Food is not a reward

Auggie is right. Pretty much certain, you have a dog with a good bit of some sort of pit in him. Calling him something else isn't going to change that. Like Auggie said, you may as well save your money and just make something up. Any adopter needs to KNOW if he is mostly pit and be comfortable adopting that and aware of any breed tendencies they will be taking on.

What part of the country are you in?

If the country is Canada, I'm in the west. Alberta, to be exact. You make good points about how to "market" this guy. I hate that word, but he needs a forever home and we can't keep him due to our municipality's two dog limit.

What a cutie! He really, really reminds me of a Boston Terrier / Chi mix we had in rescue here, he's just a bit bigger. He could be a Boston / Pit mix - that underbite is very Boston-y.

The rescue group thinks he might have Boston in there. I really know nothing of either breeds. My two dogs are a Keeshond and an American Eskimo X.

except when I said it



I agree that the dog is too new and stressed to expect much for now

Agree, those DNA tests are a total waste of money if you want to know what your dog is.

If you want the scientific explanation why I can post it again lol. But don't want to bore you if you dont' want the explanation

Yeah, and me...

What if he's American Bulldog and not a Pit Bull? I know Pit Bulls are a mixed breed. I also know, or I have read, that a few Pit Bulls have been saved from death by animal catcher, BSL or high insurance rates for their owners when results of DNA tests that show they are a mix (not a "pure bred Pit Bull" ) . Its not my intention to deceive potential adopters. I do think he's getting the bad end of the stick, though, because he appears to be mostly Pit and we aren't even sure if he is.

He's not an AmBull, he looks all wrong for it.

I'd say your best guess is he's a pitty/Boston mix, maybe with one other "bully" type breed in there. But for the sake of disclosure and BSL, he's a pitbull. It's the rare place that will care about the distinction between "pitbull" and "American Bulldog". Most people can't tell them apart anyway, so most of the BSL laws don't even bother trying. That's why, at least here in the states, they're written in such a way as to ban dogs with the physical characteristics of a "pitbull", with little regard for actual genetics (or common sense )

Even if your dog is a purebred golden its still likely to come back something else. So yes if you want to paperwork to say tis not a pit breed then go for it. Just be prepared if it DOES come back bully breed.

I personally can't stand when people mislabel pits at the shelter. The shelter I volunteer at does it all the time.
One, people who rent or live somewhere with BSL and are oblivious to the fact that their dog is a pit bull risk getting evicted or having their dog taken and killed.
Two, when the people adopt their wonderful pittie but don't know he's a pittie they continue to dislike pits even though there's is great because they thought their dog was something else.
Three, some people who don't like pits will return the dog after enough people tell him it's a pit bull.
Four, the people like me who go on petfinder looking for pit bulls will not get him to come up on their search so even though he might be just what they are looking for they won't know he's out there.
Five, pit bulls, like every breed, have their own breed traits like high energy and dog aggression that they need to be prepared for. If they think they are getting a breed without those tendencies it could be a poor match and the dog and person would be unhappy.

So don't lie. Feel free to say he's mixed but don't leave out that he's a pit and just make sure to gloat about his awesome qualities.

I think the adopters should know for SURE what the dog is, for the dog's sake. But if people want to do the DNA test so insurance companies don't get to turn ppl away.. then I am fine.

I don't know if anyone knows FOR SURE what this dog is, except that he is without a forever home. Thanks for all of your ideas about his breed and the pros and cons of relabeling a dog that looks like a Pit Bull.

adojrts - Thank you. It turns out that the run itself is the reward. Corky loves to run. If he pulls I stop. He doesn't like stopping so every time he pulls a bit less.

The dog is jsut suffering from sensory overload right now. Give it time and it will come around. You should try and get a training clicker and just start clicking it every time you give the dog a treat. No training. Just sit in front of the dog and give the dog the treat and click. Keep doing it until they start to associate the sound with the click. Eventually it will help you get the dogs attention and make BOTH of your training experiences happy ones.