Rarer breeds showing up on craigslist

I was browsing through the pet section on Craigslist the other day and came across an ad for a poodle/malinois mix! It struck me as odd as I haven't even seen a single mal in person around here. Then today I saw an ad for a 7 month old Akbash Dog! I haven't even heard of that breed before, and I pride myself on my knowledge of dog breeds!

Anyone else seeing uncommon breeds popping up in classifieds lately?

I've seen it a little bit but to be honest I don't really go to Craigslist or Petfinder because it's like crack to me and if I was a regular visitor I'd be a hoarder.

I think a LOT of it is people mislabeling their dog.

Every week I search all of Craiglist and kijiji for Afghan hounds and almost every week I find at least one. I pass along all the info to the various Af rescue groups.
I mostly just look for sighthounds since those are the ones I can help rehome.

Haven't noticed too many rare breeds pop up on our local Kijiji but the sheer amount of dogs is shocking some times. Where the heck do they all go?

Akbashes are the slightly older, larger, and brawnier cousins of the Kuvaszok/Pyrenees. Still big and white; abit more intense and prone to reactivity though - especially to unfamiliar dogs/animals. The Akbash club people would probably chew me out for saying something like that but whatever.

Yes. A few weeks back:

Pyr/Caucasian.O puppies (yikes). The latter generally isn't recommended to be cross-bred.

Maremmas
BYB Kuvasz's
Keeshond
Buhund
And a 9 week old Chow bitch with the following note:

"Unfortunately me and my girlfriend broke up and I work shift work so I will will be unable to properly take care of her. Winnie is a Purebred Female Chow Chow puppy just had her over two weeks arrived from Quebec paid $1200 I am selling her for $800 included is brand new crate, leashes collar, toys. She has her first shots and dewormed. She has a great temperament and had been socialized since she's arrived, already housetrained only one or two accidents but let's you know when she needs to go outside."

Oh gawd; Kids/animals CANNOT be left behind in the aftermath of a break up/divorce. DON'T get a dog together and abandon it after the relationship goes kaboom. My ex wanted to get a shih tzu for me and it would be our "little baby" (his words, not mine). I declined firmly for several reasons:

1 - I detest shih tzu's. I would have said no to any other dog too unless it was a breed/dog that I really liked/loved and that I would have no problems taking in all for myself should we break up.

2 - I was unsure of a future with him and he had a lofty character; the dog would have ended up on craigslist, a shelter, or dumped in a box on SPCA's doorstep

3 - There's only room for one and only one Oriental bitch in any relationship of mine.

ahahaha


I've noticed an increase in uncommon breeds being on kijiji/craiglist too. People are obsessed with being the only ones who have something, so it's not surprising. However it's not good because a lot of the breeds who are not common have a big reason as to why they aren't.

Heck I even saw a Pharaoh Hound being rehomed once. I was astounded. I don't think I have even ever seen one in real life before.

My Ibizan Hound was found on Craigslist. I haven't seen any others here since except for a Malinois (though I don't check often), but since they didn't post a photo on their ad I'm not positive if it actually was a mal or not.

Malindoodles huh? That's...interesting. Wonder if they look like Laekens!

I see far more mislabeled rare breeds on CL than actual rare breeds on CL. Right after I got Roust, there was another Malinois listed on CL. My first reaction was "great...one of his siblings I'm sure". But when I looked at the ad, it was a tan, leggy dog with big half flopped ears and not really a Mal at all. It was a stray dog these people had taken in but wasn't getting along with their resident dog so they were looking for a home for him. That said...there are occasionally Filas on our CL because there's umm...pet breeders of them in the area. There was a young Komondor listed once too but he was farm bred. I think you're more likely to find rare LSGs listed on CL or in classifieds because if they are working bred, the people who have them aren't necessarily "dog people". Same with working bred BCs, Aussies and ACDs. And of course, I have also seen well bred dogs being offered by caring people on CL just as a way to get the word out. Rehomes that breeders have gotten back, rescues people took in and are looking to place, etc. I don't think there is really a wrong place to advertise a dog needing a home, as long as you are going to screen. It's the "free to any home" sort of posts that are a worrisome but that is certainly not the case with all people advertising on CL or any other classified site or in the newspaper. I have found some of my best pet puppy homes through puppy classified websites.

This. Especially mixes because generally the people don't really know what their dog is mixed with unless it was actually purchased from a breeder, so they just slap a name on them and tend for the "cooler"/rarer breeds. Whenever I get asked what breed Zuma is, absolutely nobody is satisfied with my answer that she's a "mix", they always push on wanting to know what she's mixed with, well how the heck am I supposed to know? She was found as a stray. Yes, she most likely is border collie something but unless I know that for sure I'm just going to say she's a mix.

We see a fair number of Malinois on CL across the country lately, unfortunately. However, a MalinDOODLE is new. I have seen a few rare breeds and I always try to direct them to their breed rescue or parent club.

I definitely think there are a fair number of mislabeled dogs out there. These days the new rage around here, especially my work, is calling any small blonde/black masked shepherd mix a malinois. (insert eye roll here)

Also a lot of the malinois here off CL, pure or not, are ginormous and confusing the general public. It's like deja vu, first my properly sized pit bull was too small to be a pit bull and now my properly sized malinois are too small to be malinois. LOL

Short answer, most people are ignorant.

Ugh, one of my hugest pet peeves is labeling a mix as some really obscure, rare breed that it sorta resembles.

The "rescue" (I use that term very loosely) that handled a large number of the dogs from the bust Scout was born into the aftermath of, labels a ton of the dogs Malinois, Terv, and Groen.... knowing and having met more individuals of the Belgian breeds.... yeah they are all GSD/husky mixes.

But of course a long coat sable dog just must be a Terv mix because dontcha know GSD's never come in that.

LGD's are common here because of all the livestock, but you hardly ever see them on Craigslist. Breeders advertise in the ag newspaper and tend to only sell to people who need them for LGD duty. There are a few sketch byb's and once in a while dogs end up in shelter, but its not anywhere near as common as the byb BC's that are flooding the shelters. BC's are as common as labs here though.

Just today I saw an ad for "German Malinois Shepherd" pups in my area. Looked at the pic and they were both German Shepherds, one was a dark sable color the other was black and tan....

This happens all the time with Basenjis and I find it extremely irritating. I can't even look at Petfinder without grinding my teeth. People label any smallish, "brown" and white, shortish haired dog as a Basenji or Basenji-mix. If the dog has temperament or behavior problems, they blame the breed, even if there isn't one drop of Basenji in it. Ugh.

It's also an issue of 'rare' being the new 'in thing to have'.

Back in the day, everyone around had the sameish breed of popular dog.. and that was considered pretty cool so the same kinds of dogs ended up on craigslist/rehomed as a result (think dalmatians, goldens etc.. they had a HUGE rise in popularity, everyone got them and then there was a huge spike in these dogs needing homes..)

but as time went on, different was the 'in' thing to have.. soo.. dogs needing to be rehomed are more and more rare/different.


BUT I also really really hate rescues that label dogs with these rare breeds.
Like chances are, that dog isn't a chinook just because it has the rightish coloring.. those dogs are pretty rare.

Or how about all those New Guinea singing dogs running around...:rofl1: