Charlie's alleged to be an Australian shepherd but he doesn't look it, not with his hair cut short by the county lockup. Don't really know, anyway. He was found in a field and if not for us would probably have been destroyed by now. I don't know yet if he's very smart. Mostly he's just young -- almost a year -- and full of the stupid that young provides. But he and Darius get on like a pack of puppies and are none the worse for not getting quite enough people time. He minds, if I'm firm with him, and if I was ever home to train him a little I think he'd turn out fine. Alas, my time is heavily compressed until I get back from the Black Rock Desert early next month.
Waiting for a punchline
There's just no cure for bonehead
10 comments:
yay for Charlie! He looks a bot bull terrier, too, on mah teeny fone screen.
Dude, I hate to break it to you, but you done got yerself a pit. Not that that's a bad thing, my officemate and her fiance have two, and they are really sweet dogs.
Maybe the shelters find it easier to adopt out the "Australian Shepherd" (see my FB friend Sprocket Calais, 100% Australian Shepherd) rather than "Pit Bull Mix"-es.
At any rate, congrats on the new addition!
LOL. Just don't let them babysit any infants.
Welcome, handsome Charlie!
Yep, that looks like a pit mix to me. I'm not surprised they lied about it if they wanted the dog to live. They don't want to get in trouble either though, so it may be they did some behavioral testing and decided breed bias was not warranted in this case. It often isn't. There is a lot of irresponsible breeding out there no doubt, but good pits are great dogs.
I'm glad he got a home. Many shelters automatically euthanize pit and staffordshire pure or mixes.
Great. Now I get to work out my prejudices against pits. Kind of like if we hired a redneck for in-home care. "Great dogs/people bu-u-ut, you know. Watch out." So I should keep a count of the dog bowls? Look out for a particularly tall green "weed" amongst the tomato plants?
You've been flim-flammed. That dog is as much Aussie Shepherd as I am. He's a pit mix at best. Watch out.
You could find someone qualified to administer a temperament assessment (Sternberg's tends to be the gold standard) to make you more comfortable. Normally this is done at the shelter but it seems unlikely that you can trust those guys at this point! Your vet can probably do it though, or direct you to someone who can. Dog people hate to see good dogs get euthanized; they'll probably bend over backwards to help you.
Here's some info on testing:
http://www.paw-rescue.org/PAW/PETTIPS/DogTip_Temperament.php
'kay, I just got on a giant mac and looked at Charlie full-size and decided I love him and his crocodile grin. A LOT.
He's a sweetheart. Has LOTS of energy and jumps atop things no other dog of ours has ever jumped onto, but no sign of pitbullishness, just needs training and restraining.
As do we all.
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