A dog in Japan with a new dye job pushes the 'mixed-breed' trend in the canine world to the limit.

Slideshow: Images Of The Panda Dog | Other Hybrid Animals | Tigon Pictures | Puggle Parade
Video: Japan's 'Panda Dog'

The poodle-Maltese cross was named "Columbo" by its owner features a black-and-white dye job fashioned after a panda bear.

Columbo, who is naturally white, was dyed using a special hair dye for dogs that lasts about a month.

The Panda Dog could join a long list of suddenly trendy "designer dogs," pooches bred from different breeds that can fetch $1,000 a piece.

The sudden popularity of the puggle, a dog bred from a pug and a beagle, started up the new craze and a long-running argument among animal lovers about mixing breeds and species.

Just last week, a zoo in India showed off its "tigon" cub, bred from a lion and a tiger.

Back in the dog world, the labradoodle, from Australia, started the hybrid trend in the 1980s.

Its breeders hatched the idea of a labrador/poodle mix to come up with a dog less allergic to its owners, especially those who needed a guide dog.

But mixing breeds and even species of animals is nothing new.

In the 19th century, breeders crossed cattle and bison to come up with the beefalo. The mule (a horse-donkey combo) has been around, too, for ages. Newer mixed-species breeds include the liger (lion-tiger mix) and zeedonk.

In Australia, owners are on a puggle waiting list, to the annoyance of one dog official.

"It's a mongrel with a huge price tag," Royal NSW Canine Council chairman Keith Irwin told a Sydney newspaper. "It's not deserving of the money people are paying."

New York veterinarian Kim Rosenthal said hybrid pooches have some advantages, since both its parents must be purebreds.

"I absolutely love the idea of mixing breeds," Rosenthal said. "I think that we can really look for the best characteristics in each breed and start (to) eliminate some of the medical problems that have been plaguing us for a very long time."