What Breed Is --- Kim?

[Shai]

I've never done one of these and suddenly really wondered what everyone here thought... what breeds do you think comprise the mysterious ancestry of my dear Queen Kim?

~12 weeks old (Petfinder picture)


~15 weeks old (shortly after coming home)



As an adult:







(her tail doesn't really corkscrew but she was wagging it here...it's straight at the base and first 1/2 or so, and the last half hooks)


She thinks she's stealthy. Doesn't really work on a mowed lawn...


Grin


She does this a lot...rolling in ick lol...and you can see her chest white a bit here


Mouse-hunting and something of her jumping style.


Known History:
Found in a ditch in Tennessee. Dumped there with several littermates (estimated seven or so) but she was the only one still alive when the locals got around to calling the rescue folks two weeks later. The rest disappeared one by one at night...they'd wake up and there would be another pup missing. They told the rescue folks they thought the last one (soon to become Kim) had survived by shimmying under a nearby outbuilding at night. No parents and no description of the littermates are available.

She was spayed around 5 months old.

Size and Appearance:
In addition to what you can see in the photos, she is right at 23" tall at the shoulder and 47lbs. Color is a nearly clear sable (she had more black as a pup, especially on her tail, but it has mostly cleared with age). It's deceptively thick and long, easily 4" in her mane, but very tight and it repels water, sheds burrs, and is pretty much the canine equivalent of Teflon. And when she sheds it all the birds in the state could line their nests...it just keeps coming... Ears are semi-prick but it's possible they would have stood erect if I hadn't thought they were cute and massaged the fold pretty often when she was a pup. They weren't taped though and I don't know if that would have been enough to keep them down if they really wanted to stand.

Personality:
She gets on well with all dogs and humans, of any shape/size/age. She also bends them to her will if given the slightest opportunity. Tends toward rather strange quirks like witnessing a laundry basket falling off a couch as a puppy and deciding that folding laundry is clearly evil. Even though no laundry was actually being folded at the moment it fell. Not the clothes itself...and she will even play in a basket or just laugh if you cover her in a sheet...but if you start folding laundry she will, to this very day, leave the room and go hang out far away until you are done. She is also motion reactive. As a pup even before she lost her fear of humans (due to the undersocialization as a very young puppy we believe) she would wait behind the sofa til one of us walked down the hall then would dart out and nip at our heels to push us through...then vanish if you turned to look at her.

Other quirks involve digging cooling pits for herself, nesting, holding one toy in her mouth while she pushes several others around the house on the floor, an obsession with rules (though she likes to claim she is an exception from time to time). She's pretty biddable but wants to know what's in it for her and is quite happy to make her own decisions and tell you if yours was wrong. She would love to live outdoors forever...or at least until it rains. She has and does systematically and successfully hunted mice and rabbits, particularly mice. She'll retrieve but mostly because she knows it annoys Mira or because there's a reward history.

That's all that comes to mind...

[Dizzy]

I see lab, collie (smooth or rough - her face shape as a puppy mainly!).. She could be anything though really!

[Toller_08]

I have no idea other than probably Collie. But I wish Kim was an actual breed! I love her.

[avaloncoolies]

I saw Smooth Collie in her pup pics for sure...and maybe some kelpie in there somewhere back...hard to tell but smooth collie jumped out at me!!

[Aleron]

Probably a multi-generation mix? She's has a bit of a Carolina Dog thing going on.

[tzigane]

My first thoughts were Smooth Collie, Border Collie (the stealthiness reminded me of a Border), maybe some Golden in there (I can't put my finger on that one, so I'd take it with a grain of salt)? The hooked tail looks familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on where I've seen it.

[Linds]

Breed Awesome? Is that a valid breed?

I really don't know other than what everyone has said as far as collie in there. But, I want one of her. Her crazy thick fur that doesn't look it fascinates me.

[SpringerLover]

Definitely Collie and... some kind of bigger terrier? Airedale/Irish?

[Airn]

Originally Posted by Aleron

Probably a multi-generation mix? She's has a bit of a Carolina Dog thing going on.

I would agree with this. A mix of different breeds, but IMO, this is the closest breed match.

[sassafras]

Man in that very first picture, other than her color she looks ALL collie.

Something about her build says lab to me, too, but... man, I don't know. She's a mystery for the ages.