Gollies, Labradoodles are Cockapoo

A brief note on the ridiculousness of our country.

I remember, back in the days of my youth, there were generally three options in the realm of dogs:

1) Pure Bred - These were the dogs you saw on the AKC dog show. They were probably in the $500 range, for most breeds.
2) Mixed Breed - These dogs had two distinct breeds as parents. An example of such would be the ubuquitous Buffy, who is a mix between a German Shepherd and a Norwegian Elkhound. My family paid $100 for Buffy back in 1990. I guess sometimes people cross-bred dogs on purpose, but probably more often than not it was just a little something something that happened out in the kennel and now there were some puppies the breeder had to get off his hands.
3) Mutt - Somehow your dog got out of the yard and came back in a family way, so now you had these indistinguishable mongrel puppies and you practically had to offer your friends an family members money to take them off your hands.

So, then, back to the original point. I am seeing an increasing and disturbing rise in, "Designer Breeds." A designer breed is nothing more than a mixed breed that someone has labeled by combining the names of the two parents breeds. Examples, as noted in the title of this entry:

Gollie - Goldren Retriever / Collie
Labradoodle - Labrador Retriever / Poodle
Cockapoo - Cocker Spaniel / Poodle

Normally I would say, fine, these people just have way too much time on their hands. But no, this apparently entitles people to offer their pups up for around $500-$1,000. Inflation is one thing, especially when some pure-bred pups now around going for upwards of $2,000, but for crying out loud, it's a freaking dog.

The aforementioned "Gollie" puppies, I saw on a Philadelphia classifieds website and they looked nothing like either a Golden Retriever or a Collie. They were jet black. And they were still $599 each. For a glorified mutt with a name that might be considered clever by someone who doesn't get out of the house much.

Ugh.