[David Allen]

I adopted a 3 month old puppy. They told me she was a german shepherd lab mix.
I dont really see the german shepherd, but she does tend to resemble a malinois mix or blackmouth cur mix.
Her ears are slowly getting perky throughout each week ive had her. If anyone with experience has any guesses please let me know. Thanks!

 

[Toedtoes]

Some things about mixed breeds:

1. Outside of "designer dogs", most mixes have at least three breeds in them. Often more.

2. Not every breed in the mix will present itself physically. So while the dog may not look at all like a poodle, he may have poodle in his makeup. Same for temperament and behavior. The smaller the amount of a breed, the less likely you'll "see" it in the dog.

3. When breeds mix, they do weird things. The physical traits from each breed may combine to create something different. A large dog may have small dog dna - he just got his size from a large breed in the mix, or visa versa. A dog may get her body shape from a lab and her legs from a bassett. Or a dog may get her ears from a beagle and her muzzle shape from a pug and her tail from an akita.

With all that, the most accurate way of determining the breeds is to do a dna test. Embark and Wisdom Panel are good and are most recommended. For dogs here in North America, a less expensive test is dnamydog. It doesn't test for breeds that are rare in North America and they don't do health testing, so the cost is lower. They also don't test for "pit bull" as it is not really a breed in itself. They do test for staffordshire, etc. that have been used to create "pit bulls". I've used them on my past three dogs and have been very satisfied with the results.

 

[Khecha Wacipi]

I second what Toedtoes says.
And.....just from the appearance of your dog I would GUESS black mouth cur and some bully-type of dog could be somewhere in the mix. He sure is a cutie.

 

[Khecha Wacipi]

About those DNA tests. I think I am going to do Embark on one of my dogs, just for fun.
Everyone who sees him says he is a terrier.......won't it be funny if he has no terrier in him?

I recently found out the results of the Embark tests on two dogs of a friend of mine, and they came back with things that I would have guessed, but also a couple things I would never have guessed from their appearance.

Sometimes people, in the reviews, will say that a certain DNA test is phony or worthless because it came back with a certain breed or two that "doesn't look ANYthing like my dog!". But as Toedtoes says, the appearance will not always, or even frequently, tell you what is in the dog.

You can have a petite small-boned slick-haired dog with a pointy nose and upright ears who has 25% chow in the mix. You'd never guess it, because the way that genes mix is entirely unpredictable if more than two breeds are in the dog.

 

[Jack Naylor]

In another post, I quoted the results of a study where they asked people to identify mixed breeds. Turned out that 25% accurate. People who self identified " as knowledgeable dog people" did much better ....28% . So while I do enjoy the guessing game, the study has left me humbled, I can even when I guess,it's not done w/ any sense of confidence.