Breed recognition fail

[Red.Apricot]

Elsie's breed is guessed wrongly pretty much every time someone asks, but I figure that comes with the territory. She's been a GSD, GSD mix, husky, husky mix, chow, chow mix, fox, wolf, coyote, collie, collie mix...

What baffles me are the people who either argue with me about what she is ("No, Belgian shepherd dogs are much bigger than that. She's a German shepherd.") or the people who accuse me of making it up. ("I've never heard of those... are they real?")

[Sit Stay]

Originally Posted by Toller_08

Dance gets a lot of "red nosed pit bull" guesses. Yep. Long coat and all. And if it's not that, people tend to either think she's a designer breed or an Aussie.

This surprises me! Lately the vast majority of guesses we've gotten with Quinn have been people asking if she's a Toller or Toller cross. I was actually surprised at how many people on the street know what a Toller is here - I wonder if they're just more popular in Ontario or maybe just this area.

[Laurelin]

Originally Posted by Red.Apricot

Elsie's breed is guessed wrongly pretty much every time someone asks, but I figure that comes with the territory. She's been a GSD, GSD mix, husky, husky mix, chow, chow mix, fox, wolf, coyote, collie, collie mix...

What baffles me are the people who either argue with me about what she is ("No, Belgian shepherd dogs are much bigger than that. She's a German shepherd.") or the people who accuse me of making it up. ("I've never heard of those... are they real?")

I've had a couple people insist that my dogs were chihuahua mixes. They ask what they are and I say papillon and they say 'Oh that's chihuahua and what mix?' I say, 'No, just a papillon. They're a purebred dog.' 'Oh I know, but what did they mix with chihuahua to make one?'

There was one really mean lady with a border collie that I was admiring that kept on insisting that my dogs looked like aliens and HAD to be part shih tzu.

My favorite guess is still chinchilla for them.

[Toller_08]

Originally Posted by Sit Stay

This surprises me! Lately the vast majority of guesses we've gotten with Quinn have been people asking if she's a Toller or Toller cross. I was actually surprised at how many people on the street know what a Toller is here - I wonder if they're just more popular in Ontario or maybe just this area.

BC and Ontario both have a lot of Tollers, so people probably recognize them more in those provinces. A lot of people here also know what she is and are excited to see one in person, but I still get more incorrect guesses than correct ones.

[Lyzelle]

Everyone always tells me that Zander is a Wolf Hybrid. I mean, it's just so obvious. Look at those gold eyes!!! Or an Akita. Or Shiba.

Yeah. I've never had someone guess Zander's breed correctly.

[~Dixie's_Mom~]

Originally Posted by ~Jessie~

Someone asked me if Chloe was a "Husky puppy"- apparently any dog with blue eyes has to be a Husky!

hahahahaha!!

Thankfully people always assume Violet is a husky or a malamute. People who guess malamute always say "but she's so BIG for a husky" she's 41lbs and a bit above knee height! I don't think she's very big at all. She can sit in my lap Lol!

People always think Chloe is full Chihuahua. I don't understand. She looks more like a Doxie than a Chi to me.

[Linds]

I forgot about this one:
A
week or two after Didgie got here I was out with her and Traveler and this women was running by and stopped dead, backed up and looked at Didgie and said "Is that a....pig?"

And after that Didgie got renamed to Little Pig Nose

[crazedACD]

Skye's usually a pit or greyhound. Zoie no one has any guess. Romeo has been called a GSD mix..oh cattle dogs only come in blue!

I've gotten the wolf guesses about Casey, and someone asked if Boomer was a bear once? Yeah..because you see people walking around with bears...?

[JessLough]

Rosey gets called a "GSD... Wait no.. She can't be... She's too small!" so then they add BC cause 95% of dogs here are BC or BC mixes

[SaraB]

Originally Posted by Linds

I don't expect anyone to know what a Koolie is, if they did I might just keel over. But I do expect people not to tell me what my breed is. And everyone around here seems to think they're an expert on 'houlas and therefore my dog since he is one

I get all sort of breed guesses for Zuma from chihuahua to border collie. Zinga on the other hand, very few people have guessed they normally just ask. I've gotten one or two catahoula's and a speckling of cattle dogs, except for when we met a guy from Australia who's brother has a koolie, he guessed it right away and I did just about keel over.