The breeder the family’s dog came from sounds like a reputable and legitimate pet breeder, which is good. The bad part is that it will open up the door for back yard breeders and puppy mills to start selling Portuguese water dogs and average families are likely to be too poor and/or too ill-educated on the dangers of these puppy factories to say no.

Everyone is expecting the popularity of this dog to sky rocket and not adopting an animal from a shelter could be a crucial blow to rescue centers that are currently over-full and under-funded. Now, more than ever, shelter pets could use some extra love and this was a big opportunity for the Obama’s to help out.

As far as the breed itself, Obama initially said he was interested in getting a mutt “like himself,” which he seemed to go back on completely. The advantage to the family doing this is that a huge surge of popularity for “mutts” could benefit all mutts -particularly if the dog’s heritage itself were hard to identify. This could really help out shelters who are loaded up with tons of mixed breed dogs. Many shelter pets will be put to sleep this year and the first family could have made a huge difference in the number of euthanized pets.

The dog choice of the president may be good for his family, but it’s quite disappointing to our nation as a whole.

If Obama really wants to listen to the people of America, this will be his next dog. He said it’s coming down between a labradoodle and a Portuguese Water Dog. Americans have said they want a mutt, the votes are 2 to 1 for a mutt over a pure breed according to the Associated Press. Also, most of the voters want the dog to come from a shelter. It seems a tall order to get a labradoodle puppy in a shelter, but I’m sure the president could always pull some strings, and with shelter populations at an all time high, at least there is plenty of selection right now.

Read more. Photo by Misterbisson [Flickr]

I know this news is a little old, but it fits the theme of Muttskis pretty well. Present Obama discussed adopting his new puppy from the pound in his first press conference on November 7. In his interview, he said he associates well with mutts, because they’re like him.

Go Obama and go mutts!