Just got him from a rescue shelter, question about breed- Questions

And not a very good one at that, but that's a different story. Now I was told that this was a purebred Alaskan Malamute from the start, but I knew (at least I think I do) that this looked to be a huskamute from the picture sent to me before going down there. Since I've taken some pictures and have uploaded a few to see what everybody thinks he maybe, as well as what is the more likely dominate percentage.

From the look of him, of course in person you get a better viewing, I'd say he's a strong amount malamute, with some siberian thrown into the pile, maybe around 25%.

He's got the brown eyes, but one of them has about a 1/8 slice that is whitish blue color, which I know the akc would disqualify as a fault and immediately be judged as a mix. Which as a general rule is good to weed out. He also has that long muzzle, almost wolf like, which I've seen a few malamutes have before, just not many, as opposed to the numerous huskamutes I've seen with the long muzzle wolf like appearance. He also has a smaller head than most mals. While he has big paws, he doesn't have the snow shoe top appearance of a lot of mals.

He has the wide muzzle of a mal, big, strong body of one, hugely, double thick coat, smaller ears more toward the side of the head, and tail (although husky n mal tails are close). He's about 25 inches at the shoulders and around 75-80lbs.

So what does everybody think? I know only a dna test will show, but before I do that eventually, I was just looking for some opinions. Thanks in advance.

What do I think? Does it really matter whether he is purebred, you obviously rescued him from the shelter because you wanted him - and from the happy expression on his face, he wanted you.

Do you know how old he is and anything about his background?

But the most important thing is that you are both happy with each other, purebred or not. If you and he both get on well together, then I would not worry about what he is supposed to be. So is a DNA test really necessary?

Unless, of course, you only wanted a pure-bred, in which case the shelter can say what they want and no doubt charge accordingly.

Why I am not surprised I got an indignant answer on the internet....Anyway, curiosity. Fun to speculate until I eventually do a test. Very unreasonable I know.

He's five, really not too much background, had a family home n had to be given up a while back.

How much do we do really is necessary? Even having a dog isn't in the first place, so it's kind of a silly question. But I'll go. No it isn't, but like I said, just to find out. I find it interesting to know, and it gives me an indication of future health probabilities n things to look out for, etc.

But yeah, I was kind of looking to get a purebred, but like I said, I already knew he was highly likely a mix from the picture I got before I even met him, so it obviously wasn't of the utmost importance. And I didn't pay much for him, so there was no supply n demand switching going on there.

Nothing nefarious about asking people who might know something about it, and getting different opinions. Fun if anything.

I hope you will have a happy future with this lovely dog. He looks more Malamute than Husky to me, but I have to agree with @Malka, what do the percentages matter? I could understand your concern if you had bought him with AKC registration and pedigree, and then doubted their accuracy, but this boy looks enough like a Mally to be described as that for all general purposes. Well done for giving him a second chance.

Hey Steve - I honestly did not intend my response to be indignant, so please accept my apology if it came across that way.

I don't understand the premise of agreeance? Is that to assume and imply I'm just a dastardly, heartless brute, who just , and only wants a full statuesque pedigree? To fulfill my own trophy dog-wanted needs?

Nevermind the fact that I rescued him, am putting big money into dental treatment that most wouldn't, and also that I already highly suspected that he was a mixed before I even went to see him. I have to laugh at the answers thus far, if only because I've sifted through this forum and have seen many people ask about their pets breed, and haven't seen this these type of answers thus far.

Ok, I'm sure you can see how it came off that way. Of course, just as with texting, message board context can be misconstrued. I was really only asking for some fun speculations.

Steve, I do not think that the amount you have had to pay for dental treatment should come into the equation, and no, I am not being indignant or nasty or anything. If you rescue a dog, pure-bred, mixed, unknown, you do not know that dog's full previous history and medical history, and in many cases you never will know what might happen in the future.

Just look at my avatar. Pereg was a rescue from a shelter as a very young puppy of no known background. At two-years and three-months she suddenly developed idiopathic epilepsy. Nothing known about her background, nothing ever found out why it happened or what were possible triggers.

So I had to pay for very expensive medication, supplements, three-monthly blood tests - all for a mutt. But a mutt I loved so much and loved enough to have her given peace after four years of uncontrollable epilepsy, during which time I gave her all the love I could.

OK, she was not a pure-bred, even a cross-breed. She was a mutt. But I never ever regretted how much she cost me. Big money? Most of my disability pension went on her and I went without so much to keep her happy when she was not being attacked by The Monster.

Now you are not going to like what I am going to say. Did you not know that your rescue dog needed "big money" for dental treatment before you rescued him? Or did you just take him for his looks.

You wanted a pure-bred Mal that you did not pay much for, and now you are not happy.

And you are definitely not happy with my honest opinions, accusing my initial response as being "indignant". I can guarantee you will not be happy with this post, but I care more for dogs, pure-bred, cross-bred, total mutts, than I am worried about what you think of my opinion.

Wrong again. I mentioned dental in terms of what has been implied, to which I was right, as you have further implied in the message. About the purebred dog trophy thing. Also that I rescued him, so I wasn't getting a puppy, etc, all of this is self explanatory, and also in my previous messages. So I guess I wasn't misconstruing anything, after all.....

That's fine, if you wanted to do that, for any dog, no matter the breed, it's a choice you or anybody else makes. And it's a personal one. Whatever the reasons, the fact that I said most wouldn't, would be correct. There's a reason why animals end up in rescue shelters, etc, most of them being something is too much; chewing up the house too much, too much of a busy schedule, too much money for medical bills, whatever they may be.

You question Big money? I'm not going to get into numbers, why. But it certainly is more than most will do, hell most don't even get regular teeth cleanings for their dogs, or even irregular ones....And what I mean by most, is that this was the cost built into the price of the dog, as in pre-existing, and after I got him checked (I knew about some of the issues before purchase), I could've brought him back, I still had a money back time period going, but I didn't. Again, all of this is into the cost of buying him, not something that came up two years later. So lets say if the issues were taken care by the shelter (which most of them should've been), and it was worked into the cost, directly, dollar for dollar, let's say, that'd be one hell of a tough sell. So you're not comparing apples to apples. Wrong again. But I digress, what we choose to do with our money in the end is our own decision, and nobody made either one of us do it. I am only saying that because of the implication made the statements, to which is you take into account what I've made in response....you got it, wrong again.

And about stating, haha no less, that I wanted a purebred malamute that I did not pay for, and now I'm not happy.............To that I have to wonder if you've read and comprehended my responses, and just initial post. I stated originally that I already highly suspected that he wasn't a purebred mal, BEFORE I went down there. Had I only wanted one, that was purely on the cheap, I wouldn't have gone there being the fact that I thought he was mixed in the first place....I'm sure we're getting the jist by now, yes, yes, wrong again.

This post is really off the rails and disingenuous, and just is not lining up with making much sense, I have to say.

You told what you thought, which of course was wrong, as evidenced by all of my posts, including the original one.

But I'll tell you what I think now. You are a very emotional person. And you're highly overly emotional about dogs, animals in general even. You saw how my original post was not seemingly emotional, and more clinical in the information I was giving when trying to describe him and get some opinions on what people might think of his breed, either way (which I felt I had to be, otherwise ppl might know enough info to give the best accurate opinion, given the nature of pics only circumstances). You immediately thought that I was being the way that I laughingly suggested in another post (the purebred-wanten scum trophy monster), and so you were in fact indignant with that next post, and I was correct in saying you were. You originally apologized, but then saw my sarcastic answer to the next person (which at least in your case I right about) and you took it all back, and even went a couple steps further. Now in you're emotional state. you just started lashing out, making little to no sense (to just try and win some sort of argument and try n make me look like "the bad guy"), and made statements about me and my character and accusations, which of course, were all wrong, as evidenced by every post I've made, most importantly the original one.

Again, I just wanted to see what everyone thought his breed might be. I don't know a lot of dog people, and don't know really anyone who is breed fluent if you will. And I figured that some people might be on here. That is all. Where the rest of all this nonsense came from, I really don't know.

.... 'I just wanted to see what everyone thought his breed might be'.

He looks just as you describe him. Without any documentary or DNA evidence, his photo is all anybody has got to go on - anything else would just be conjecture.
I genuinely do wish both of you a long and happy relationship.

Wrong. You opened a poll hoping that people would say yes, you have a pure-bred Mal.

And you are now sulking because people are not saying yes, yes, yes, he is a pure-bred Mal.

I am not emotional as you say. And I am definitely not highly overly emotional about dogs or animals in general. Neither am I a young person, as you appear to be, who has not got what he wanted.

You do not love that dog, you resent him because he is not what you wanted. I wonder how long it will be before you hand him back to the shelter, because from your angry posts I honestly can not see you wanting him in your life - because he is NOT what you wanted.

And no way will you give him the love he deserves.

Can't advise really. I doubt you'd have gone to a rescue if you wanted a pure breed as they are notorious for getting it wrong on breed speculation.

He's a lovely lad though with a very cheeky grin. Full of mischief is my guess

Yeah, that's what I was thinking from the start. I hope so too. That's why I'm investing in his health, and a dna test. Then I'll know pretty accurately his age, n set up check ups accordingly, because that could have been misinformed as well.

Well yeah, n then of course, like I've said over n over that I pretty knew he wasn't, so it's a non factor in why I was asking what everybody else thought.

Yeah he's a silly boy. But no! No mischief at all. Completely house broken and doesn't get into anything. He's just terrible around other dogs, especially small ones. But I can already leave him in the house by himself n he never gets into anything. Although he doesn't like my girlfriend sitting too close to me, starts to howl haha.

Thank you for the armchair psychology, spot on, per the usual. I wish you great luck my dear.

That took a needlessly combatative turn.

For what it's worth the heterochromatic blue in the eye suggests a husky on the bloodline somewhere but may be generations ago looking at the build.

Yeah, I was thinking the same. On both accounts haha. I actually did the wisdom dna n health panel yesterday n sent it out. It'll be interesting to see. I'll post results on this page when I get them, so anyone with a similar looking dog can kind of compare n contrast if they don't want to do a test themselves. I'm still around that 75/25 as a guess, but who can be sure.

Jut got the results in, 100% siberian husky. Somewhat of a surprise, but I saw the husky in him for sure, at least to a %. Not shocked at all.

It just goes to show, obviously don't listen to whoever is trying to hawk the dog. But more importantly- just about anyone I met has thought he was an either full mal, part mal, or at least asked if he was a husky with some succinct apprehension, which just goes to show you it is so tough to just eyeball certain dogs (and even some ringers can have a 1/4 something else similar), and only a dna test is going to really show what he/she is.

Now obviously I thought he was at least a cross between a husky n mal despite being told he was a full mal, but in cases where someone is buying a dog purely based on breed (nothing wrong with that), you really have to vet out the breeder, and even still, I'd get a dna test in that situation, just top be sure. A lot of false breeds out there, n too many backyard breeders ringing people up. So hopefully this can be a good google search for someone just starting to try n get a dog that is a specific breed, n think they can eyeball n trust someone on top of that n call it good. Always second guess, n get a dna test.

Rescue centers are not very good at assessing the dog's most likely breed, they mostly go by physical appearance if the dog looks similar to German shepherd, they will use that breed, even though the dog might be a cross or a similar breed.

I think the moral of the story is if one wants specific breed to do their homework and get it from a reputable breeder.

No, actually, it's not. I already knew before driving down there, as stated, dozens of times. But yes, of course never trust their judgement, really goes without saying. And sometimes it is easier to move a dog if you say it's a pure whatever, so human nature goes into effect there. Even at rescue shelters.

But my point was even with breeders, or buying it from an owner (Craigslist, friend, someone knows someone, whatever), already second guess. And just know ppl get dogs through breeders all the time, then do these tests, n find out it's not a pure German, husky, beagle, whatever. I don't think these DNA tests are prevelantly known quite yet, n I'm just trying to spread the word further n give a real world experience that ppl can draw from, and use in any instance.