By Pat 

Determining what breed to put down on the pink pick-up slip and post on the internet for the dogs that come into the shelter is not as easy as you would think.

The PetPoint™ software used in our shelter program and the shelter posting sites of Petfinder and Petportal all require a ‘breed’ be defined before closing out of the program. We pick from a pull-down list that each software company has in place and suggest, as we have, to include a category for ‘Basic Black Dog’, ‘Heinz 57,’ or ‘All American Shelter Dog’.

We ask the same question each time a dog comes to us and each time the answer is the same. The question, “What kind of dog are you?” and the answer is always that the dogs looking at us like ‘Who are you..., what am I doing here..., and boy, do you speak weird!”

Among the volunteers, the opinions vary about some of the dogs’ breeds. With some dogs, it is obvious what breed they are. Like Comet, the white Boxer. Others, it is not so easy. Linus is one that doesn’t have a defined breed look. Linus has some body structure of a Corgi, but not the coloring. He has some sort of terrier in his genes and the temperament of a sweet docile dog. So he was entered on the web as just a terrier but has been updated recently to Corgi/Terrier mix. Hildie is another one who is hard to place in a breed category.

Some of the dogs’ breeds we have posted change over time, especially the tiny puppies. It is hard to tell what breed the puppy is when all you have is a little fur ball that fits in your hand. Some dogs who get lumped into just being a pit bull, might really be an American Staffordshire Terrier, an Olde English Bulldog, or an American Bulldog. With this type of dog there are definite differences in the breed. Is that Lab really just a Lab? You would be surprised at what is in the background of a dog that looks like ‘just a Lab’. Only DNA testing will give you the real story on what the background of your dog is, and even then, there are other breeds that aren't defined in a DNA test.

What breed am I???

Comet

Linus

Hilde

Korman