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I wish shelters did not guess breeds. Why can't they just put FACTS on the id card. "Large, Brown, Male, No cats or other dogs" Let the person adopting guess the breed. I know for the most part, the person adopting may not care, (do you think they do?) But what about the statistics, how many of this breed or that breed entered the shelters per year, how many were killed.. Don't those totals count for anything? They are used often, shouldn't they be somewhat accurate?
I have been told that shelters will use certain breeds to "help a dog get adopted", if that is the case, why do they call so many dogs "Pit bull" and mixes of the variations?
I have viewing animals for adoption for a few years. So many are not even close.
Does the public not have a right to fair expectations of our animal control personnel and volunteers?
It's fair and reasonable to expect that the baker knows how to bake, that the law enforcement officer knows the laws, we expect that our teachers know how to teach. If a person adopts a dog because they heard that dog "X" was a great breed, then they find out their new dog does not even look like dog "X", that would suck.
What are your thoughts about guessing breeds?
What would you guess the 7 dogs below to be, we will see how close you are to what the shelters guesses were.
There is definitely an up and downside to labelling dog breeds in shelters. In the computer age, it's a necessity because many people search petfinder by breed mix. And, people want to know. If you tell a potential adopter, "He's a sheltie mix", a good portion will say, "Sheltie and what?" There has to be a breed listed on the dog's profile, but in person, we'll often say, we think he's a lab mix, or even he's listed as Border Collie but I kind of think he's an Australian Shepherd mix.
Of course the pit bull thing is touchy. People complain you're "covering up" if you label a dog that looks like it could be a pittie as something else. And they complain you're not giving the dog a fair shake if he's labelled pittie when it's not so certain. You can't win.
I'm not the best breed guesser, but I say 1- shepherd/chow, 2-beagle/JRT 3- probably labelled pittie mix, I'm not so sure 4-lab mix 5-akita mix 6-shaved down cocker mix with beagle 7-newfie mix
when i was looking on pet finder for a younger bichon to play with old gal lucy, i saw many bichon mix. finally saw a picture of a 2 yo bichon mix-but head only- only a few hours from us. silly me...i waited until we were almost in the car before i thought to ask how much he weighed. 6 lbs!!! What??? do you mean 16 lbs? no 6 lbs. knew right then he was not a bichon but we went to get him anyway. well he was shaggy, white and had a upcurling tail but his fur was silky and straight. He's a MALTESE and probably full blood.
Their mistake was my gain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The animal control in my area routinely labels dogs that look exactly like pit bulls (to me) as a "Lab/Terrier mix". First time this happened I was interested to see what such a mix would look like, assuming the terrier part was referring to a JRT-type terrier. Nope. Looked exactly like a pit bull. I'm pretty annoyed they would try to hide the breed when so many places ban pit bulls, and people could get in serious trouble for adopting one by accident.
There are a lot of terrier breeds that aren't jack russels. Remember Spuds Mckenzie? He was a bull terrier.
There used to be a site that had pics of 25 or so dogs; the challenge was to pick the pit bull. Only a few people could do it on the 1st guess, point being that a lot of 'pit bull' attacks may not have involved pit bulls.
I agree on don't say what you don't know. My peeve is the lack of standardization of size. I've seen labs and GSD referred to as medium. Yea, right.
There are a lot of terrier breeds that aren't jack russels. Remember Spuds Mckenzie? He was a bull terrier.
There used to be a site that had pics of 25 or so dogs; the challenge was to pick the pit bull. Only a few people could do it on the 1st guess, point being that a lot of 'pit bull' attacks may not have involved pit bulls.
I agree on don't say what you don't know. My peeve is the lack of standardization of size. I've seen labs and GSD referred to as medium. Yea, right.
I think in some cases its just ignorance coming in to play when breeds are incorrectly identified. Unfortunately there are many shelter workers who have little to no knowledge of breeds or even dogs in general. I agree it would be better not to list a breed but as others mentioned internet. searches are largely the re ason for doing so. I noticed a few months ago while adopting that while the shelter did have a breed listed for each pet online the actual paperwork and kennel cards all said "american shelter dog" obviously they aren't intentionally trying to mislead people. I have noticed quite a few rescues identifing catahoula dogs as aussie mixes which I think 80% of the time is knowingly deceptive on their part (aussies are very popular...catahoulas not so much) its unfortunate for the adopters thinking they are getting one breed and basically leaving with a dog with the same coat pattern but little else in common with their desired breed. I WANT ppl to have positive experiences with adopting I want to see adoptions work long term and I want the dogs in an appropriate home. I think being deceptive is a shortsighted approach.
Here are a few of the way off shelter guesses. I think I got all the ones I posted to guess. I pasted a pic of a dog that is the breed they guessed, on the adoption post.
I think the problem is also that workers find ONE trait and work from that - black and tan? Rottweiler. Black and tan with ears that stand up? German Shepherd. Black tongue? Chow.
Also, please remember - how these dogs are "labeled" determines in many areas just how quickly they are euth'd. Mixes and "terriers" can sometimes slide under the wire because some cities and counties have breed bans. If the dog looks just a teensy bit more like a lab than a banned breed, even if you have to squint your eyes a lot, it just MIGHT escape the needle the first day. I think you probably find more creative imagery in places that do have breed bans in place.
I suppose the other argument is that people simply don't know one from the next...pit bulls get blamed for everything under the sun but you hardly ever see a picture of the offender in the paper - gotta wonder who's making that call and how good their eyesight or breed knowledge is.
I'm of the mind "who cares?". If that dog grabs my heart, I really don't care about his lineage. I know others do - but seriously, if you want a Maltese you aren't going to get fooled by a short haired dog with a pointed snout. If you're looking for a particular breed of dog, you know your dog and all the labels in the world aren't going to fool you.
Well, most people know their breed. Some are eternally confused, and in that case the label doesn't matter either - they don't know their butt from left field and no amount of education will help either.
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