What Breeds / X-breeds Show Up In Shelters?

[tdierikx]

I suppose the breed/mixes commonly found in pounds would depend on the council areas the pound services... some will have a higher SBT/mix intake, and some may have a higher swf intake rate, some may have a higher percentage of older dogs, and others may have a larger number of younger dogs. Then we need to look into the percentage of strays vs surrenders... the entire picture may never truly be known though, because I don't think statistics like that are kept or tracked by anyone at this point.

As for purebred dogs - identifying those is usually via the microchip details that have the full prefix and name of the dog listed - and it is more common than most breeders might like to admit that pure dogs may end up in rescue.

Of the pounds I've visited regularly over the past few years, they seem to have an even number of bull breed mixes AND swf types... but have also seen a fair smattering of "pure" types like Labradors, GSDs, Rotties, arctic breeds - usually younger adults in the larger breeds who may have become a little more to handle than was envisioned when bought as a puppy. I haven't seen or met a large number of pound dogs who were "broken" in any way, except needing exercise regularly, a bit of obedience training, or needed regular grooming.

T.

[Cosmolo]

I would say that on average, you're looking at 10% of dogs that are pure and of those, maybe 1/4 of those are from registered breeders. There are other factors that influence how many pure dogs are seen though- socio economic areas, breed involved and whether shelter/ rescue/ pound is country or city.

Lots of staffy x's and undetermined bull breed crosses would be the # 1 in my experience. Not far behind though are herding breed mixes AND small, fluffy mixes.

[Trisven13]

I haven't seen data but I can tell you what we used to see in Albury - lets not forget though - one of the biggest problem with apparently purebred dogs coming into a pound is that you can't tell if they are pedigreed or not as its not attached to their collar. I can tell you of about 8 pedigree dogs with papers who were surrendered to the pound with papers. I can tell you about dogs that the people who ran the pound (and have been showing and breeding for 30 years) believed to be pedigree dogs.

The bulk of dogs that were seen in Albury Pound were mixed breeds - either working breeds, SWF or bull breed/pigging mixes. The more common apparently purebred dogs were Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Labradors, Cocker Spaniels, GSDs, JRTs, Golden Retrievers etc. No great surprise however as they are more common breeds in the area.

I have seen apparently pure and possibly pedigreed (some definite as they had papers) Corgi's (including a puppy), Dachshunds, German Wire Haired Pointers (quite a number to be honest including puppies), English Springer Spaniels, Golden Retrievers, Cocker Spaniels (including puppies), Italian Greyhounds, Shelties, Japanese Spitz, GSDs etc etc etc. To fully know where those animals came from their microchips would need to tell us but they don't. It would be useful if microchips could show initial place of purchase for all animals to truly be able to trace it, though of course it does rely on microchips being implanted AND working.

I would agree with Cosmolo's percentage of pure but I think that we had a higher rate of pedigree than 1/4 but definitely less than 1/2.

[SwaY]

I would like to see Micro-chips have permanent details of the breeder on them - Registered breeders, so they could be contacted should the owner not be found and for the stats.

[Esky the husky]

It makes me sad how many huskies and northern breeds end up in pounds.

Sometimes I wish they weren't so darn adorable so that people wouldn't buy them

[SwaY]

I would love to be able talk further about this .......but just quickly from my own experience manning the phone for our rescue and dealing with the pounds and surrenders ......the staffy/bull breed crosses would be no 1 type dog found in the council pounds . Out of the 9 purebred dogs that we have available for adoption atm 5 are from registered breeders . Three were surrendered by their owners directly and two came in via the vets where they had been taken in for euthanasia.Three of the other four came from pounds so we don't know where they originated from.

The dogs that were due to be put to sleep at the vets where taken to the pound and handed in?

That is wrong! If hey are to be PTS by the owners they should be and not taken to the pound to be rehomed.

[Trisven13]

I worked in a pound for 10 years, vast majority of dogs that came in were mutts. In those 10 years there were only 3 or 4 papered dogs that came in and guess what? when the breeders of those dogs were notified they were there as soon as possible to pick up their dogs. Same as the greyhound that came in, traced her breeder by the tattoo's and he organised for the dog to be picked up.

That is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of what happened in over 75% of the cases we saw. I was horrified, disgusted etc at the attitude some breeders showed.

I can think of only three who gave a toss and I nominated one of those for an MDBA award for the dedication they showed to an old dog of their breeding. I've only ever been able to contact one greyhound breeder who cared and that was for the severely emaciated greyhound in Wodonga Pound - he was awesome. Every other one I contacted would only tell me that they had passed it on.

[Dame Aussie]

OK, this will be a long post

I have only worked in one shelter so can only speak for that one but we would frequently get "Purebred" dogs in.

What I mean by this is that the dog was obviously a particular breed, some would be chipped to pet shops some to owners and some to breeders. In about 70% of cases the breeders had owner details and were very helpful in getting the dog home or willing to take it if we could not locate the owners. In the other 30% of cases however, the "breeder" was no better than a pet shop or BYB and didn't even have records of who they'd sold the dog too.

From my experience I would say about every 2 out of 10 dogs that came in was purebred. From the rest of the crosses the most common would have to be either JRT/Foxie crosses or SWF's. Second to those two breeds was the SBT crosses. Labs and GR's were common as were Ridgeback type crosses.

Having said this I saw at least one of every breed in my time there including a beautiful Pharaoh Hound that none of us could believe was in the pound with no ID.

Some breeds seemed to be particularly prone to escaping over and over and these included SBT's, Huskys and Malamutes and all types of Spaniels.

I agree it depends on where the pound is, more rural pounds seem to get more pig dogs, cattle dogs, Koolies and the like.

Anyway that's my experience. I will also say that at least half of the animals we got in were surrenders, and more often than not they were from pet stores or so called "breeders" of designer dogs.

[mace]

I worked in a pound for 10 years, vast majority of dogs that came in were mutts. In those 10 years there were only 3 or 4 papered dogs that came in and guess what? when the breeders of those dogs were notified they were there as soon as possible to pick up their dogs. Same as the greyhound that came in, traced her breeder by the tattoo's and he organised for the dog to be picked up.

That is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of what happened in over 75% of the cases we saw. I was horrified, disgusted etc at the attitude some breeders showed.

I can think of only three who gave a toss and I nominated one of those for an MDBA award for the dedication they showed to an old dog of their breeding. I've only ever been able to contact one greyhound breeder who cared and that was for the severely emaciated greyhound in Wodonga Pound - he was awesome. Every other one I contacted would only tell me that they had passed it on.

Aren't Greyhounds if they are racing dogs if either no good or past their use by date made someone elses problem when they don't want them anymore, get rid of them and make room for a new dog?

[SwaY]

OK, this will be a long post

I have only worked in one shelter so can only speak for that one but we would frequently get "Purebred" dogs in.

What I mean by this is that the dog was obviously a particular breed, some would be chipped to pet shops some to owners and some to breeders

From my experience I would say about every 2 out of 10 dogs that came in was purebred.

Purebred with papers or just looked like a particular breed?

Whilst it may look like a purebred dog without papers you have no idea, not to mention the rest of the litter could look the complete opposite.

[Dame Aussie]

OK, this will be a long post

I have only worked in one shelter so can only speak for that one but we would frequently get "Purebred" dogs in.

What I mean by this is that the dog was obviously a particular breed, some would be chipped to pet shops some to owners and some to breeders

From my experience I would say about every 2 out of 10 dogs that came in was purebred.

Purebred with papers or just looked like a particular breed?

Whilst it may look like a purebred dog without papers you have no idea, not to mention the rest of the litter could look the complete opposite.

No, no papers, that's why I said we were going by what they looked like.

To be honest pounds will rarely if ever know if a dog is actually purebred as they would never get to see papers, only what's on the chip, if the chip says it's pure, who are they to disagree?

[megan_]

The dogs that were due to be put to sleep at the vets where taken to the pound and handed in?

That is wrong! If hey are to be PTS by the owners they should be and not taken to the pound to be rehomed.

You're making an assumtion that the vet didn't get the owner to consent to this

[Trisven13]

Aren't Greyhounds if they are racing dogs if either no good or past their use by date made someone elses problem when they don't want them anymore, get rid of them and make room for a new dog?

Just like any other breed it depends on the individual breeder. There are many very good greyhound breeders locally - interestingly all the ones that came into pounds here had been bred elsewhere. The breeder I contacted could tell me where every other pup in the litter had ended up, who he had given the dog to, how he got onto that person, what the dog weighed when it left him, how it had raced and took great pleasure in telling me how the pups were raised around his small dogs and grandchildren. He had always, until that point, put his dogs that couldn't race to sleep as he hadn't trusted the sort of people who want failed racers. He was talked into giving away this pretty young bitch by someone he knew and trusted and, after seeing the state she was in, swore to never, ever be talked out of pts again.

Purebred with papers or just looked like a particular breed?

Whilst it may look like a purebred dog without papers you have no idea, not to mention the rest of the litter could look the complete opposite.

In the same way that it is not reasonable to assume that a dog appearing to be purebred is automatically pedigreed it is not reasonable to assume that because it didn't come in with papers it is not pedigreed. Like you, I wish there was a way of reliably ensuring that a breeder's details can remain on a microchip and that they were always contacted. I would hate to think that anything I bred ever wound up in a pound and I was unaware of it.

[sheena]

OK, this will be a long post

I have only worked in one shelter so can only speak for that one but we would frequently get "Purebred" dogs in.

What I mean by this is that the dog was obviously a particular breed, some would be chipped to pet shops some to owners and some to breeders

From my experience I would say about every 2 out of 10 dogs that came in was purebred.

Purebred with papers or just looked like a particular breed?

Whilst it may look like a purebred dog without papers you have no idea, not to mention the rest of the litter could look the complete opposite.

No, no papers, that's why I said we were going by what they looked like.

To be honest pounds will rarely if ever know if a dog is actually purebred as they would never get to see papers, only what's on the chip, if the chip says it's pure, who are they to disagree?

That's what makes me a bit sad...dogs that "real & papered" purebreds are lumped in with the ones that "appear" purebred & that is why a lot of people say "I would never get a purebred, because they are this or that....."

[SwaY]

That means the stats could be skewed - There is no way to confirm or deny without papers.

There are people who chip Pit Bulls as a Stafford - doesn't mean they are purebred nor a Stafford.

Perhaps the mirco-chip papers could have the following listed...

Spot for the owner

Spot for second contact

Spot for the breeder complete with ANKC number + the option to update the mirco-chip details at a later stage with the ANKC registered number of the puppy.

[Dame Aussie]

OK, this will be a long post

I have only worked in one shelter so can only speak for that one but we would frequently get "Purebred" dogs in.

What I mean by this is that the dog was obviously a particular breed, some would be chipped to pet shops some to owners and some to breeders

From my experience I would say about every 2 out of 10 dogs that came in was purebred.

Purebred with papers or just looked like a particular breed?

Whilst it may look like a purebred dog without papers you have no idea, not to mention the rest of the litter could look the complete opposite.

No, no papers, that's why I said we were going by what they looked like.

To be honest pounds will rarely if ever know if a dog is actually purebred as they would never get to see papers, only what's on the chip, if the chip says it's pure, who are they to disagree?

That's what makes me a bit sad...dogs that "real & papered" purebreds are lumped in with the ones that "appear" purebred & that is why a lot of people say "I would never get a purebred, because they are this or that....."

Yep, it's frustrating, but what is even more so is the general publics perception of what is "purebred". Apparently the most sought after purebred dog is a Maltese Shih-Tzu :rolleyes: .

Problem is that anyone chipping a pup can fill in the form as whatever they want, no-one checks and says "Well no obviously this is a cross".

[SwaY]

OK, this will be a long post

I have only worked in one shelter so can only speak for that one but we would frequently get "Purebred" dogs in.

What I mean by this is that the dog was obviously a particular breed, some would be chipped to pet shops some to owners and some to breeders

From my experience I would say about every 2 out of 10 dogs that came in was purebred.

Purebred with papers or just looked like a particular breed?

Whilst it may look like a purebred dog without papers you have no idea, not to mention the rest of the litter could look the complete opposite.

No, no papers, that's why I said we were going by what they looked like.

To be honest pounds will rarely if ever know if a dog is actually purebred as they would never get to see papers, only what's on the chip, if the chip says it's pure, who are they to disagree?

Chip details can also be wrong - My pedigree Affen was chipped as an Affen X

I know a Dane who was chipped as a Greyhound - simple error on the person entering the data into the database.

[Dame Aussie]

That means the stats could be skewed - There is no way to confirm or deny without papers.

There are people who chip Pit Bulls as a Stafford - doesn't mean they are purebred nor a Stafford.

Perhaps the mirco-chip papers could have the following listed...

Spot for the owner

Spot for second contact

Spot for the breeder complete with ANKC number + the option to update the mirco-chip details at a later stage with the ANKC registered number of the puppy.

Exactly Sway, we could never have proper stats because pounds just don't see papers. What you've suggested could work though.

[Dame Aussie]

OK, this will be a long post

I have only worked in one shelter so can only speak for that one but we would frequently get "Purebred" dogs in.

What I mean by this is that the dog was obviously a particular breed, some would be chipped to pet shops some to owners and some to breeders

From my experience I would say about every 2 out of 10 dogs that came in was purebred.

Purebred with papers or just looked like a particular breed?

Whilst it may look like a purebred dog without papers you have no idea, not to mention the rest of the litter could look the complete opposite.

No, no papers, that's why I said we were going by what they looked like.

To be honest pounds will rarely if ever know if a dog is actually purebred as they would never get to see papers, only what's on the chip, if the chip says it's pure, who are they to disagree?

Chip details can also be wrong - My pedigree Affen was chipped as an Affen X

I know a Dane who was chipped as a Greyhound - simple error on the person entering the data into the database.

Of course they can, but the pound only has that to go on. I had many dogs come in chipped as something and obviously something else.

[Trisven13]

I think that the chip should show breeder, regardless of whether they are ANKC or not, and then provision for the breeder to include their ANKC number (or other organisation - thinking of working breed registries here) where relevant.