Question for Mutt owners......

[colliewog]

If I had a mix, I'd call it a [predominant breed] mix, i.e. if it were a Collie mix, I would say Collie mix, not just mix. But I also have a problem with giving too much information to people who ask about my dogs.

[BostonBanker]

I often just use a color. Meg's a purebred, but not a breed most people are aware of, so if I don't feel like chatting, when people ask what kind of dog she is, I say "a brown one" and leave it at that.

[Lizmo]

Originally Posted by FluffyZooCrew

I don't use the 'cutsie' names. I agree, it only encourages designer breeding/buying. If I say I've got, for example, a "Malti-Poo" and someone thinks my dog is adorable and then they want one too, they're liable to go out and look for a "Malti-Poo" breeder.

Exactly.

I always call Lizzie a Border Collie/Aussie.

[Picklepaige]

I call Maggie a dalmation mix. Even though we're pretty sure she also has lab, beagle, and some sort of bully breed in her, she was listed as a dalmation mix at the shelter, so we'll just keep calling her that.

[Bailey08]

I usually just shrug and say he's a mutt. But I don't know what the heck Bailey is.

Sometimes people really push me to tell them what the mix is, but it's kind of goofy. Everyone has a different guess so how am I supposed to know what he is? (And I change my own guesses fairly regularly.)

[lizzybeth727]

I also find the "designer" names annoying. But MAYBE if I had a poodle mix I MIGHT call it the -doodle name, just because those are becomming so common people would probably correct me if I didn't say it. But that would only be if I knew the mix for sure.

My dog Luna is from a shelter so we don't know where she came from, but I truely believe she's a "deer head chihuahua." They're being bred more commonly, but since I personally don't consider it a real breed, I have never told someone that that's what she is (except friends and people who know deer heads aren't a real breed). For all I know, though, she could be a chi/terrier mix or something, so sometimes I get the, "She doesn't really LOOK like a chihuahua!" I'll say she came from a shelter and is probably a mix.

We get this question a lot with the service dogs I work with, though, and it's a little more complicated there. They come from shelters so we usually don't know what they are. But telling people that the dog is a "_______ breed" is pretty much an advertisement for that breed..... so we try to be tasteful and vague. For example, we have a dog now that is truely a mix of several different things, but the best we can think to call him is an anatolian mix; but the trouble is that it's a rare anatolian that has the temperment of a service dog, especially this particular dog, so we don't necessarily want people rushing out and buying an anatolian just like the one they saw as a service dog. So to the public we just call him a mix.

[lizzybeth727]

Oh, and one big pet peeve? When people say their dog "is just a mutt," like a mutt is worth less than a purebred.

[Ratboy]

Every time I take King and Molly to a kennel, or almost anywhere else, they always say "Border Collie Mix", even though I tell them they aren't, the mom was a Lab/Doberman, and dad was "probably" the Husky next door. Side by side with a real BC or most BC mixes, the body is different, the head and eyes aren't quite right, and the back legs aren't right at all, King and Molly both, but King especially is "rear wheel drive". Except for the cat herding, and mouse hunting King does, he just doesn't have the obsessiveness most BC's have.

[StillandSilent]

S&S....you could call Radar a Whip-Ass !

Ding Ding Ding we have a winner!
My mother was laughing about the "Whapett". She's going to pee herself when she hear Whip-Ass!

[Dizzy]

Bit of a mouthful saying "she's a boxer staff collie springer lab mix"

So I just say she's a bit of everything

And if people ask what, I tell them.