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Any thoughts on what breed our puppy might be?

1222 Views 7 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  Nor10, 
N
Hello all. Long time lurker new poster. We rescued a puppy about a month ago from a shelter and she is around 4 months old and weighs around 26 pounds. We were told she was a lab/collie mix. Her mother was a full lab and the father is not known. They said there was a collie dog running around but it's just a guess. Definately an oops litter. Anyhow the pup had the body and feet of a lab but the head and face look more like a pit bull lab mix to me. This pup doesn't really act like our deceased lab when he was a pup from what I can recall. She generally likes people but doesn't really seek out people. She would rather sit and watch from afar. She has a high prey drive from what I see. She loves to dig and whenever she grabs a toy she will violently shake it. She doesn't understand or enjoy fetch in any way. She is very smart but very temperamental. If she doesn't want to do it she's not doing it. She doesn't seem to have a high desire to please humans. She does love water and took to swimming right away. Any thoughts from the description and picture I posted?

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N
I guess I can't post a picture yet. Lol.
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patronizingrabbits
Lab/collie looks very possible, definitely don't see any pit bull or bully breed in there personally. A lot of the personality traits you described apply to collies.
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N
Thanks for the comments. I guess I am a bit scared she might have pit in her. I am not sure how I would feel about that. We have pit bull neighbors up the road and they are mean and chased my daughter once to the point we had to call the police.
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Moonstream
I don't personally see any bully breed in her, either.

With puppies it hard to tell. I could believe she's mixed with a Border Collie, but personally don't see (scotch/lassie) Collie in her. I could also believe she's mixed with shepherd. Her independence might just be her age, 4 months is often around the time dogs realize that humans aren't always the center of everything interesting.

Even if she were mixed with a bully breed (which, again, I personally don't think she is, given the pic), it doesn't guarantee bad habits or behavioral problems and it doesn't make her dangerous or anything like that. Train her like you (hopefully) would any other dog, exercise her, and teach her what is and isn't OK to do and she'll be fine. The issues that make pits/bully breeds a challenge don't crop up in all of them and really aren't unmanageable issues, they just are things that can make them not 100% perfect for everyone like some advocates seem to think. High prey drive, high energy, and issues with other dogs aren't uncommon in bully breeds, but neither are they super uncommon in many other breeds, including Border Collies and some Shepherds (although in their case the prey drive is usually channeled more as herding drive, and the issues with other dogs may be rooted in different things).
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timber
Not to sound rude, but if you thought/think she has Pit Bull in her, why did you adopt her? My Lab mix also loves to violently shake toys, that doesn't really mean all that much.
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N
They said she was Lab/Collie when we adopted her. Its all good. Doesn't matter what she is...shes not going anywhere. Shes a sweet dog.
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N
So we had a DNA test done on Rubi. We got our results today.

Her results show that one of her parents is a Labrador Retriever/Golden Retriever Cross.

Her other Parent is a Siberian Husky/German Shepherd/Mix Breed (from the Hound and Herding Group).

We were told her mother was a Labrador Retriever, Father unknown.

It breaks down like this.

Labrador Retriever 37.5%
Mix Breed (with strong markers from the hound and herding group) 25%
Golden Retriever 12.5%
Siberian Husky 12.5%
German Shepherd Dog* 12.5%

*detected but at a lower confidence.

The Herding Group says that the German Shepherd is included so maybe it is in her DNA?

All in all I am pretty happy with the results and I now know a lot more about my pup. I feel her curly tail and stubborness I can attribute to the Siberian Husky (and the digging! God this dog loves to dig!)

Her high intelligence, sweet demeanor and high food motivation I can attribute to the Retriever breeds.

And I have to admit I am relieved to know she doesn't have any Pit Bull in her.
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