Spotlight Breed: The Mutt
Spotlight on the Mutt/Mongrel/Hybrid/Mixed Breed/Heinz 57

The Hedgesville Hounds rescue group places alot of mutts in adoptive homes. In fact, our western-most rescue colleagues have never laid eyes on many of the purebred dogs commonly seen in the Metropolitan area. They have, however, beheld an endless procession of some very fine mutts. Found on rural roads, or showing up suddenly on the doorstep hoping for a meal and some shelter, mutts just seem to pop up as suddenly and abundantly as ferns after a rain. They are always a source of wonder and surprise, often improbable in appearance, and their determined yet humble need touches one's heart. Amidst scurrying to fix bowls of food and water, and grabbing towels, brushes and ointments to tend the inevitable matts and tatters, and fretting over unanswerable questions like, "Now where on earth did you come from?", there is always one certain thing - in the span of less than one second, the eyes of every mutt we've met have looked right into our hearts, and shone with the splendor and promise of the fine dog that lives inside that gaunt and shabby body. And not one of them has ever let us down.

THE MUTT

All shapes, sizes and looks. All lengths and colors of coats - and sometimes, even two differing styles of coat on the same dog, but sprouting simultaneously in impertinent disregard of uniformity.

Perhaps there will be one aspect of a mutt that is recognizable in terms of a possible breeding line - the head of the retriever, for instance, or the coat of a terrier. Mutts inspire endless spirited conjecture among dog lovers who enjoy the challenge of guessing what mom or dad must have looked like.

Sometimes you KNOW what mom looked like. For instance, in the case of Jenny, Hank and Satchel - dogs currently listed for adoption on our site - we KNOW that mom appeared to be a Border Collie. Yet none of the pups looks remotely like a Border Collie. They do look somewhat like short haired Pointers. Only smaller. And with different coloration.......


 Jenny's mom was a border collie mix.  We know that.  And yet, she looks more like a pointer.
But, here is where we must stop, recognize the vast and magnificent diversity of nature, and humbly acknowledge that there are times when the best answer to a question of breeding is "we just don't know."

Now, you may have noticed that dogs are listed on all the Petfinder rescue sites with a definite breed label, called the "Dominant Breed."  This is a requirement. What you may not know is that with many mutts, it is extremely difficult even to make that guess.

Because when you are looking into the soft eyes of a true mongrel, you are looking into the possibility of multi-generations of mixed breedings, and a genetic pool so vast that there is also the absolute great possibility that not one of the members of any given litter will resemble mom in the slightest, but may have the soft, wavy hair of grandfather and leggy conformation of great-grandmother's. It is possible that the pups will not even resemble one another. This apparent randomness is called genetic diversity, and simply indicates that there has been a richness of breeding participation by new and unrelated bloodlines, and the resultant potential gene pool for each puppy is so extensive and various because it has increased exponentially with each successive generation.

Are mutts healthier than pedigreed dogs? If you are comparing them to offspring of dogs sold by reputable breeders who have conscientiously supplanted their bloodlines with new breeding stock, then the answer is no. One reason for the commonly held belief that mutts are healthier may be that the life cycle of a mutt is often a story of survival of the fittest. Since a  litter of mutts has no commercial value, their lives become testimonies to their own resilience, intelligence, and social skills.

Are mutts smarter than pedigreed dogs? Again, unless you are comparing mutts to purebred progeny who were bred quickly and irresponsibly only for financial gain, the answer is also "no". Mutts do, however, often seem to reflect a profound diversity of skills and abilities.

We can say definitively that a mutt is one of a kind. Perhaps they delight us so because we see them with pure eyes. Without any "breed expectation", a mutt grows and evolves in our household much like the "mystery seed" we raced home from the county fair to plant in our back yard - each successive stage of development is another wonderful surprise. We take them in and love them for who they are, knowing that they can never be duplicated, and we cherish them all the more, perhaps, knowing that.
                                                                   

From Left to Right:  Sweetie Pie could be a cattle dog, but she has the loving personality of a lab, and in some spots, the wavy coat of a Chessie.  Taffy has a lab personality, but has physical characteristics associated with shepherds, Chessies and flat-coated retrievers.  Josie is a shepherd mix with the sweetly goofy personality (and enormous ears) of a hound.  At one point we were convinced that Josie was a kangaroo (see far right picture), she was such an odd (but adorable) puppy.

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