Vets and dog breeds

I whish some vets could reserch for some information before telling people what breed of dog or cat they have.

You see, one of my cousins had 2 small mutts they were brothers and they didn't even looked similar besides beein furry and the vet say they were purebreed "terry"

Also my grandma had a cute dog, he looked like a great pyreness but smaller than a cocker and the vet say he was a pekinese.

And for my art prefessor the neighbours gave him a cute mix, she is problably maltese mixed with someting else, she's all white with wavy hair and is the size of the cocker.

But his vet is saying is a pure breed skye terrier when they don't even come in white or have square bodies.

And for the dog I had, Oso he was GSD, with malinois and someting else problaby huskie and our vet say he was a GSD and he asked us that if we wanted to put him in a "male GSD seeks for girlfriend waiting list" EEkk :yikes:

been there. my catahoulaXAB was called a pit (hello 76# in running trim), a ridgeless ridgie and a mastiff by people who should have known better.

ive been there too, the vet i used when i got vixie tried to tell me she was a pomeranian and pappillion mix...so i found a new vet...

ive been old my chis arnt purebred BY VETS becuase there long haired?! and my cresite is a poodle because "shes not ugly enough to be one of those hairless things" (yes that is a direct quote from a vet!) understadable by a normal person, cresties arnt exactly common (especially here) but from a vet?!

Hey, at least you aren't constantly explaining to people that no, their giant BYB or puppy mill pomeranian is NOT a German Spitz, even if it looks superficially like LIzzie and is way over the breed standard. People base it ENTIRELY on the German Spitz page in the Bruce Fogle breed book (_An Encylopedia Of Dog Breeds_) and vets do the same thing.... UGH.

I can't even begin to tell you how many people's vets tell them they have a "Basenji mix" when it is quite apparent there is no Basenji in the dog at all. Animal shelters and rescues are also notorious for mislabling dog breeds. Why does everything have to be a <fill in the blank> mix? What's wrong with All-American mutts?

Well, my poor Smooth Collies are constantly accused of being shaved! You'd think someone with true animal experience could tell by the coat texture that it was not a shaved coat!

Oh my gosh! I totally saw a shaved rough last week, it was like, "huh? wha-? is that? it has a collie head...." It was really weird, like a super light toasted marshmallow color undercoat that was all fluffy and cottony, with a collie head glued on. Like a collie wearing a bear suit! The owners said that they wished they had a smooth, so they shaved their rough.

But yeah...smooths look nothing like a shaved dog.

Vets are not supposed to know all the breeds. In fact, nobody knows all dog breeds in existence. You should search for knowledge among specialists in dogs of a particular group of breeds, such as hunting breeds, sheep guarding breeds, etc., or ask specialists in dogs of a particular geographic region of the world. Kennel clubs recognize only most popular pet/show breeds. A lot of so-called aboriginal breeds remain little known to dog show world. I still never met a vet, which would not ask me about my favorite breed. I should explain each vet what kind of breed I keep.

thats fine for rarer breeds...

but for a vet to tell me "those are pappillions because chihuahuas dont come in long haired" is terrifying, its such a common widespread and even overly popular breed.

or a vet telling someone they have a purebred "TERRY" if a vet doesnt know that the group os TERRIER not terry then i dont htink id ever want to go to that vet.

And of course...vets that ENCOURAGE dogs that are obivoulsy mixed or not even close to breed standard to breed! they just worry me! in this day and age they should know better!

I don't expect a vet to know all the breeds. I just expect them to not MAKE STUFF UP. If you don't know what a breed actually looks like, don't pull a name out of your butt to make clients happy.

To the poster about skyes, actually, got an explanation. The most recent Disney remake of Blackfriars Bobby stars a Westie as Bobby- and they still call him a Skye in the movie.

My vet seems to be pretty good with breeds, but his assistants... wow. One thought Keira was a GSD, and the one who made up her chart put her down as a "dovermin"..

The assistants thought Dance was an Aussie when she was a puppy and almost put that down on her chart, but I told them to put "NSDTR" just in time.

That is the sad part, at first one belive there's no harm, but when a vet calls someone white curly hair mutt is really a shih tzu and that is so pure breed it has to have puppies, then is when they turn owners into nasty BYB

And if someone else thell the owner is not a shih tzu, the owner repply "the vet told me he's 100% shih tzu"


And about the chihuahuas, one vet told my cousin that her chihuahua wasen't pure breed beacuase brown chiuahuas don't exist, that they only come in black :yikes: (??)


I guess that some vets don't reaserch anything about breeds, and they only look at the posters of "all the dog breeds" with some dog drawings that alpo or dog chow gave to them to promote the food.


So that problaby is, maybe the vet saw the movie and guessed the dog is a skye

I didn't knew about that movie.

I really like my current vet. When I went there with Ty for the first time when he hurt his paw, the vet immediately said "it's nice to finally see a working line dog in here". There's two local breeders, one who produces American conformation lines, and one who produces German Highlines. He spotted the difference instantly, too.

At my former Vet, I brought Fozzie in for some puppy shots, and my Vet was out so I got a different lady. She picked Fozzie up and said "awww, what a cute Australian Dog!" and I went "escusez moi?!"... "Oh, you know, because of that blue eye!"... "Uh, well, lots of breeds have blue eyes. He's half Corgi."... "No, he looks just like an Australian Dog!"... "An Australian Shepherd? I don't know about that..."

Among other reasons that the Vet's office annoyed me, I switched Vets right after that incident. D: My new Vets list him as a Corgi x Husky, which is much more accurate than Australian Dog.

i've been lucky so far, vets knew right away roofus was an OES, and that popper was a beagle/cattle dog (course I think he looks pretty obviously like those two dogs, myself). Blossom is a little harder but the dalmatian part is kind of a DUH thing.

do you have better pics of popper? he looks like a deer beagle. some lines were made by breeding up pure beagles and some took short cuts by crossing w/ fox or coonhound. it's unusual for a dog to retain pure houndy ears if one of the paents is a natural prick ear. if however there was some english coonhound in the background a beagle type dog could have the red ticked color and still have pure hound conformation.

i understand that its hard to memorize every breed there is ...

When we adopted our puppy, we were told she was a beagle/dachsand mix with beagle being dominate...Well, she pretty much looks like a mutt..She has the dachsand black and tan color, but she has really long legs and a long body... And she sure didn't get the hounddog ears either..pretty small ones!! Our vet said she would be about 30 pounds so we'll see how she ends up!

We adopted a dog from the vet when I was a kid and my mom only agreed to the dog because they told us it was a chihuahua mix. 6 months later he was 60 lbs.

I don't expect vets to know every breed either, but they must have learned about a lot of them...you'd think. Don't they need to know what diseases or genetic defects the various breeds may be prone to? I never noticed anything with the vets I've used that they weren't familiar with the breeds I had. But then, I haven't had any unusual breeds.

I had someone, when I was on a walk with my Lab and my byb Chi, Jose` when he was very young ask me if Jose` was Bonnie's baby? LOL. He was about the size a Lab puppy would be if it were just born or maybe a couple of weeks old....and there he was, walking on a leash, all coordinated and strong. I think he was under a year old, but don't remember exactly. Anyhow, he was obviously not a brand new puppy. LOL. But he was big for a Chihuahua (but not that big) and gray in color with semi prick/dropped ears, little short legs and tiny feet.