Rescues and breed misidentification
This evening, we went over to the park around dusk. It's been very hot--- too hot to walk the dogs--- and we thought we'd get them some exercise after the sun went down.
Someone we've not met before showed up with a lovely English Pointer. My dad used to field-trial pointers when I was a little kid, and as soon as I saw her run over the hill I thought "I haven't seen an English Pointer in years." She came towards us, then turned and pointed her owner (or more likely the Chuck-it launcher in his hand) and then gave bounding across the field in that graceful canter shared by pointers and a handful of other breeds. She was classic white-bodied with spots and a darker head with a tiny blaze.
We got to talking when I complimented him on his lovely dog. He said he got her from rescue. He laughed and said "They told us she was a lab/bloodhound mix." I said "That's a pointer." And he said "She looks like a pointer. She points everything. Yes, she does seem to be a pointer."
A pointer is not especially rare and has a fairly unique look. This was a decent one; looked like she was from field trial stock rather than bench stock. We speculated that it might be hard for rescues to place pointers, but lab mixes go quickly. It's just lucky that this dog landed with someone who can handle her energy, drive, and high-strung nature; a pointer is about as far from a lab as you can get in temperament.
It got me thinking about rescues, and how they label dogs. I watch PetFinder diligently for Corgis, and with the exception of a small few mill dogs, virtually none of the dogs I see as "Corgi" or "Corgi mix" look like they have any Corgi in them at all.
I know rescues mean well. I know they are staffed with mostly volunteers. I'm puzzled that people who love dogs enough to work for little or nothing are so consistently awful at identifying breeds, though. It doesn't take a PhD to do so. I know in crosses you are guessing, but why label an obvious purebred as a cross? It seems Corgis are popular, so conversely if a dog is short and they don't know what to call it, I suppose they think tacking "Corgi" on the picture might move the dog faster.
I truly don't know. Maybe someone who has done non-breed rescue can enlighten me. In the meantime, I guess my message is to please use due diligence when getting a rescue dog. The staff mean well and are overburdened, but their breed labels are often terribly inaccurate. Make sure you meet the dog yourself and try to get a feel of its temperament and energy level, size and coat and all of that because the label on the posting may not match the dog at all.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on
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It's to avoid potential lawsuits, there are adopters out there that ask for warranty on a rescue dog, some even went as far as "ordering" a particular colour to match their home furniture. No joke.
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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I have difficulty being unhappy with shelters that make up breeds especially for the pit bulls. There are so many nice dogs in shelters and such prejudice amongst the general population against certain breeds that it must be so tough to see a really nice dog live (if they are lucky) in a shelter for long. We see it in our travels with the doberman just how shocked people are that she is friendly and so "needy" for attention. At first people will pet the corgis and make such a fuss over them so I tell them "the big girl is friendly too" so they won't ignore her. After that she gets lots of attention on our walks. It is sad because each breed has their distinct characteristics and should be enjoyed for them.
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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Awwwww poor Misty, I love Dobermans:)
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Permalink Reply by Jane on
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I think they just tack on different names to get more hits during searches. Heck I even saw one ad on petfinder where the person actually wrote "last week I was a heeler but no luck, so this week I'll try being a corgi!"
It seems like anything with short legs or knobby knees gets labelled as a corgi/corgi mix, even though dwarfism does occur in other breeds (even labs for example). And I've seen some pretty obvious mixes that were adopted out as pure bred too. I'm sure the shelters are doing their best but sometimes you just have to scratch your head lol.
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Permalink Reply by Ludi on
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If labeling the dogs incorrectly gets them adopted out anyway, and keeps them out of shelters and rescue, then I don't care if they want to call a Dane x Lab a corgi, good on them! The opposite problem is awful, though. Dogs that have nothing to do with APBTs are labeled as such, and people are scared off before they get to know the dog. Really sucks. :(
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Our local shelter does not intentionally mislabel pit bulls.
On the one hand, I can understand shelters wanting to move them out by changing their name. On the other hand, pits and certain other of the bully breeds have very specific ways of interacting with other animals, especially other dogs, and it is not really fair to the public to push them off on unsuspecting people who are not educated about how to handle them. The reputable pit bull rescues say they should not be taken to dog parks (though they can play off-leash with certain other dogs that they are accustomed to). And most of the pit rescues recommend you have a break stick and know how to use it. There are an alarming number of people still breeding pit bulls for dog fights (I don't live in a big urban area or a rural one, yet one night I looked outside at 2 am to see about 7 young men and 5 pit bulls heading into the park....).
I have no hate in my heart for any breed, but it is foolish and dangerous not to respect what a dog was selectively bred to do. To send a pit bull from unknown background home with an unsuspecting family passed off as a lab x is socially irresponsible. I've had my own dogs charged by others several times, but the time we were charged by a pit he went right for the back of Jack's neck to do a kill shake. Luckily he missed. To take a dog bred to fight and hold and say it's a breed selected for a soft mouth and a disposition designed to let it get along with strange dogs in a duck blind or boat is really not ok in my mind.
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I should add that I think pits make very nice pets for many families (after all, lots of people want a dog who is stable and good with the kids and don't care about doing dog-to-dog socializing much at all.). I just think that people who get dogs that have special considerations have a right to full disclosure about what they should expect.
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Mislabeling actual APBTs could be asking for trouble, particularly if the dog in question comes from a subpar environment (so probably any APBT in a shelter) but I think that there are some mixes like Am Staff x or Rottweiler x that would do well being called a Lab x.
There is a guy at my dog park who has an Am Staff and it's 4 months old, has been in his care since it was 8 weeks, but he seems convinced that when it's an adult that people will fear it and the dog will be a potentially violent specimen. I was kind of confused as to why he was telling me this - it just makes HIM look like an irresponsible owner who is cultivating a violent side in his Am Staff. So the breed's reputation (didn't know Am Staffs even had one) precedes itself even in people who purposely buy one.
Same goes for Rottweilers, at least here. They are the "bad guy" dog, and when a 4 year old Rottweiler bitch's owner introduced herself and her dog at our dog park, everyone was up in arms about it. She was incredibly docile, and honestly one of the better behaved dogs I've seen in the area. Should a dog like her show up at a rescue labeled a Rottweiler, people would avoid her like the plague. It is unfortunate.
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Permalink Reply by Julia on
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Beth, I am a county shelter worker. That means we have to take in every animal brought to us, unlike a rescue or a no-kill shelter. I'm reading a lot of speculation here on what shelters do, this is the reality here. This is one of the biggest shelters in the state. In 2011 about 2000 dogs came through our door, out of almost 6300 animals.
We do our absolute best to identify dog breeds, for several reasons. First of all, we do not want to send an animal home, and have it returned to us because the adopter, or his landlord, or family, believe it is something else. That is very hard on an animal. Not only does trying to pass off a pit bull as something else do a great disservice to the dog, it damages the faith the public has in us. If people believe we are not to be trusted, adoptions could go down, animals would suffer. Adopters need to trust our assertions about the breed, temperament and health.
Do we make mistakes? Of course. In some cases it is a previous owner who tells us the breed. In the case of puppies, the owner may only know the mother. In other cases we just try our best to make an educated, professional guess. I am not one of those professionals. I make my own guesses and sound off to other staff, but I really can't do more than guess. I would, however, put more faith in my guesses than a DNA test.
Would we intentionally misrepresent a breed in order to get it adopted? No. As I said, we don't want an animal returned. The perfect adopter who wants that pit bull may be the next person to walk through the door. And pit bulls DO get adopted! It may take longer since landlords and insurance companies restrict the pool of adopters available, but they do find homes.
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Julia, I think our kill shelter seems to do a much better job than some of the private rescues I see of trying to do their best to identify, and they always have a lot of APBT's and Staffie crosses.
I think the reason it's important for people to know that they aren't always correct is so that if you lose a dog you know to go check. I know I've told this story before, but I once found a Husky. We kept him at the house and called the shelter to report it (he was clearly lost, not dumped). Except I mistakenly said we found a Malamute (this was pre-internet and I used to get them reversed in my head; I now remember it as "Malamutes are Massive.")
Anyway, they said no one had reported one lost. We kept him for a few days and were ready to put an ad in the paper when the owner called. He had reported the dog lost to the shelter BEFORE I called him in as found, but no one put together "Maybe the Malamute is a Husky" until the guy called back for the third time and said "Maybe someone found a Husky or a sled dog or a Samoyed....???"
I've also heard of shelters honestly saying they had no such dog there and the owner finding it in a cage. So if you have a sable fluffy Pem that is lost they might say they have no Corgis because they've only seen red short-haired Corgis. Or think a Corgi looks like a Cattle Dog.
And if you have a breed that is rare for your area, the shelter worker might have no idea what it is and not even realize it's not a mutt. Hence the pointer--- one of the more easily identifiable breeds--- being viewed as some sort of mix.
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Permalink Reply by Rachael McClanahan on
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Our first corgi was a fluffy that came from a rescue. She was labeled as a daschund mix, but there was no mistaking that she was completely corgi! They were completely non-existant in our area at the time, so seeing one, especially a fluffy, probably had them baffled, lol.
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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on
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The answer to your question (I know rescues mean well. I know they are staffed with mostly volunteers. I'm puzzled that people who love dogs enough to work for little or nothing are so consistently awful at identifying breeds, though.) is quite simple. Most people who love dogs enough to volunteer in shelters and rescues that take in all breeds and mixes, don't know dog breeds that well, whereas people who know dog breeds real well, don't volunteer there.... They are doing the best they can.
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