sizes and downbreeding

"culprit" wrote in message news:

yep. the best is when you can guess a mix. like the chi x staffy bull i
saw the other day. i mean, what else could it have possibly been? :-)

I love some of the outrageous "mixes" assigned
by rescue groups. A woman walked into a class
the other day with a purebred Border Terrier she
had just adopted from a local all-breed rescue
group. She insisted it was a "Lab/Fox Terrier/
Golden Lab" mix because that's what the rescue
group had guessed and told her!

Lynn K.

"Lynn K." wrote in message
om...
"culprit" wrote in message news:

yep. the best is when you can guess a mix. like the chi x staffy bull
i
saw the other day. i mean, what else could it have possibly been? :-)

I love some of the outrageous "mixes" assigned
by rescue groups. A woman walked into a class
the other day with a purebred Border Terrier she
had just adopted from a local all-breed rescue
group. She insisted it was a "Lab/Fox Terrier/
Golden Lab" mix because that's what the rescue
group had guessed and told her!

Lynn K.

Ha! Years ago when we lived in Colorado, we were shopping in the local
Petsmart and saw a woman with a lovely blue merle smooth collie bitch. Well
I had to go over and meet this beauty. The owner told me that they recently
adopted her from a shelter and she was a Australian Shepherd x greyhound
mix. I told her that the shelter was waaaay off and her girl was a very
nice purebred smooth collie. She was dubious - the shelter folks had to be
right instead of this stranger and besides what kind of dorky breed has a
name like smooth collie?. Fortunately there is a book section at Petsmart
and I was able to show her some pictures of smoothies - including a blue
merle and convince her. I gave her info for the local collie club and
invited her to come to our specialty which was in two weeks.

A nice addendum is that this lady did come to the specialty with her
smoothie. Her smoothie was distinctive in its markings & type and one of
the breeders showing that day was pretty darn sure it was from her breeding
(in fact this girl was nearly a twin to one of her specials) . I heard that
later the breeder and the owner of the shelter smoothie got together to look
at pictures of past litters. They matched up the shelter smooth to one
little smooth pup in a litter born 3.5 years previously. So the new owner
was able to get a whole bunch of info on her new dog including birthday and
parentage. The breeder was happy that her pup was in a nice home but ticked
at the first owners for dumping their dog at the shelter in violation of the
puppy contract they had signed.

sniff I love a happy ending

Chris and her smoothies
Zeffie and Pablo plus Bode the visiting pup

"Lynn K." wrote in message
om...
"culprit" wrote in message news:

yep. the best is when you can guess a mix. like the chi x staffy bull
i
saw the other day. i mean, what else could it have possibly been? :-)

I love some of the outrageous "mixes" assigned
by rescue groups. A woman walked into a class
the other day with a purebred Border Terrier she
had just adopted from a local all-breed rescue
group. She insisted it was a "Lab/Fox Terrier/
Golden Lab" mix because that's what the rescue
group had guessed and told her!


not just rescues...

i recently met a woman with a great looking little australian terrier. she
insisted it was a yorkie (!) apparently, the pet store where she bought it
(!!) said it was a yorkie, so that's what she had. :-)

-kelly

"culprit" wrote:

i recently met a woman with a great looking little australian terrier.
she
insisted it was a yorkie (!) apparently, the pet store where she bought
it
(!!) said it was a yorkie, so that's what she had. :-)


Reminds me of a similar (and I think worse) story- some years ago, I was
in a locally owned pet store, and saw an adolescent Basenji in a cage marked
"Chihuahua, $XXX". (I don't remember exactly what the price tag was anymore,
just that it was at least $200- and we're talking at LEAST 15 years ago.)
While checking out, I asked the young clerk why the Basenji was in the
wrong cage. He said "That's not a Basenji, it's a Chihuahua." Thinking he
hadn't looked at the dog, I pointed to it and replied something like "No,
look- that's a Basenji". "NO it's not! It's a Chihauhua."
I politely told him that no, it was was Basenji, pointing out that
Chihuahuas are much smaller than that, don't have curled tails, etc.... to
which he replied "It has papers that say it's a Chihuahua, so it's a
Chihuahua.".

"Sionnach" wrote
snip

I politely told him that no, it was was Basenji, pointing out that
Chihuahuas are much smaller than that, don't have curled tails, etc.... to
which he replied "It has papers that say it's a Chihuahua, so it's a
Chihuahua.".


I'd laugh if it weren't about a petshop!

My dogs have been mistaken for Pit Bulls (???), Rat Terriers, JRTs, Fox
Terriers and most recently Dalmatians. Now, the 3 smaller Terriers I can
understand. Most of mine are tri's, and they're close in size, but Pit Bull?
Dalmatian??

--
-Andrea Stone
Saorsa Basenjis
http://home1.gte.net/res0s12z/
The Trolls Nest - greenmen, goblins & gargoyle wall art
www.trollsnest.com

"Andrea" wrote in message
...
"Sionnach" wrote
snip

I politely told him that no, it was was Basenji, pointing out that
Chihuahuas are much smaller than that, don't have curled tails, etc....
to
which he replied "It has papers that say it's a Chihuahua, so it's a
Chihuahua.".


I'd laugh if it weren't about a petshop!

My dogs have been mistaken for Pit Bulls (???), Rat Terriers, JRTs, Fox
Terriers and most recently Dalmatians. Now, the 3 smaller Terriers I can
understand. Most of mine are tri's, and they're close in size, but Pit
Bull?
Dalmatian??


At this springs Vet School open house (we were part of the Cornell Companion
booth) a large number of JQPublic got to meet Pablo. I kept rough count and
14 guessed smooth collie, 8 guessed part collie, 10 guessed greyhound or
part grey (one guessed Greyhound x Doberman), two Borzoi, 1 Afghan, 1 Irish
Wolfhound and one guy thought for sure Pablo was a Bull Terrier. I can see
the sighthound guesses - Pablo a long lean type of collie with a racy build.
This is the second time in Pablo's life someone thought he was a Bull
Terrier - I think it's the relatively small obliquely set eyes and maybe the
very slopey stop. Otherwise I just don't see it. And frankly I was a little
insulted for Pabby - he's much handsomer than a BT. I like BTs for their
personality but IMHO they are not eye candy.

Chris,
Her smoothies, Zeffie & Pablo and Bode the Scruffy Pup

Melanie L Chang said in rec.pets.dogs.breeds:

I bet he still doesn't think they're Border Collies.

Well, they don't look like Rex and Fly in "Babe" do they? So
thay can't be Border Collies.

HTH!

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

"Andrea" wrote in message
...

My dogs have been mistaken for Pit Bulls (???), Rat Terriers, JRTs, Fox
Terriers and most recently Dalmatians. Now, the 3 smaller Terriers I can
understand. Most of mine are tri's, and they're close in size, but Pit
Bull?
Dalmatian??

this is a perfect example of why BSL simply can't work. people think
everything is a pit bull.

-kelly

"Sionnach" wrote in message ...
as a Min-Pin because of the color.
(Chihauhua comes to mind.)

I'm run into any number of people who don't realise that black with tan
points is not a color exclusive to Rotties and Dobes. Quite a few people
only have vague ideas of what breeds should look like, and go by color
alone; at least once a month somebody thinks Rocsi's a Beagle because she's
white with tri patches.
Another classic example of that is somebody I know who has a dog who is
*quite* clearly a BC or BC cross, but is convinced that the dog is a
"pointer mix" because she has ticking on her muzzle.

merle BCs I'm sure are thought to be Aussies and black and white or
tricolor Aussies thought to be BCs.

Or Aussie mixes are thought to be Catahoulas. Beau is often mistaken
for a blue eyed Rottie (the spots, apparantly, don't phase anyone). I
didn't realize how sharp his color is until I saw him next to a
'normal' blue w/tan trim. That was tan like on kakhi pants. Beau is
more rusty colored. The other dog's owner was really surprised at how
"fancy" his color is (most people have only seen him in pictures, and
the rust is never done justice in them).

Jake is already being mistaken for a Lab b/c he's black and drop
eared. To me there is no mistaking that he's a Catahoula. (most
puppies don't look like the dogs they'll grow into-- Catahoula pups
look like big dogs that got shrunk in the dryer). Once the brindle on
his legs becomes more apparant he's going to be "an awfuly skinny
Rottie." (another of those nasty little bobtailed Catahoulas).

-Amanda
http://www.uberpest.com

"culprit" wrote in message ...
"sionnach" wrote in message
...

OTOH, it's fun to correctly ID somebody's dog when they're used to
everybody getting it wrong; I was able to do that twice last week at the
park. (One Toller puppy, one gorgeous young male Flatcoat.)

yep. the best is when you can guess a mix. like the chi x staffy bull i
saw the other day. i mean, what else could it have possibly been? :-)

-kelly

I was estatic when someone asked me if Beau was a Catahoula. After a
day of explaining he was NOT a Rottie, it was nice to hear "Hey, is
that the state dog of... what is it? Louisiana?" YES!!!!

At the Premier there was a neat little Catahoula bitch that someone
brought in. A bunch of us looked at her and thought "wow! She's
going to do really well today! Wonder who she is." So we walked over
to talk to her. Turns out the dog was picked up as a street runner in
Kalamazoo and the owner found pictures of the breed on the 'net. She
thought she'd come out to get a confirmation on what it was. I said
"If it's NOT a Catahoula I have absolutely no clue what it could be."
The owner was unsure that I was telling the truth because Beau was a
lot bigger than her girl-- hers was only about a year old and likely
wouldn't be a huge female anyway. Beau was almost three (his birthday
is tomorrow!!) and male-- a decent sized one at that. Not to mention
the tails. We then showed the woman other Catahoulas and she was
convinced. She was happy to learn some things about the breed and we
were happy that the dog has a home that loves her.

(BTW, I finally got some hands-on with some Tollers. I don't normally
say this, but they are REALLY CUTE. My Dad's thinking about getting
one some day when the girls aren't around any more because he needs a
dog, but not a big one, and he likes what he's read about them).

-Amanda
http://www.uberpest.com