If One More Person Asks Me...... Grrrr

[CBL]

I saw a lady get all cut up at the vets once because someone called her Italian Greyhound a Whippet.

Wow can't say I have ever gotten offended by Oscar being called a whippet I explain he is an Italian Greyhound and if they look at me puzzled I just tell them they look like whippets but just smaller (though he is a biggy iggy). He gets lots of compliments when we are out including an older macedonian lady who stopped us on a walk last week - she just loved him and told me about the dog she used to have when she was a little girl back in Macedonia who looked very similar to him, though bigger (so yep another whippet )

He has been mistaken for a girl on a few occasions too, one instructor at the local obedience club used to call him a she every single week. Oscar is a reasonably masculine name isn't it????

[dog geek]

Mita, is that a short-coated Tibbie? Cause it's GORGEOUS, regardless!

Actually I had to laugh, I walked mine down to the shops this morning and it was nearly half an hour before I got into the actual chemists, I had soooooo many people wanting to 'chat dog'.

In fact it is usually - 'Oooo - they are Afghans, aren't they... and ... a .... Whippet??"

[jata]

Yes apparently I own a Shar Pei, not a British Bulldog

I am thinking of getting Winnie a t-shirt "No I am not a Shar Pei! I have also had Pug & Boxer, but just about every third person guesses Shar Pei!

[Danielle]

Does it matter? Surely an opportunity to stop and show off your breed. I'm always asked if mine are related--four rescue dogs of different ages or whether our slightly larger dog is the mother to the other three. Nice to have a chance to stop, talk dogs. meet the neighbours and promote rescue.

Di

Haha, hilarious! I get that too! We will be out walking our five month old male std poodle and our 3 & 4 yo toys and get asked if the 'male' std is the mother of the toys! :rolleyes: Oh boy, you've just gotta laugh.

But something that does irk me bigtime is when people stop me and ask "ooooh is that a Labradoodle?" I usually reply by saying "what is a labradoodle?.......oh isnt that a lab X poodle? No, he is a poodle!"

Edited January 11, 2010 by Danielle

[Bully]

I have people asking me if Pele is a staffy X and sometimes if she's a pitbull or what's she crossed with. If you say she's a Bull Terrier they think pitbull, so I often call her an English Bull Terrier and explain that the correct breed name is Bull Terrier, and that Pele has pedigree papers and is a show champion, and for extra PR I add that she has her Companion Dog obedience title

[Get Whippet]

Borzoi

(actually borzoi x) --> <-- whippet

^

pug

~ I can't even tell the difference

Edited January 11, 2010 by Get Whippet

[Cleo's Corgwyn]

Ah welcome to the world of the slightly unusual breed. My favourite has been my wonderfully radar dish like, prick eared cardigan corgi, confidently and loudly identified as a basset hound cross! I don't have a problem if people ask me what she is, or even ask if she's a cross (usually a cross) and I have my little explanation spiel down pretty much pat.

Here's my "basset hound cross"...

and for good measure, one her with one of her favourite boyfriends, BJ's basset, Jester

[RuralPug]

[ If you were out walking & met this dog, what would you say she is?

Gorgeous! Amazing what a difference a haircut makes, isn't it? Like trying to recognise your butcher without his apron or your chemist without his white jacket!

Borzoi

(actually borzoi x) --> <-- whippet

^

pug

~ I can't even tell the difference

So the little flat face at the front is a whippet? I can't tell the difference either LOL

Seriously, I thought I knew my breeds and I would have said the chappie at the back was a young Afghan, not a borzoi at all... so it's not just the general public who get it wrong!

I have heard Joe Public pontificate to his child "Look, there's one of those fluffy greyhounds" and I've turned around to see a lovely borzoi!!

Not so much a problem these days, but a few decades ago I was constantly being told that my pugs were miniature bulldogs and that my mastiff must be their mother

Mum had a mini-wire dash, pugs and a griffon - more than once visitors assumed that the griffon was an accident, that the mini wire had got to one of the pug bitches!

Edited January 11, 2010 by RuralPug

[Cuchulain]

If one more person tells me Max is a beautiful Weimaraner I'm going to cry!

Of course what throws them is that while he is a Rhodesian Ridgeback, he doesn't have a ridge! He's totally the wrong colour and shape for a Weimaraner though so I'm not quite sure how so many people keep ending up there! Cheryl of Gondwana Rhodesian Ridgebacks is one of the few breeders who do not euth. ridgeless ups but goes to great lengths to find suitable pet homes. I am very glad Max is ridgeless because if he had a ridge he wouldn't have come to live with me!

The best was a lady with a stunning adult male RR stopped us on the beach last week and asked what he was. When I told her she promptly said "Oh, well he's obviously not got a pedigree then." I was so pleased to be able tell her that Max's dad is the KUSA National Ridgeback Champion 2nd year running and that Max himself is KUSA registered with a no breeding restriction. She was stunned to say the least.

[Gayle.]

My guys get called Border Collies all the time. It's understandable, they do look a bit like them to the untrained eye and everyone knows a Border Collie but hardly anyone has seen an Australian Shepherd.

I just correct them gently and introduce them to a breed of dog they've never heard of before.

[Dracdog]

My Sheltie often draws the comment "what a cute Collie pup" people are quite shocked when they are told that he is actually 6 years old and fully grown.

[jacobite]

Yep, have the same problem with the Deerhounds, if I had a dollar for everyone who comes up and says "Oh Irish Wolfhounds" I'd be rich by now. Though I did have one person tell me that they were Irish Greyhounds!!

BTW Lurchers are always a first cross from 2 pedegree dogs, usually one of which is a hound. The crosses very depending on where in the UK you live and what you are hunting with them. They were always bred for hunting and much prized by poachers.

Pam

[Get Whippet]

Seriously, I thought I knew my breeds and I would have said the chappie at the back was a young Afghan, not a borzoi at all... so it's not just the general public who get it wrong!

Don't feel too bad RuralPug... he is actually a Borzoi x Afghan

[CBL]

Borzoi

(actually borzoi x) --> <-- whippet

^

pug

~ I can't even tell the difference

GW you obviously needed to put different coloured collars on each of them so you can tell who is who...

[Rach...]

I get people insisting my Maizy is a Dingo.. Sometimes I just go along with it because the people who usually say that just don't listen when you re-explain.

But most people know she is a cattle dog and we get lots of compliments

[Monah]

Stranger: Nice Weimaraner / Ridgeback...

Me: Ah, yeah, actually he's a Hungarian Vizsla....

Stranger: Oh, crossed with a Wei / Ridgeback?

Me: Yeah, a cross for sure

Sometimes I try to 'educate' the wider public, most times I don't bother...

I get ya!! I also get GSP a lot too. Funnily enough many people are really frightened of my viz???? Until they know her, then they are TERRIFIED!!! of the full on kisses and affection and she wont take no for an answer.

Pixie Meg. that is one beautiful Borzoi. I met some at Maryborough show recently and one little girl looked a LOT like your boy, she was around the same age too, I wonder if they are litter mates? The couple were lovely and I think had about 4 dogs of different ages. The little girl was absolutely the sweetest thing EVER. Another one I met there, a male, had an Affenpinscher!!!!!!!! as a baby brother :D Inky he was called. The two of them together and the Borzoi was amazing, so gentle.

Having had wolfhounds, Lakelands, Patterdales, Giant Schnauzers, Irish Water Spaniels, Viz and Spinone, I completely know how funny it can be when your dog gets called some strange combination. But I guess we must all remember that many people do not trawl through (and collect) hundreds of breed books on a daily basis like some of us here do, or go to shows.

All the dogs I've had, except cattle/BCs?goldies , have been called CROSSES by the 'public'. I must admit, the funniest ones were being asked what sort of terrier cross my wolfies were UM, at a giant 38"!!!!!! tall,(he really was a giant!), I can't really think of any terrier that comes close

[pixie_meg]

Seriously, I thought I knew my breeds and I would have said the chappie at the back was a young Afghan, not a borzoi at all... so it's not just the general public who get it wrong!

Don't feel too bad RuralPug... he is actually a Borzoi x Afghan

I'm glad you clarified, i was going to say he looked more like an afghan.

[Loving my Oldies]

Disclaimer: I haven't read the entire thread .

I think we can be a bit precious about having our dogs labelled incorrectly. I know there are people in the community who think they know everything about dogs and quite often turn out to know very little except they generally have four legs, but in the scheme of things, does it really matter?

Get a t-shirt that says: My dog is a XXXXXXX

A while ago now, I saw a woman walking a gorgeous really big black dog and I asked her (after exclaiming how beautiful the dog was) if he was a Wolfhound or similar cross. No, he was a labrador X poodle .

Another time (I have recounted this story in another thread), I was at the vets and a dog came out of the consulting room who I thought was a Bull Terrier x Jack Russell. Turned out he was a completely shaved (because of ticks) West Highland Terrier :D .

[dogbesotted]

other people not recognising the maremma breed does not bother me at all.. it is when i am told that i do not know what breed of dog i have that annoys me or worse when people tell me that working maremmas do not need to be fed as they eat grass.. ( hello!!!!!!! they are dogs carnivores.) and when i say that as they are dogs they do require feedingetc just like any other animal in your care they argue with me!!!!!!! that really irritates me but i no longer try to change their minds just let them know that i do not have any of those dogs available..

still it is a worry that those views are seriously held by some

H

[Nannas]

LOL sometimes you just have to shrugg and walk on....

The weirdest I had was a lady who was telling me about my Great Dane!!

(I have a 6yo drk brown/ black pitbull female)

The lady looked behind my girl,,,then said "Yup, you had HIM castrated too young and that's what stunted HIS growth"

I have never ever had anyone think she was a male great dane before!!!! Some say "nice head on that staffy" or "he's not pure staffy he's too big" (everyone thinks my girls are males for some reason)

One little girl about 5yo asked me if my dog knew Scooby Doo (LMAO) She said they looked like sisters!!!!

Of course everyone thinks our AmStaff is pitbull, and when we say she isn't, we get told "it's OK, we won't tell anyone" and yet they do not recognise our pit as a pitbull???!!!!????

Funny world out there...Sometimes it makes you wonder how they all survive on their own...