It's not fair!

You know why people at animal shelters just shouldn't even try to figure out what breed their dogs are? Because they have no clue.

We found a wonderful little girl at the humane society, and she's half off because she's been there more than a month. Here's the problem. They have her marked as a "pit bull".

Now, this dog is 25 lbs, brindled/blue merle/tricolor. She is 8 months old. She is tall and lean for her weight. Her ears stand straight up and flop at the tips. Here is a terrible picture of her face.



Her face markings (She has very heavy black eyeliner on too, which you can't see in the picture) are very close to several catahoula leopard dog pics that I have seen. That and her merle and lean build would make sense with that breed in the mix.

The thing that gets me is she is tiny, has standing up pointy huge ears, and is very trim. If you crossed a pit and catahoula, you'd probably get something bigger than 25 lbs, with floppy ears, and not so trim (more buff) looking. Same thing with an ACD, which is the only other mix I can think of her being and still being a merle dog. She would be a lot buffer instead of long and lean like a hound. I think that she is definitely a bully mix, but leaning towards boston bull terrier.

The frustrating thing about this, is that we submitted an adoption application but probably won't be able to adopt her because someone labeled this obvious mutt who came to the shelter as a stray, a "pitbull", and our landlord has Allstate insurance who won't insure homes with pits. It makes me so angry because there is no way to prove either way what exactly she is. She a just a small mutt and because of the stupidity of insurance companies + ignorant and thoughtless people who do shelter breed designations, this little dog probably won't get a home. You'd think that if the shelter can't adopt certain breeds to homes with certain insurance, they'd make sure to label mutts as the other half of the mix, instead of the supposed prohibited half. ArGH!

I know how you feel! When the pound, here, labels them as Pit Bulls they are not adoptable. They do not adopt out "pits"
see dogs here
I don't understand how some dogs are 'pits' and others are 'mixes' when sometimes the 'mixes' look more like pits than the pits do

Why don't you take in the pictures you have of the catahoulas and try to talk the shelter into relabelling her so you can take her home? I agree with you, she has some pit but that's sure not what she is mostly made up of.

Please give the shelter people a break. Most people who work at shelters are animal lovers and are there to help save the animals. They are not experts in determining dogs breeds. With a little help from you, maybe this little girl can leave the shelter with you labeled a catahoula mix.

they always seem to go by the head shape. that dog has a pit head. but the body and ears and everything else are off. that is the first thing people see though is that head. very cute dog though and I hope you can adopt!

Brattina a lot of those pits time was up yesterday

APBT can have prick ears.... and they are not supposed to be big dogs....the merle gene can come from a number of breeds....looks like a pit mix to me...

I dont see any catahoula in her.....

I know, isn't it sad ?

She is such a cutie! I agree that she does look to have a fair amount of pit in her. The hard part is that I'm sure the shelters don't want to adopt mislabeled pits out to unsuspecting people. Imagine how upset some people would be to adopt a dog, and then have other people point out that it is a pit. Or to have a dog that they think isn't pit, and as a result run into insurance or BSL problems after adopting the dog. While I know how hard it is for pits to get adopted, it isn't going to help people to have them mislabeled either. What a hard situation.

Since she's so small, maybe she's part Staffordshire Bull Terrier?

She is deff. a bully breed. I think that I prefer shelters to label them that way because someone wanting a lab or other dog and finding out it is a bully mix may not be so good. Again because of insurance and places banning them it is better to have the shelter acknowledge that they have some bully in them rather then to get them back later because of breed and not being allowed to keep it. JMO

i would ask the shelter if they have any idea what hes mixed with and if they could put that as her predominant breed on her paperwork, i see some bully typeness to her but shes uber cute and if you can get them to list any of the other things they think is mixed into her on the paperwork or list her as a mixed breed it would help.

I do agree, some shelters just have NO clue. I once saw a 4 month old GSD labeled as a ACD! I mean, come on people, there was no mistake, the pup was full GSD. Sometimes I wonder if people just woke up one morning and decided they were just going to randomly mark dog breeds.

Hmm. . .I do see bully breed in her, I think. And pits can have prick ears. Elegy, a member on Chaz has a purebred pit with prick ears.

Well, it's a moot point now because my landlord freaked and said no dogs that are controversial with insurance. She was actually a little sad about it too, because she thought Lola was really cute and her most favorite dog ever was a pit boxer mix.

The guy at the shelter who was trying to help us with the adoption runs a pit rescue, and he even said he didn't see any pit in her. He agreed with us, that it was some toy bully breed like french bulldog or maybe a boston terrier. I wish we had a pic of her from the side, she's very petite, not as extreme as an italian greyhound or chi, but definitely not the stocky muscular build of an acd or pit.

And yes, this shelter has no clue. They charge $135 for purebreds, and $80 for mutts. In the kennel next to hers was a obviously purebred blue neo marked as a sharpei mix, and several down was a purebred looking black and tan coonhound marked as a shepherd mix. The sad thing is, the helpful guy told us that they actually PAY someone to come into the shelter from Phoenix, who is a "breed expert" to designate what dog is what..... It's totally ridiculous and he was ticked off that person gets paid to misidentify dogs. HE knew that the dog in the kennel was a purebred neo, but they aren't allowed to change it once the paid "Expert" makes their determination.

I normally don't go along with the guesses on "pit bull" mixes, but I would label that one as a "pit bull" mix. With the merle coat pattern, it tells me that there is definitely another breed (or probably 2 more) in there as none of the "pit bull" breeds (APBTs, ASTs, SBTs, BTs) carry the merle gene.

This dog could very well be a Catahoula/"pit bull" mix.

We thought maybe even, not so much "pit" but a catahoula bulldog mixed with something really small. The catahoula bulldogs often are mistaken for pits and they have the merle pattern as well.

Catahoula something is a good bet around here anyway, as they are extremely common in this neck of the woods. I had never even heard of them before moving here.

Catahoula Bulldogs are Catahoula x American Bulldog mixes & are always larger than the dog in question as AB's are a large breed whereas APBTs, ASTs, SBTs, & BTs are medium sized breeds.

Even so, the AB is still categorized as a "pit bull" so the dog would still be a "pit bull mix" regardless of how you look at it.

And IMO, it's much worse to adopt out a dog under false advertising which sets both the dog & the owner up for failure & puts unneeded risks out there.

I was looking through Petfinder and came across this dog. I was thinking "Wow, she looks familiar. . ." for a second.