Penny is beautiful brown dog that we adopted from Labrador Rescue as a Chocolate Labrador Cross (In other words she was not completely Lab). When they got her she had been tied up to a trailer in the back yard. She was only 6 months old at the time.
And the neglect and abuse she suffered during her young life showed right from the start. She would run away when we picked up a stick, hose-pipe or even a plastic bag. Our dogs live indoors with us and we had a hard time house training her. She would not let us hold her and cuddle her at all.
The thing was though that we kept on using Labrador focused training techniques on her without any real success. She just didn't respond the way a Lab would. She was also exceptionally vocal and prey driven. When looking at her we it looked to us like she had some Pointer or maybe even Weimaraner. It was obvious we had to find out more!
Then we heard about a company called MuttMix, that would take a saliva sample from the dog and submit it to DNA testing to determine exactly what breed the dog is. We didn't hesitate and immediately bought a testing kit and sent it to MuttMix. The sample was sent off to the labs located in Canada. We had to then wait a few weeks for the results.
And when the results came back we got a big surprise!
There was absolutely no Labrador in her. Nothing. Zero. Zilch.
She was first and foremost, Miniature Pincher, followed by Bull Mastiff (Which explains her size and coloring) and a little bit of Cocker Spaniel! We couldn't believe it, but it did explain a lot about her behavior! We changed our approach with huge success.
Today she is completely Daddy's Girl, following me around and always staying close to me. I can wrap her completely with my arms and legs and even wrestle with her without any problems. She is still very vocal but it is more under control. She has also established herself completely as the leader of the pack.
She really is a beautiful dog, even with her quirks!
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So all you needed to do was change your approach based on the 3 species found in her? What an incredible story. Upvoted and followed.
Exactly. She is still a challenge but we do understand her much better now. We also learned you really can't judge a book by its cover, especially when it comes to mixed dog breeds.
Aw, this is a cute story. Thank you for being so kind to her.