another (what is she?) thread....

Hello, we recently adopted another puppy from our local humane society. we were told she was a chow/husky mix. they said they thought she was somewhere around 4 months old. they did not have alot of information about her. they did say however that she was a surrender from a family that was unable to take care of her due to there current living situation. one of the office staff did say that the family that surrendered her had purchased her from a specific breeder and had paid alot of money for her. she said they were only going on what the family had said the type of breed she was as they were unsure. its a sad story to hear that the family was unable to care for this beautiful dog. to me she does not look like a husky at all.

when i first saw her, to me i thought she was an akita right away. she looks and acts the part somewhat. although she also has some characteristics of the chow breed as well. i have read lots of information about both breeds mentioned and think i'm pretty close. what do you think?

i have read that akita's do not have black tongues, and that chow do. her entire mouth is black and her tongue is a black,dark greyish color. her coat is very thick. for some reason the other owners had shaved her from the neck back. her coat has grown back and is almost even currently. i have been taking her everywhere and introducing her to as many people as possible. she is alittle shy at first but seems friendly to everyone. she is not a fan of people wearing dark clothing , which is a similar trait with all my dogs. it makes it tough for me sometimes, due to the uniform i wear for work.

Kimber hardly ever barks, which i love. our other dogs bark at almost anyone that walks by or critters that venture into our large yard. her bark is very unique. its very deep, and different that any other dog i've ever heard. she is very strong for such a little puppy. she drinks alot of water. we live right on the coast and its normally between 60 to 75 year round. high in the summer can reach 95 or 100 but maybe 10 days a year at that temp.

Kimber is short and very stocky and walks like she knows it too. her tail is curled up like an akita. she gets along with the other dogs and loves to play with them. she plays rough and never cries. she is stubborn at times, and i have found that treats work very well to get her to do what i want. she is very protective of our family, and for the most part very loving. there are times when she seems to want her space and will go lay down in a quiet part of the house, but when its time for the children to come home she is waiting for them to get off the bus.

most of the time she follows me everywhere, and seems to need to lay right where your standing. she always has be touching you. usually its a leg or her butt. she will sit on your foot for example when you are in the kitchen cooking. she picks up training very quickly but is stubborn at times.

at first she seemed like she was not growing at all. she is always hungry and i started to feed her in the mornings and at night. our other dogs have always had the big dog feeders and eat when they want. Kimber seemed to not be getting enough food and so i started feeding her in the afternoon as well. about 2 to 2 1/2 cups of dry food at each feeding. she eats it very quickly. currently as of 3 days ago, she weighs 32 pounds. i'm curious how big she will become.

the staff at the shelter said "about 60 pounds" which i'm not so sure about. she recently has seemed to be on a growth spurt. she is getting alittle taller, but mostly her increasingly growing head and muscle development are the most noticeable. her nose is short and her mouth is almost shaped like a triangle. she does not have the pushed in wrinkled look of a chow.

she has a very unique face and coloring around her eyes. it looks like she has heavy black eye liner on, and her eyes are almond shaped.

her coat does not seem to be like a chow at all. it is very thick and compact. you can see underneath the fur, her skin is colored black. she has seriously web feet, and is a maniac in the water, lol. she is the first dog i have ever had that loves to put her whole head under the water.

i don't care if she is 50 or 150 pounds. i am concerned about making sure if she is an akita and is going to be a very large breed, that i make sure she is getting enough food. she is alittle of a piggy at times, and loves the treats. so i might be confusing her hunger with wanting it.

many people that have seen Kimber say "wow is that an akita?" or i get "i have never seen a dog like that, its very unique looking". then i get all the warnings about, if thats an akita, first off she will be an enormous dog and to hard to handle, to she is a one person, one dog owner type. so far she has gotten along with my 2 young girls very well, and seems to love them more then she does me. Kimber gets along with all our other dogs very well, and blended into the pack with ease. she even plays with our outside cat. she seems to be very curious about the cat, but is never aggressive towards her.

the color of her coat has me puzzled. its white and i guess a light orange color. i have not seen any chows or akitas with this color. are they any other breeds that have black tongues?

now for the pictures...
as a puppy, when we first got her.





and from just the other day...






so, what do you think? is she a chow? a husky? an akita?
how big do you think she will be? is there any considerations i need to know about if she is an akita? i was thinking that the shelter's primary goal was to have her adopted and maybe did not want to disclose that she was a possible aggressive dog. i know i can train her to be a great family dog, so i'm not worried about that, but i have heard alot of not so great things about akitas. thanks for listening and your help.

my first thought was shiba mix, but thats cause of the ears, very posibly akita mix...

How old is she right now?

we are not totally sure. going on what the shelter said, she is 5 months old.

She does look rather like an Akita. I read somewhere that Akitas and Shibas are almost like different sizes of the same breed (I could be wrong though). Akitas CAN have dark mouths, but its a fault I think (just browsed the AKC website).

She looks like Akita/Husky mix.

What a pretty girl! Funny someone mentioned Shiba Inu, I was thinking the same thing when I saw the puppy pictures. She's too big for that, tho. Her face and head remind me of a Siberian in the second to last pic. She could be a Chow/Siberian mix. There is a smooth coated variety of Chows. Here's a link to one: http://www.majestychows.com/rosie.htm

Akita pups are typically about 32 lbs by 12-16weeks old. I do not see the Akita about the head as there's no cheekiness or roundness. Put a spectacle marking and change the coat to black and she'd pass for Sibe. The placement of the ears towards the top of the head, ditto.

I'd say the guess of Chow/Sibe is pretty dead on.

thanks for the link. i checked it out. i also read about the shiba's, and she looks very much like some of the photos. actually there were a few that looked like they could have been her sister or brother. although as previously stated she has already gone well over the top weight. she looks like that but is bigger already. i thought huskies were strictly black and white?

Sibes are often very oversized,...IMO. Seldom do I see one close to standard as far as pets go...more tall lanky and weighing more.

thank you very much for your help. that is what the shelter said she was, at first glance she just didn't look like that to me. as far as feeding goes, should i continue with the 3 feedings a day? thank you

Here is an Akita growth chart.
http://www.akita1.com/ND/growth.html

I do two meals a day here for the one pup I have...but everyone is different.

about how much are you giving them per meal?

i see what your saying about the rounder face of the akita. she has it, but its not as predominate as most of the photos i've seen of the akitas.

Cleo is my puppy (Leonberger)...she is currently around 50something lbs and is 5 months old. She gets 2c. in am and 2c pm but also an egg or yogurt mixed in to each meal.

for the first year should i stay with the same amount of food per meal? i have had many dogs, but this is the first one i have ever fed daily instead of the bucket of food concept. should i expect her to be mostly fully grown at 1 year? and then should i adjust her food amount then?

I have found dogs eat more when they are growing...the amount of food can actually go down when they are adult vs puppy. WHAT you feed has a lot to do with the amount, in general on the bag recommendations are too much, tho.

I am no expert on diet...others here know far more. But splitting the total daily amount into two feeding can be carried into adulthood if you wish. If she seems plump cut it down..thin add to it, etc. The idea with pups is to keep them lean but not thin. This can be hard with a pup with coat..get your hands in there and really feel to make sure she feels a good weight.

She should be done growing anytime between 10months and 3 years actually...it all depends on the dog. But yes in medium to smaller large breeds at 1 year growth slows and sometimes stops.

Nope. They can be any shade of black and white or red and white or even solid white. They can have blue or brown eyes, oneof each or either color with a fleck or two of the other, too. Here's a link to photos of Siberians. http://images.google.com/images?q=s...rls=com.microsoft:en-US&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf8&um=1

one last question... are there any other breeds of dogs that have black tongues or is that a chow trait only?


thank you all for your help. no matter what she is, it looks like she is going to be a large breed and i will feed her accordingly. i can't wait until this summer to take her to the lakes. she already goes nuts in our 2 ponds we have, i can only imagine what she will do then.

Shar Pei. Other breeds can have black pigmentation in the mouth like the roof or lips but as to tongue? Those two are the one's I know of.

she could be a mix of any of those breeds but she is really pretty and i am almost sure she is going to be between 65 to 85 pounds when she is grown