Thanks for the thoughts, everyone! It's really interesting to hear what people think! I agree that whatever he is, he's adorable. His name is Tigh ("Ty"). I realized that I forgot to mention his name before!
I took a picture tonight that shows the spots he's developing. These weren't here a month ago! Which I guess you can see from the older pictures of him. Do they look like ticking? That makes a lot of sense... I knew that dalmations developed spots as puppies, but I didn't know about ticking in other breeds.
Romy asked about his personality... he's extremely friendly. He thinks that every person or dog he sees is his new best friend. He also thinks that our cats are his best friends, but they disagree! He's also very smart, smarter than any other dog I've known. It's actually our biggest problem with him, because he does things like figuring out how to open doors so that he can get to places where he's not supposed to go. I'm taking him to obedience class, and one day another dog was barking, and the trainer told it to be quiet, then gave it a treat when it stopped barking. Tigh was watching all of that, and immediately started barking so that he could get a treat too! He hadn't barked once before that. He can also be stubborn... if I have a treat with me, he'll obey any command he knows, immediately. But if he knows that I don't have a treat, he often just ignores me.
Let's see... he also chews on everything in sight and has a lot of energy, but those might just be because he's still a puppy. He loves digging holes. He digs a hole in our yard every time I have my back turned. He also likes to pile things up. For example, he'll go in the closet, pull all of my clothes off of the shelves that he can reach, and put them in a big pile in the bedroom. He isn't really into fetching games... he likes to chase after toys if I throw them, but then he just shakes them around and throws them into the air again himself.
I don't really know what kinds of behaviors are typical of different breeds, so I don't know if any of that is informative or not! Tigh is the first dog I've ever had, and it's been a real learning experience! I'm actually thinking about taking him to an agility class at some point. I think it would be fun for me and for him. Does anyone have any advice about that sort of thing?
Again, thanks for all of the comments!
I took a picture tonight that shows the spots he's developing. These weren't here a month ago! Which I guess you can see from the older pictures of him. Do they look like ticking? That makes a lot of sense... I knew that dalmations developed spots as puppies, but I didn't know about ticking in other breeds.
Romy asked about his personality... he's extremely friendly. He thinks that every person or dog he sees is his new best friend. He also thinks that our cats are his best friends, but they disagree! He's also very smart, smarter than any other dog I've known. It's actually our biggest problem with him, because he does things like figuring out how to open doors so that he can get to places where he's not supposed to go. I'm taking him to obedience class, and one day another dog was barking, and the trainer told it to be quiet, then gave it a treat when it stopped barking. Tigh was watching all of that, and immediately started barking so that he could get a treat too! He hadn't barked once before that. He can also be stubborn... if I have a treat with me, he'll obey any command he knows, immediately. But if he knows that I don't have a treat, he often just ignores me.
Let's see... he also chews on everything in sight and has a lot of energy, but those might just be because he's still a puppy. He loves digging holes. He digs a hole in our yard every time I have my back turned. He also likes to pile things up. For example, he'll go in the closet, pull all of my clothes off of the shelves that he can reach, and put them in a big pile in the bedroom. He isn't really into fetching games... he likes to chase after toys if I throw them, but then he just shakes them around and throws them into the air again himself.
I don't really know what kinds of behaviors are typical of different breeds, so I don't know if any of that is informative or not! Tigh is the first dog I've ever had, and it's been a real learning experience! I'm actually thinking about taking him to an agility class at some point. I think it would be fun for me and for him. Does anyone have any advice about that sort of thing?
Again, thanks for all of the comments!