfectly healthy.

German Shepherds were epically screwed up as a breed in the 20th century by intentionally breeding heavier dogs with unhealthy body structures that looked aesthetically pleasing. This is a big part of why Belgian Shepherds (Malinois) replaced GSDs and Dobermanns as military and police dogs in many countries. The extreme form of this aesthetics problem is the French Bulldog, which is an abomination that shouldn’t exist according to the laws of nature, because it typically can’t reproduce without caesarians and/or artificial insemination.

I concur. Good, ethical breeders will track COI (coefficient of inbreeding), pull any breeding dames/sires that show issues themselves or in their offspring, mix up the germ lines, and even go so far as to get mail-order sperm from around the world. Good purebred breeding is going to produce a healthier dog on average than your random mutt, which could have great hybrid vigor, or all manner of weird issues.

Me too. Since my grandmother was a child, we've always had German Shepherds in our family. When I was a kid for the first time our dogs started getting hip dysplasia. My mother and grandmother had never seen before, despite being involved in the dog training community.

I’ve had 2 purebreds in a row with major health issues, even though I searched for working line breeders. I’ve given up on purebreds, and now have a GSD mix. He’s a gorgeous animal, going on 11 without any hip issues or health issues.

The AKC in their pursuit of the perfect look and willful ignorance of genetics has destroyed the German Shepard breed.

https://www.handicappedpets.com/blog/german-shepherd-back-le....

Same, my sibling adopted a wonderful German Shepard, and was awful to see it rapidly lose mobility and drag itself and due to the hip problems.

I started seeing this in German Shepards years ago. I’d see shepherds being walked and their hind legs just weren’t moving right. I thought it was just an old dog that developed health problems, but no, they are being bred that way. I’m not sure why you’d want an unhealthy dog.

I can get behind the whole something-poo craze since at least it might put a short pause to pure breds.

I spent my first few summers on my grandmother's farm, where there were about five GSD (and a small poodle that mostly stayed out of the way, inside the farmhouse).

Lovely animals, one of my earliest memories is (hand) feeding them when they were taller than me. I also have a vague memory of trying to ride them, like horses, but I'm not 100% sure I trust that thinking about how old I would have had to be, and our relative sizes.

> Hopefully things swing away from the fascination with "purebred" before those breeds see further declines.

I doubt the large working dogs of the past were less purebred (or that their descendants today are less purebred). Breeding is an important way -- in fact, the only known way -- to produce dogs that are suited to work you need them to do.

There are two things that have notably changed in the present day:

1. Dogs aren't expected to work, which removes the pressure to be fit to work. This is the effect you've noted, but I suspect it's not as significant as...

2. The effective population size ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_population_size ) has crashed as the first rule of responsible pet ownership became "make sure your pet never reproduces". When 10% of the population gets to reproduce, you're going to see a lot more inbreeding than you do when 90% of the population gets to reproduce.

Note also that Togo was 12 years old when he led the 261 mile journey. Most of his community who knew, expected Togo would die during or immediately as a result of completing the trip.

I share your views on many purebreeds being immoral, but the "wild-type" breeds with more genetic variability are often much, much more challenging for human owners. I'm personally a huge fan of Australian Cattle Dogs and Australian Shepherds, both of which are very "blended" breeds. But they take soooo much time and energy to raise, they're nearly incompatible with a 9-5 job for the first year or so of their lives.

> But they take soooo much time and energy to raise, they're nearly incompatible with a 9-5 job for the first year or so of their lives.

So are Huskies.

For whatever reason, people bought a ton of them at the beginning of quarantine. Once it was lifted, the dogs started tearing up homes when left alone all day.

Local shelters are currently flooded with these things. Buyer's market right now. We just rescued one from a dumpster.

> the "wild-type" breeds with more genetic variability are often much, much more challenging for human owners

Yeah, fuck mutts. I've owned four in my lifetime and now own a purebred Husky. For the first time, I'm finding dog ownership fun.

You never know what you're getting into with mutts, but it's a little easier these days since they have 23andMe type services for dogs so you can get some insight into what your future holds.

As someone who has had many mutts and rescued purebreds… I’m assuming you don’t know what you’re doing if you think all mutts are difficult. Generally, people don’t exercise their dogs enough and then run into problems. Doesn’t matter the dog, but a consistent routine of lengthy walks and runs has never failed.

And if you don’t have time, don’t get a dog.

I'm extrapolating from a sample set of 4.

#1 was a half-chow nightmare from Hell (yes, I was clueless) but the next three weren't problem dogs, just difficult to understand. Conventional wisdom did not consistently apply across the three.

It was like multiclassing three characters in an RPG you don't even know the classes of.

Unlike purebreds. You can literally buy an instruction manual for your specific breed. Way easier.

What works is having a test-period before changing ownership. There can be many reasons for incompatibility, and often quite unfair to blame it on the dog who had no say.

There are a two breeds in particular that novices love because of their looks but will almost certainly not be equipped to handle—huskies and beagles.

Huskies are just incredibly high energy. They need space and exercise. If you do not exercise them they are smart and will find creative ways to get their energy out. You won’t like it. Beyond that though they are actually pretty good dogs.

Don’t be fooled by a beagle’s cute looks. They are scent hounds and all they want to do is track and anything between them and tracking is just a short term obstacle to overcome. They will dig through drywall if need be.

In my area it's not too hard to find 3+ year old Australian Cattle Dogs and Shepherds mixes at rescues; a great option to not have to deal with that puppy stage but still have a bright pup.

> Most of his community who knew, expected Togo would die during or immediately as a result of completing the trip.

Do you happen to have a source on that? I don't recall that being mentioned in the books I've read so I'm rather curious.

I cannot source this, despite significant effort. It appears I've fallen victim to Disney's dramatizations.

> the "wild-type" breeds with more genetic variability are often much, much more challenging for human owners.

I think this depends wildly on what sort of environment the dog is from. I'm currently on my first dog and he's damn near trivial to train, I'm quite surprised to be honest.

He's a rescue. The first year of his life he has spent "in the wild", though I figure he was probably around villages a lot. I had a DNA test done, and there's no trace of any breed going back at least three generations. He has a keen sense of what sort of people to trust. He steers clear of drunks and is very open towards kids. The way I figure is the environment he was in puts evolutionary pressure towards cute kind dogs, as the best way to survive in a village is by getting people to give you food.

So while yes, with a mutt you don't know what you're getting, that doesn't mean all mutts are hard pets to own. The most firm I have to be in correcting my dog is going "Ed, don't."

> Hopefully things swing away from the fascination with "purebred" before those breeds see further declines.

Those destructive breeding practices are shameful. How people can profess to be dog lovers and do such things is beyond my ken.

Modern 'huskies' bred and sold in the US48 states as domestic pets are considerably different and smaller than what you might find in Alaska/Yukon 50 years ago. I've seen some extremely small huskies that technically still qualify as AKC registered purebreeds.

As far as sled dogs go, the reverse is true. I own sled dog type Huskies and they are the same size as Togo/Balto and one has the same Agouti style fur.

Togo was only 48lbs and you can see from the photos of both Togo’s team and modern sled teams that they’re short and stout.

https://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/togo/

https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/siberian-husky/

Modern tuxedo colored non-AKC Huskies are a good head taller than my dogs and about 20lbs heavier. My dogs tend to be the smallest Huskies at the dog park. There’s probably a bit of Malamute involved in breeding to add height and reinforce the tuxedo markings.

Our husky is 50lbs. She gets a lot of comments how small she is, but our understanding is she’s average husky size.

She’s well behaved but here digging hobby has become more when she turned 2. Supper sweet dog.

German Shepherds are defective animals consigned to a life of suffering by idiot breeders. They aren't a suitable representative yardstick.