Curious...what breed mix/age do you think this pup is?

Discussion in 'Labrador Chat' started by Emily_BabbelHund, Dec 5, 2016.

  1. JenBainbridge

    JenBainbridge Registered Users

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    I view dogs in the exact same way I view people - as I find them. Some people are nice and some people are mean, it's exactly the same with dogs.

    I have no fear of any particular breed of dog, if it's wagging its tail then I'm giving it a hug.

    In my experience, especially since I got Stanley, it's smaller dogs that have had goes at him. He had a jack Russel attached to the end of his nose not that long ago.

    In my area not long ago a woman had her adored family pet removed as someone had reported it for having a pit bull look about it. Luckily, there was a public outcry and a behaviourist confirmed that even if the dog did have some pit bull in it, it had a lovely nature and was no more a threat than any other dog, and it got to go home.
     
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  2. snowbunny

    snowbunny Registered Users

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    Was that Hank? I followed his story. It was pretty diabolical the way the family and dog were treated :(
     
  3. Teller's mom

    Teller's mom Registered Users

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    @Emily_BabbelHund - You're welcome and he is a good-looking boy, but I'm a bit biased. :p Yes, it's stupid people like that that lead to dogs getting snatched from their families or potentially destroyed. There have been a couple of instances in North America of pit-bull service dogs being confiscated or worse... So not average pets but actual, documented service animals. It would certainly be less of a headache to go with a breed that isn't listed as "dangerous," but when you fall for a pup it's hard to say no. Brogan was a handsome boy and looks like a big sweetheart. And, that's funny! Teller is quite the spaz (especially when he was younger) and he would always harass people at the dog park until they petted him. I got a LOT of dirty looks in those days. Never mind their dogs who were either furiously humping another person/dog or in the corner chomping down on poop someone didn't clean up, I had a jumper and that was 10x worse lol.

    @JenBainbridge - This is very true. Of all the pits I've met, one got into a scuffle with my dog. By the way, it was totally HIS fault for trying to mount her. He sported a lovely scar on his big dumb nose for a few months afterwards, thankfully it was a very shallow graze. The rest of the pits we've encountered have been very sweet and one of the few breeds that are as crazy and rough when playing as my boy. He played with a lovely American bulldog and it was like a WWE match, both dogs loved it lol.

    Amen to the thing about smaller dogs! I have met so many nasty small dogs in my lifetime but of course it's not as big a deal because the amount of damage a chihuahua can do is laughable compared to a larger more powerful dog. Aside from that, small dogs are much easier to manage because of their size. Obviously people are going to be afraid of a 70-lb reactive dog versus a 10-lb lunging yapper. Funny you should say that about JRTs... Teller isn't reactive off-leash but he won't back down if a dog outwardly starts a fight with him. He tried to play with a JRT (initiated the bow, was VERY wiggly) but the dog snarled and went for him. Well, T pinned it to the ground with open jaws and wouldn't you know that little devil was still at it trying to get at his eyes and ears. The other owner yanked my dog off by the back leg and he came right to me and sat down but the JRT was still snarling, barking, and wanting to finish the fight lol. Luckily there were no injuries but of course I got blamed for having the larger dog.

    That's awful about the woman and lucky she had it returned. Unfortunately I see all too many stories exactly like this and some without happy endings. :(
     
  4. JenBainbridge

    JenBainbridge Registered Users

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    Yes! Poor Hank :(
     
  5. Emily_BabbelHund

    Emily_BabbelHund Longest on the Forum without an actual dog

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    This is indeed a huge reason that I'm looking beyond Rotties for my next dog, despite the fact that it's putting me in a real pickle in regards to my emotions. I won't go into all the details here, but I have great reason to be concerned that within the lifetime of my next dog, that legislation will change and we could see some BSL affecting assistance/service dog laws. And while I do not live in the US currently, this also affects me in Germany. Also long to explain, but to summarise, Brogan's (and my next dog's) certification was honoured here in Germany because it was legal in the US - Germany as yet has no laws on service dog certification. So while I will train the next dog here, I will bring him/her to the US to be certified which will then be recognised in Germany. So it's all a big ball of spaghetti really!

    But to make a long story short (something I'm not very good at!), having a Lab would make many, many things much less scary and problematic for me and allow me to better assure the safety of my dog. No one EVER is going to say that a Lab can't be an assistance/service dog or that they are dangerous simply based on their appearance.

    I know I've sort of gotten off topic of the question of whether or not to go visit the lovely Lotta (the Lab/Pit/Boxer rescue girl), but all this conversation is actually really helpful to me as I continue to reconcile the "heart vs. head" discussion of choosing my next dog. @Boogie - my pro/cons list is growing!

    I still do kinda wish Santa would just leave a dog of some sort at my front door for Christmas. Puppies are hard work, but decision making (at least for me) is MUCH harder! :eek:

    (Yeah, yeah.... and someone can remind me I said that when I'm complaining about crocopups and midnight wee runs when I finally do get my puppy. )
     
  6. Kelsey&Axel

    Kelsey&Axel Registered Users

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    Sorry this is so offtopic!

    I love seeing all of your pictures of Brogan. For years I was dead set on getting a Rottie. Odie's groomer got a rottie a couple years ago and I was so excited when she did I would go weekly to visit him. She knew I was looking at breeders for one so she was very kind and patient with my visits lol. She would have to go grab him from the day care section then bring him up front for me. She even let me take him on walks and to my house for visits. I would still love one one day, very handsome. But due to breed restrictions and issues, example, insuring our house with a rottie we wouldn't have been protected in areas, and if we moved we had to worry about where and strata issues if we went that way. Things that all could have been dealt with but we decided to just hold off. Also was worried for first time large breed owners that a rottie may be too much dog for us. The groomer who has a bullmastiff and a pitbull as well said the rottie has been the most stubborn and challenging. Would you say that rottie's are challenging and stubborn? All the ones I have met are so nice and calm that it was hard for me to picture that.

    Then I met 3 chocolate labs in the matter of a couple months and I was sold. It was really quite bad how I found Axel lol. My OH and I were sitting on the couch one evening and I saw an ad online for chocolate labs. (we had briefly talked about in a few months or a year we will look into adding a lab to our family) so my OH was talking away about something and I pick up the phone and call the number on the ad, the guy answers and I say 'hi I saw your puppies online.. can we see them tomorrow morning?' My husbands face was priceless!! I hung up and he was just like 'KELSEY!!'

    Well that morning on the way over there he told me that we were only looking and no way were we getting a puppy. Well an hour later we were off to the bank for a deposit.

    Next time I would do more research. But everything checked out health wise for the pups and Axel is turning into a wonderful dog. Only thing is he's supposed to be show bred but he looks field. So I just say now he is pet bred. He is big, 11 months old. 67cms and 41.5kg, so even though we thought he was going to be a little guy I'm enjoying that he's bigger because I always wanted a big dog.
     
  7. Emily_BabbelHund

    Emily_BabbelHund Longest on the Forum without an actual dog

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    With me you can go off topic about Brogan or Rotties any day. ;)

    Yes, I agree that getting any of the banned or semi-banned breeds is a huge decision. Impossible to rent, impossible to get home insurance if you own, difficult for travel, the list goes on. But they are wonderful dogs. Not more wonderful than Labs or another breed (I love all dogs) but for me, they are really a perfect fit. I do love your story of falling for chocolate Labs though. When I first decided as an adult to get my first dog, I went to the pet store and bought a little mug with the picture of what I thought was the most handsome dog (knowing next to nothing about dog breeds at the time). That dog? A chocolate Lab. So I get it. :)

    Yes, Rotties are stubborn. Or rather, I would call it "independent thinkers". This is true of any of the flock guardian breeds - they were bred to make decisions on their own. My first boy was super easy going, but working with him was still a question of "Hey, I may do that now....but I may do that a week from now. Can I get back to you on that?". Luckily he and I pretty much agreed 98% of the time on what to do, so there were really no big conflicts. Brogan had more of a Lab learning style in that he was very keen to please and didn't question. From what I've seen of Labs, however, Rottweilers are MUCH calmer. Like a level of comatose calmer, LOL.
     
  8. Kelsey&Axel

    Kelsey&Axel Registered Users

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    Hahah I have to find something I had posted on this forum, very fitting with the 'hey, I may do that now'

    Thanks for the info regarding 'independent thinkers' I still love them and have to say hi to them at the dog park:rolleyes:

    when picking our second dog I also had to think of Odie. He likes the big dogs. He doesn't get along with the smaller dogs. His best friends at day care were the groomers dogs, bullmastiff, pitbull and of course rottie.
    So didn't matter which I choose in the end as labs and rotties are both big gentle giants :rolleyes:

    We moved so I had to switch daycares :( but Odie met a rottie on his first day:D

    IMG_0363.JPG
     
  9. snowbunny

    snowbunny Registered Users

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    Can't you tell by looking at his pedigree? If he has FTW or FTChs in there, he's from field lines. If he has ShChs in there, he's from show lines. If he has a mix, he's from a mix, and if he has none, he's pet :)
     
  10. FayRose

    FayRose Registered Users

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    Awww, love that big boy Brogan. Shame about that awful scary vicious pit bull he's having to deal with on Danube beach :rolleyes:
     
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  11. Teller's mom

    Teller's mom Registered Users

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    I think I can offer the perfect compromise!
    http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/mismarks.html
    Check out these cuties! Unfortunately I think they are quite rare.

    I was going to say just that but didn't want to offend anybody! Teller's trainer had rotties, they were her preferred breed, and she said they were not for a first-time dog owner or an owner who wasn't prepared to be the boss. I could never have one as I am much too soft and a total pushover. :rolleyes: Since rotties have a natural guarding instinct early socialization is critical (it is with every pup but more so in breeds that are naturally wary of strangers). There's nothing bad about that, it just means having a rottie or similar breed takes more diligence (so they can keep that lovely protective instinct in check) and an owner who is a confident leader. T's trainer did mention that her female was particularly stubborn to train but her male was easier.
     
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  12. Teller's mom

    Teller's mom Registered Users

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    Oh lord, my Shih Tzu was the same way when she was younger! Absolutely hated little dogs, I think to her they were competition, lol. There was one instance where I petted a Shih Tzu pup on our walk and she ignored me for 3 days afterward. At the groomer she would always give the other little yappers the evil eye but she made friends with this handsome Golden in a heartbeat. Now she doesn't tolerate any dogs and pushes Teller out of the way to get at his food haha.
     
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  13. Emily_BabbelHund

    Emily_BabbelHund Longest on the Forum without an actual dog

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    Ha! Love the "mismarks". What would be great for me is a Lab/Rottie cross that came out kind of the opposite of Brogan (Rottie body with Lab color vs. Lab body with Rottie color). There's one here in Regensburg that I see from time to time and he totally gets treated as a Lab but when I look at him all I see is a solid black Rottie. It's crazy how those little brown points on a Rottie really affect people'e attitudes and the their legal status.

    You wouldn't offend any Rottie person by calling them stubborn. It's kind of a point of pride talking about how stubborn/hard headed your dog can be. ;) You know, kind of like Lab people talk about how much/the weird stuff their dogs eat?

    I honestly don't know how much harder it is to socialise a Rottie vs. a Lab or other breed. I had a lot of various breed foster puppies but only two dogs I raised from puppy to adult, and those were Rotties. Neither seemed protective and pretty much loved everyone. If Duncan didn't approve of someone, he'd simply quietly put himself between me and that person and would quietly stare. No aggression, just a "You shall not pass" kinda thing. My poor Brogan was the world's biggest chicken and if he was put off by something (not someone, because he truly thought everyone was just awesome and had no judgement at all when it came to what I thought of as scary people), he would hide behind me. Sigh. Not that I wanted him to be aggressive, but the hiding behind me was so...ironic. Not the least because he honestly thought that if he was behind me he was invisible. My big sweet baby - I used to call him my "delicate flower". I do suspect, however, that you are right - that it is critical to get good socialisation in with the flock guardian breeds early so that essentially they understand that the whole world is their "flock".

    Funny story about that natural guarding instinct: my first boy, Duncan, was a real TV watcher. When he was 9 weeks old, we were watching Shawshank Redemption on TV cuddled up in bed. First time the evil prison warden comes on screen, Duncan sits up and growls! Oh, that's so cute, I think...but also just a funny co-incidence. Second time the evil prison warden comes on screen, Duncan sits up and growls AGAIN. He continued to do that throughout the movie. No co-incidence. Duncan was a master judge of "the baddie" and while he didn't growl at people (that's never OK, especially if coming from a massive adult dog), he did that calmly sitting and staring at the very rare person he didn't like which was quite effective. And he was always right...didn't do it to anyone remotely normal (his default state was happy butt wiggles), just the creepy people that we rarely encountered. He was a good one to have in your corner!
     
  14. Teller's mom

    Teller's mom Registered Users

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    I mean, I've seen some black labs that LOOK like rotties haha.
    [​IMG]

    Oh lord, that is SO true. Do rotties not eat weird stuff? :p

    Exactly! It's important to socialize all dogs but especially those with protective instincts (a point in which labs are sorely lacking lol). I'm sure it also depends a great deal on the dog's genetic makeup as well. I also think rots are more of the quiet intimidation types, GSDs are more for barking intimidation.

    That's hilarious about him and the TV. Teller watches TV if there are birds or if he hears the sound of water. Teller doesn't really growl or bark but he has a thing about statues. There was a really realistic bronze bear statue and Teller stopped, crouched and growled very low. After he realized it wasn't real he wouldn't do it again lol.
     
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  15. Emily_BabbelHund

    Emily_BabbelHund Longest on the Forum without an actual dog

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    Honestly, mine really did not. And certainly they didn't have the food fixation that a lot of people talk about here on the forum. I had a problem keeping weight ON Brogan... he just would have days that he didn't care to eat. He wasn't unwell, he just couldn't be bothered.

    Yep. If well-socialized and happy, they are not barkers but excellent grumblers. I'd think Brogan was sound asleep on the floor but if he heard something that didn't sit right with him, you'd hear this low "rumble' come out of him without him moving a muscle otherwise. it was funny but reassuring, too. He and I used to go to the beach together a lot and I knew I could fall asleep reading my book and I never had to worry about my bag disappearing or getting stepped on by a cow (they roam free at my favourite beach and sometimes get a little too intimate with the sunbathers). Also great for being able to take a nap when I got tired on long drives. He really was my right hand guy... he wasn't the bravest soul, but he always had my back. :)

    Sigh...I shouldn't go on about Rotties. I think Labs are wonderful and I will discover all sorts of amazing things about them when i get my own, but it is hard not to miss the funny Rottie-isms too.
     
  16. Teller's mom

    Teller's mom Registered Users

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    That is SO weird! Teller has never, ever refused food or treats. He is a walking garbage can, lol. He is also very active and we don't let him gorge but he tries to eat everything. Oh, and he reminds me when it's dinner time by staring at me pitifully and sticking his big nose in my ear.

    Cows? o_O I've never heard that before! Actually I've seen a cow once up-close when I went on a hike through a pasture during college. Teller is so friendly that he would greet every person and cow on the beach. I have my doubts about Teller's protective instincts but he might surprise me given how closely we are bonded. I won't hold my breath haha. He's a large dog so I think size is enough of a deterrent but one thing I can absolutely count on is his alertness. T always knows what's happening around him and would alert me (especially where animals are concerned). We went camping in the mountains with my ex, Rigby (the Pointer pup), and my old Shih Tzu last month. Teller isn't a light sleeper normally nor am I but every time there was a crunch of leaves or gravel, we'd both wake up and look at each other. At around 2 am the elderly dog had to go out to potty and T came outside off-leash and just stood watch lol. Then about an hour later we heard a pack of coyotes. Teller was staring at the side of the tent, ears-forward. Meanwhile little dog, Pigby, and the ex didn't even shift in their sleep lol. Poor T was still on alert the following night because when people came home he barked once, growled, and ran downstairs. Maybe there's hope yet! ;)
     
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  17. Emily_BabbelHund

    Emily_BabbelHund Longest on the Forum without an actual dog

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    Sounds like he was actually an excellent campsite watcher for you! Good boy!

    I posted already these in another thread, but this is my favourite "every Sunday" beach in Spain. LOTS of cows! Very helpful to have a dog alert you before they step on your head or have a poo on your beach towel! :D


    Screenshot 2016-11-28 22.13.46.png Screenshot 2016-11-28 22.27.32.png
     
  18. Teller's mom

    Teller's mom Registered Users

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    @Emily_BabbelHund - So strange! :eek: I remember having to take a driving class for a speeding ticket in Virginia and there's a law about allowing cows to cross the highway at certain times. I thought that was the weirdest thing but cows on a beach is pretty unusual. Although, we have some barrier islands off the coast of Georgia with wild horses and cows that roam free. We actually saw a rather large bull standing in the road on one trip. Are these wild as well? I'm surprised they can easily walk through the softer sand and what on earth do they eat? I don't think I've ever seen a cow who wasn't eating or sleeping lol.

    Also, your boy is so handsome! He looks about the same height as T but definitely a lot more muscular. Most of the rotties I have seen are not hugely tall but when compared to Teller they have giant heads and are twice as wide.
     
  19. Emily_BabbelHund

    Emily_BabbelHund Longest on the Forum without an actual dog

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    This is in a little town in Andalusia near Tarifa called Bolonia. The cows aren't wild, they are just part of a local herd (not sure for meat or milk...I prefer to hope they are milk cows!). They graze on the grasslands on the side of the hill, wander down the beach into town in the morning, hang out in the town during the day, and walk back to their fields to graze again in the afternoon/evening. There aren't any fences and the town is tiny - a couple hotels, a restaurant and a bar - so all the horses, dogs, cows and people just kind of hang together. No problems walking on the sand, it's pretty firm. They are very tame, but the young ones sometimes get pretty frisky and those are the ones you have to watch out for. They aren't mean or anything, just have a lot of energy and can't quite control all their legs yet. :p

    Thanks! He was very small for a Rottie, only 32 kg, maybe mixed with Lab, or maybe just small as the rescue group he came from neutered him so young. I called him my "travel sized" Rottweiler.
     
  20. Teller's mom

    Teller's mom Registered Users

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    That is strange, I wonder if we have towns in the US like that? Well some of the small coastal islands are sort of similar. Animals just sort of wander about as they please.

    That is small! Actually he weighed less than my boy and here in the US finding a lab who weighs the same as a rottie is not difficult! I think you will be able to find a handsome lab who fits your needs. Although, don't go to Ukraine... labs are on the 'dangerous breed list' there lol.
     

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