I found this guy in the animal shelter about a month ago. He came to them as a stray so they didn't have any info on his background. They advertised him as a lab/pit-bull mix and he looked like that to me too. He had a big oversized head and jaws atop an emaciated body - his ribs were nearly sticking through his skin. I was reluctant about the pit-bull thing, but he seemed very friendly and I felt sorry for him so he's found his forever home with me.



Now that he's gained some weight, his head is more proportional to his body and he looks more like a lab that anything else. He's incredibly energetic. He would chase rabbits all day if I let him, but seems very gentle natured.

Is there a chance he's a full-blooded lab? And if he is, could he ever be a good watch dog? I've never owned a lab but it's my impression that they would like a burglar to death before they would bit him.

Any thoughts on people who know labs well will be appreciated.

Don't know, but I cannot see pit in him in that picture.

And don't believe that "labs aren't savage" hooey either as the two up the road will spoil your day if you walk in their yard.

Knew a retired ARMY soldier that had a lab. That dog was a friendly as they come when her master was around. However, if you went over to his house when he wasn't home, the dog went from Mr. Hyde to Dr. Jekyll. It was a full-blooded lab too. Never would have thought had I not seen it.

We'd need a more head-on pic so that we could see the width of his skull. Labs make good watchdogs, they may not attack but they generally let you know when there's someone around who shouldn't be.

Fearlessness is what the Pitbull tends to contribute to a mix. But that dog looks like a pure lab to me.

congratulations, you have an american mixed breed canine. tail is not Lab, are his toes deeply webbed? I promise you will have a grateful companion for years! Never again will I own any purebred dog!!

From what I can tell from the pic his tail is too thin to be full blooded lab.

But don't hold it against him. A Lab/Pit mix might be a good combination.

I've got a 13 year old version of him. He was found almost starved, unknown background, we took him as a "foster". He is attached at the hop to my wife and is scared of a LOT of stuff. His bark is loud and intimidating. We think he's got some hound or something in him. He loves toys, when he's happy he'll grab one and carry it, which I'm told is really typical lab behavior.

That’s a good question. His toes are not webbed at all. And the first time I took him to a lake he looked really awkward trying to swim. Almost looked like a person trying to dog paddle with the front part of his body above the water line. But then he caught on.

And I forgot to mention, he doesn’t bark at all. I’ve only heard his voice once so far.

Yep, the tail is too thin for a pure Lab. I missed that.

It looks as though he may have a little pit in him but not much.

His tail does not appear to be lab and he looks a little "Puffy" in the chest. His ears are normal and not "Pity" as is his face. On the bright side if he does have pit in him you'll have one of the most faithful dogs you've ever had.

Congrats and good luck.

I am sure he is what is known as a "Keeper"! again, congrats and thanks for taking him on!

I have raised a litter of Labs and had 6 of my own. Your dog has a lot of Lab but I doubt is full blooded. For one the legs look too short to be Lab. As far as Labs as a guard dog, I have yet to see an aggressive one. I had one that was a friend to everyone, another that hid behind me when any company showed up, and two of my current ones bark at strangers, go to the porch and keep barking until I show up or the stranger leaves. Discourages most but my regular UPS man has been accepted by them. If you want a guard dog that attacks it will not be a Lab. If you want an alarm bark Labs will do.
Don't worry about full blood in yours, he looks like a good dog that will be very loyal.

I forgot to ask, will a black lab ever have a white chest patch like he does?

I’m pretty happy with him, but am thinking about doing a DNA test just to satisfy my curiosity. Has anyone here ever done one of those? Was it worth it?

I've had a couple of labs like this. My friends called before coming over when my old yellow Pete dog was still here.

Have had 4 labs and they were all protective of the family. The mildest natured of the 4 was a female named Pepper. My wife walked anywhere she cared to with that dog along. Pepper could sense if the wife was alarmed by someone and she responded appropriately. Pepper was old when our oldest child was born, but was also very protective of her. In normal circumstances she was as friendly a dog as you could ask for.

about 14 years ago my wife took a abused 8 to 10 week old pit/yellow lab mixed puppy from the meth heads next door. I took her to my brothers oldest son. you could not ask for a better dog .her only prob. is she would watch a thief clean out the house and not care

Is this a trick question?

That dog is a labrador or *mostly* lab


I have 3 papered labs and neither of them look a like.

We adopted a lab cross about 5 year s ago. Crossed with either a greyhound or some type of pointer. Ours has the white chest patch and little bit on her nose and one white paw.When you start looking around you will find that marking pretty common on lab crosses.
She is a heck of a watch dog and she would die for my wife. No one gets close to putting. In a jam ,she would help me out,but she must thin I can take care of myself.

Most rescue dogs come with a lot of baggage from their past, so be patient.It will pay off in the end.

..."he would watch a thief clean out the house"...
a true watch-dog

He looks a little short in limb and body for a full Lab but there are plenty of other ancestral lines other than Pit that could make him look that way. My guess is his mother was a Lab.

Could have some English lab in him.

Or could be a runt.

Had a DNA test done last year and the results came that came back were no where what we were told by the vet. and anyone else that saw our guy. The results were underwhelming and they seem to always default to "other mixed breeds", so we still had no real answer. Another words unless you can get it done cheap don't be in any hurry. I it cost us about 50.00 for the kit which was a couple of swabs and a box to mail them to the lab. and I doubt I would do it again.

Good luck, looks like a great pup (most are, with proper training and socialization).

As for the DNA test, they're getting better it seems. The more data that is collected from purebred family groups.

You will have issues like this though:
[quoteOn the other hand, some breed combinations truly result in dogs that resemble other breeds entirely. Hughes recalled a case of a dog that looked like a black Labrador retriever that tested as a golden retriever mix, which made sense to her as a geneticist.

“You can lose that longer coat in one generation,” she explained. “Goldens carry a black gene. They don’t express it in their coat because the yellow gene blocks all black. They do express it in their nose, eye rims and the pads of their feet. But the golden is recessive. So if you breed a golden retriever to a dog that doesn’t have the genes for yellow and long hair, you’re likely to have a black dog with a short coat.”

In a similar vein, test results suggesting pairings of large with small dogs may raise doubts but such combinations aren’t impossible, Hughes said. She explained: “The larger female will lie down” for the mating.[/quote]

That quote was from this article, (2012). Some of the other ones I found seem to say "buyer beware". But they at least can give you an idea sometimes.

Given the above info, your dog may be more golden retriever than lab if her parents were mixed and the yellow gene was sent back to the recessive side.

I tend to agree with the person above, you've got a nice American mixed breed funloving, rabbit chaser there (mutt, like me)

Geno

she has never met a person she did not like .she was so mistreated when my wife snatch her up she is timid and just wants to be loved . she has ben a great deer blood tracker on the first one at 4 months old she will be mist when she is gone .our family belongs to her

Man if you could get a side by side of all 3 of em.
That would be cool.
Dixie,Magnus, and Cooper ( coopaloop!!!)

But you dont know what your talking about .
Cause your a dick!!!!


Hey I will get out their tommorow around 1 for the interveiw with the vampire thing and grilled burgers.
Bring out the 5 boxes of accutip slugs also for ya.

Orange cheese please!!!

Khan/wife buys that damn white cheese( racist???) all da time.
Bout tired of cracker honky jive mutha fugga white cheese.....

This ^^^^^^ ... Work with him. Spend time wiith him. Enjoy him. Looks like a good dog...

23 and me dna test for a muttasaurus- rex..........


Send your money to me guys.
With a doggy drool sample and a q tip mouth swabbing
Put it in a zip lock bag for all I care.
( circular filed instantly anyways)
I can make ya up a " dna test certificate" show ya in writing what ya suspect is absolutely dead on true after you answer some screening questions about muttasaurus- rex via pm.


$49.95 + shipping and handling both ways on you.
Total cost $ 99.95 PMO only.......

(Save the renegade50 7.62x39 ammo fund)

Oh yes, black labs can be aggressive. I have known a couple.

One in particular belonged to my good buddy/cousin and his wife and kids. We were pretty tight, at each other's house a couple times/week. And "Old Jake" recognized me and mine as part of the family. And he was mellow as hell when his family was home.

But if they were not home, I was the only person Jake would let into the yard, let alone the house. Jake came to live with us for about six weeks once. Within a couple weeks I heard stories from people attempting to come to my house. Jake had adopted our house as his own, and nobody was getting close if we were not home.

He looks like a beautiful dog, doesn’t matter if he is full- blooded lab or whatever. He is beautiful and will probably be a blessing and love you unconditionally forever.

Congrats on a beautiful dog.

My Lab is 2.5 years old and has never met anyone that didn't want to scratch him behind the ears and pat his head.

I don't think he even has a concept of a bad human being. I don't ever expect him to be an attack dog.

He does bark, however. Anytime anybody comes up he sounds off. All of the delivery people are used to him, though.

I think you have a lucky dog and he's got a lucky set of humans.

Good lookin' guy. Congrats.

When he knows you better he will bark.Every dog we have got from a pound did not bark right away.

He is a dog-- enjoy him

The tail and the white blaze on the chest give him away, hes not a pure lab...damn close though.

Dont know what else is in there...but he is for sure mostly lab, and a little mix of something else aint a bad thing...

My son had his dog, of questionable parentage, checked by a company that checks dog DNA. She looks a lot like a yellow lab but then not. Hair is much thicker, white blaze, head a little wider. Just several things that don't line up with a lab. The data came back that she is 1/2 golden retriever, 1/4 bull mastiff, and 1/4 some kind of terrier. I don't have a clue what kind of dog she is and don't know if that company took my son for a ride or not. It really doesn't matter though because she has been a great dog. I have always had more trouble with pure bred dogs than mixes.

Yes, me too. nevah nevah again!!

Having a lab/pit mix, I can see some pit in his head. Can only describe it that way.

Just be careful mentioning the pit part. With ours we can him a lab mix from the pound. Insurance and airlines have a perticularly low opinion of them.

My wife did the dog DNA with a kit from Amazon. Around 90 bucks.

The domino dog (black and white) in the front. 1/2 pit. The other "lab" is 3/8 lab; 1/8 golden; 1/8 newfy; 1/8 scotty; 1/4 mix. LOL! 2nd pic - in the back, L-R, my son's dog and my daughter's dog, both pit mix. I don't know how this happened!

My labs would never attack anyone but they were decent watchdogs early in their lives. My young one, Ruckus, barks with any movement in the cul-de-sac. Unfortunately we are having to work with him to back it down a little bit because its too much. I sure like knowing when people are out and about but I don't need to know about every cat, falling leave and blowing piece of paper.

Pitch, my older dog who just passed a few days ago, was similar until he was about 4. Then he went pretty quite. He was comfortable and did not worry too much about anything. He was all spit and teeth behind the fence though and if anyone was near the fence or house, we would know about that. He was that way until the day he passed. Cable guys could go in and he would bring them every toy in the back yard, but most people would not consider going in without us around.

Oh man, very sorry to hear you lost Pitch, they are a part of the family, hurts to lose a good old companion.

^^^This^^^

Looks like a lab head on a pit bull body to me.

I bet 60% of the dogs at our local shelter have Pit in them.

Is “da hood” close by ? 😜

I started this thread last month to see if anyone here could help me figure out what kind of dog I had. I was thinking mostly lab, and that’s what the people at the shelter said, but when someone asked if his feet were webbed I realized that he wasn’t as much lab as I had thought. So for fun I had a DNA test done and just got the results. Thought you all might be interested. He is 50% American Staffordshire Terrier, 37.5%Lab, and the other 12.5% is from the breed groups hound, terrier, and herding dogs.

I had never heard of a American Staffordshire terrier so I did some research. They are one of a few different breeds that are known as pitbull’s. I never thought I would have a pitbull, but this came to me as a surprise, and he sure looks like he’s going to be a good dog. Has anyone here ever had a American Staffordshire? What can you tell me about them?

While there is an “American Staffordshire” show dog bloodline, I’m pretty sure yours is just a half pit bull mix, pits being far more common and more likely to be owned by people who do not supervise their dogs.

I presume your dog has been neutered, which will minimize the potential for aggression. Keep an eye on his around cats and unfamiliar dogs.

Typical shelter worker behaviour. You know most people aren't likely to adopt a pit cross, so you lie and call it a lab cross. Not a total lie, it does have lab in it, but you should ID a cross by the predominant breed, if you are honest. I saw it hundreds of time.

Now, your dog may never ever be an issue, but be on your toes, always. Birdie gave good advice. I would add that you take him for some professional training (and you too). If other dogs or small animals are around, keep him on a short, sturdy leash.

Ahhh, I see from your OP, that they did give both breeds in the description. Doesn't change anything.

I know a dog that has a similar look, especially the body, and it's half basset hound.

To be fair the shelter did advertise him as a lab/pit bull mix. He looked like that to me too. He had an oversized head on a skinny body (his ribs were nearly sticking through his skin), but since he’s gained some weight his head doesn’t seem so big. We have a little female toy fox terrier and he’s very gentle with her. This news is a bit unsettling but it’s hard to think of him as a different dog now. He is very trainable. He’ll sit and stay while I go inside the house for as long as I want and wait for me to return.

But I also know that a lot of people who own pit bulls that went bad would swear they were gentle dogs.

Keep working with him, daily. It's the advice we've gotten over the years and that we now give to owners of any breed. Keep working with them daily.

Someone mentioned getting some professional training. Not bad advice. If there is a dog training facility in your area, check them out. Agility, obedience, even scent work. We do a bunch of dog sports with our dogs, whippets now but previously those and mixed breeds. Ribbons and awards all over the place. All dogs benefit from activity and having a "job". Tired dogs act right more often too.

Some of the training classes we've attended over the years, agility if I recall, had some AmStafs in them. One lady bred them and her dogs were excellent in the ring. They are generally highly trainable.

Spend as much time as you can with him, but the standard advice with any large powerful breed it to be aware at all times. Especially around children, strangers, and other animals. And even yourself.

Good luck with the pup.

Geno

We DNA tested ours and he had a good bit of Staffordshire terrier as well. He's been fine with people and all animals. The 24lb terrier puts him in his place and he takes it. He's very gentle around children. He will put himself between my wife and repairmen/delivery drivers until he feels they're ok and barks when the doorbell rings. That's about what I was hoping for. Now, he tries to leave with the UPS guy.

He's typically laid back and even keel. He can be stubborn at times. Ours was a 3 year old rescue and had been around kids his whole life but I still asked the vet about his temperament. I trust mine but it is not a breed that should be allowed to just run free. He may very well turn out to be the best dog you'll ever have. You just have to be a more of a responsible dog owner than the average

It's my job to be fearless here. My GSP let's me know when to be so.

I got a chocolate version of the lab ? mix. Mom was a black lab dad might of been American bulldog or pit. I refer to him as my inner city lab. Knows his momma was black no clue who daddy was.

He is about a 120 pound couch potato. That will probable try and kill you if come in uninvited or get near my truck with him in it. Never seen such a laid back dog that can go zero to scary in about a second and a half.

Never any sign of his protective and slightly psycho streak til he about a year old. Went out of town for the weekend with him. Came home walked in the front door as the lowlife scum went out the back door. TV a couple cheap guns went with them. Dog went crazy. I did too. Unfortunately as much as I wanted to,unloading a 10 mm into their backsides as they run away is frowned upon by local law enforcement. At least officially at a personal level most will tell you they would rather just come and pick up the bodies.

Anyways since that day my dog trusts no one new. No one. However without any encouragement he really don't trust anyone that's black. White your going to get his attention and the stare down if you walk past the house eventually your getting barked at. Black and you walk past he will be growling barking and snapping his jaws at the end of his chain as soon as he sees you. He has put a few on top of cars already.

I ha to out mine down a couple of months ago, still not ready to get another one. Friend has two, brother and sister, looks a lot like yours,
Great dogs!! Easily trained.

I've been looking at the shelters, etc, seems every dog now is a pit-mix.