Pawcurious: With Veterinarian and Author Dr. V

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Let’s play “What Breed are you?”

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When I was in school, there was a resident who could best be described as a holy terror. She ate senior students for breakfast, washing it down with the salty tears of our despair when she would mercilessly rip us to shreds in rounds. And hoo boy, did she love me. And by love, I mean, love to rip me up one side and down the other. I was an easy target; I didn’t know much at the time. Her very favorite snack.

“The patient in room two is a….” I studied the chart…”Belgian Mali-noy?”

“Malin-WAH,” she would correct, rolling her eyes. That sort of thing. You had to see her in action to get just how well she did ‘condescending eyeroll’. And then I would make it through the room, and proudly pronounce the next day that there was another Malinois there on the service, only to have her whip out a droll, “No, um, that would be a … Tervuren” plus eyeroll at the senior clinician. While the difference between a Malinois and a Tervuren are now clearer to me, they really weren’t at the time, and well, they are hard to tell apart to the untrained eye.

We don’t learn breed identification in school. We learn it on the fly. We learn that the whatever-it-is in the room has an ear infection, and how to deal with it. It’s much easier in a clinic, where the owner has already filled out paperwork and told at least two other people what breed you are looking at before you go in and mess it up.

It’s still not easy. While this may be easy to ID: 

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I’ll take, “What is a black lab in a bikini top for $500, Alex”;

This, less so:


As you can tell by the shirt, this is a Pumi. Without that hint, I would have said, what a cute schnoodle.

One of the most fun parts of watching a dog show is getting to see all sorts of dogs you don’t run into on an every day basis. And because I’m nosey, and because it’s fun, I thought I would ask some of the people at the AKC/Eukanuba show what their breeds were most commonly mistaken for by people like me who don’t know them all on sight. The answers I got were pretty entertaining.

I’ve got a couple giveaways to do leading up to the big AKC/Eukanuba show airing on the 4th, and I figured I would kick the first one off today for Giveaway Tuesday: I have two vouchers for a bag of Eukanuba dog food- up to a 40 lb bag! Good for any breed or combination thereof. 🙂

To enter, watch the video and leave a comment below with either- your favorite moment from the video, or the funniest thing someone has ever mistaken your own dog for. Don’t forget to enter on the Rafflecopter widget! Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Love this! No one has ever mistaken mine for something particularly funny, although I did have two different people who know dogs really well swear that Sophie was a particular mix (we knew her mom was a Golden): first person thought Chow and second thought Aussie. I did a DNA test because I was curious myself and it turned out to be Collie/Sheltie/Shih Tzu mixed in with the Golden. Fascinating….

  3. Thank you, because of you I now know of the existence of the Pumi and the Black Russian Terrier. Love them both! I will watch for them at the dog shows.

    Love the giant beagle. ;p

    “I’ll take, “What is a black lab in a bikini top for $500, Alex”;”…hilarious, Dr. V!

  4. When I first got my Pembroke Corgi puppy, my neighbors though I was walking a rabbit on a leash.

  5. I once met a guy that swore on his life that his Doberman was an English Rottweiler. He had the audacity to tell me that the English Rotties were skinnier than their German and English counterparts. I walked away instead of questioning him on the snout and ears.

    And even though it’s not my dog, I had a Plott Hound during one of my transports. Lucy was a gorgeous brindle. I had no less than 7 people call her a pit bull PLUS the transport coordinator who I no longer drive for was convinced it was a pit bull.

  6. I have a German Shorthaired Pointer and an English Pointer and at the dog park people always ask and confuse them, I explain the difference, the tail, etc. so now I just go with “I have the two pointers” 🙂

  7. I’m always asked if my dogs are Airedale puppies. Then I say no, they’re full grown Welsh Terriers.

  8. We did the opposite. We had a mutt and got tired of saying it. When we were asked we would say the he was a Polish Field Hound – a very rare breed. It was amazing how many people would say they knew the breed or knew someone who had one. There is a Polish Hound but we had the world’s only Polish Field Hound.

  12. i have a Spinone Italiano- she’s most often mistaken for some sort of Doodle or an Irish Wolfhound (srsly people- she’s like half their size and orange). But the funniest one ever was Wheaton Terrier

  13. My neighbor’s youngest said our dog was a werewolf, she’s a dingo german shepard mix. He was pretty positive in his diagnosis, and I couldn’t tell him otherwise, so I just let him say he lives next to a werewolf.

  14. I’ve been asked if my toller is a red border collie, or a young golden. The red collie is the best “I’ve never seen a border collie that color before!!”

  15. I thought it was funny that people would mistake a Dandie Dinmont for a Poodle… they look nothing alike!

  16. I like the ‘Big Beagle’! Also, I was once asked if my Husky (who looks like your typical Husky!) was a German Shepherd!?!

  18. people always mistake my lab/basenji for a greyhound pup. and my italian greyhound for a whippet pup. someone asked where I got a brindle lab… hes a plott hound and of course no one has ever heard of them lol

  20. so funny, i have been to many akc dog shows b/c i have 2 show min. schnauzers, although i dont show, i help out my breeder when she comes to the shows in raleigh, nc. so it is very funny that people mistake some of these breeds for others, espcially the bull terrier being a pit bull….the head tells it all….also i think one won at westminster several yrs ago. i definitely plan to watch the show this sat. i emailed my breeder to see if she knew the min. schnauzer that was in your other video with other women at the show….thank you so much for going to the shows….i always stay at home on thanksgiving to watch the westmister show….i have several friends who show dogs…short hair pointer, norfolk terriers, etc. lots of horse people also show dogs….or have show dogs….there is hardly ever a stable that does not bring dogs to the horseshows….everyone takes there dogs in the arena area to watch the shows….they tried to stop it but people complained and refused to obey the rules….so dogs are here to stay at the horseshows as well….loved your cat video but i am not a big cat person….i think people would be amazed to know how much some of the show cats sell for….

  21. although i dont feed my dogs eukanumba, i would like to win to donate to the spca food bank for people that cant afford to buy food for their dogs ….this is so people do not have to give up their pets during the hard times….i try to donate as much as i can, thru getting free food w/ coupons, etc. tonite, i saw a little kitty, that i could not catch, she was looking for food around the grocery store parking lot, i went inside to buy a can of cat food for her, she ran off, but i hope she will find it….

  22. Gosh I don’t even want the food (but if I win will give it to a rescue I sometimes work with), but I looove this topic!

    My two Brittany boys are at a disadvantage being an unusual breed from the area, and coming from French lines, where black is acceptable (it isn’t in AKC shows). My mostly black boy with a scattering of white spots and roaning has been called a Dalmatian several times! My almost-entirely black boy is frequently (and more understandably) mistaken for a lab-cocker mix. My favorite so far, though, is when they were mistaken for Irish setters. Come again what-now?

  23. we had gotten our first english bulldog as a show dog, we were at our 2nd dog show ever and while we were out site seeing with our “show” dog and indian lady stopped her car in the middle of a road to ask us what we were walking. so we told her that she was a bulldog and was attending a dog show. she proceeded to tell us in an indian accent that she looked like a PIG! boy she really burst our bubble..

  25. I have an Australian Cattle Dog. I get Australian Shepherd ALL THE TIME (No, sorry, not even created on the same continent), and when he was a puppy there was this crazy lady who refused to believe that he didn’t have wolf in him. Um, no, do you need to see his registration papers, pedigree, pictures of his parents, etc?

    The other really weird thing is when people ask what breed he is and I say Australian Cattle Dog, they all go, “Oh, I thought he was a Blue Heeler.” I can’t count anymore the number of times I’ve explained to people that Australian Cattle Dogs and Blue Heelers are the same thing, and that the red ones are not a separate breed.

  27. My dog gets mistaken for a big cocker spaniel. He is 57#. He’s actually very big for a Springer Spaniel!

  28. Even though I think a Dalmatian would be easy to “spot” (pun intended), I would be a very rich woman if I received a $1 every time someone asked me what kind of dog she is… it’s the liver spots, I know. I just smile and say, a Dalmatian, they come in both liver and black and some other color (lemon) which no one sees. No outward eye rolling, but all of my friends think it’s pretty funny as I patiently explain.