Hi All,
As some of you will know by now, we have a 19 month old crossbreed who until today we thought was a Lab X Chow. He was the product of an accidental mating and the father was thought to be the neighbour's black Lab, although the mating was not witnessed. The litter were mostly rehomed around the village where my parents live and we rehomed our boy at six months old from my parents neighbour.

You with me so far???

Well, my Mum has informed me that she was speaking to the owner of one of Shay's littermates, and it is now thought that 'Daddy' might actually have been a Rottie which also lives in the viccinity of the Chow. Now, it doesn't matter to me what he is but I am curious. He has recently developed a strong guarding instinct and is very wary of strangers (particularly men) but he is very good with other dogs and fine with children (the family we got him from was single parent and two kids). He is fiercely independent, stubborn as a mule and selectively deaf but he loves his 'family' and is very loyal. He is about 25 inches at the shoulder and weighs about 45kg.

There are some photos of my dogs here .  I would be grateful if any of you Rottie and Lab people could take a look a my lovely dog and maybe shed some light on who Daddy might be, please (double click on the pics for a bigger view). There are pics of my pup there too, but at least she has a pedigee to prove her parentage!!

Any/all opinions would be great :)

Cheers

looking at your pics im no expert of ether lab or rottie breeds but i would of said he looks like hes got rottie in him. :) just my personal opinion. he is gorgeous tho,how old is he now?
lola is go cute,i bet shes a handful. :)

Thanks Mini-Meg.

Shay  is 19 months old. Some people have said he looks a bit Rottie in the past but we never thought anything of it as he gets called so many things (mostly husky and Akita). Lola is quite a handful :) Those photos are quite old now so I must get some new ones on there soon.

Hi ShaynLola

IMO he looks more like a rottweiler x chow than labrador x chow. His ear set is more rottie like, his expression, size and weight. I'm not so sure about his other characteristics, the guarding, stubborness etc - maybe they are more chow like?

Angela x

That muzzle somehow reminds me of a pitbull , but that's only my opinion. Oddly enough there are a couple frequent dog park visitors with chowXlabs and they look nothing like that. My guess would be the rotti is its OH

But what do his brothers and sisters look like? That might give you an idea, especially if any have tan markings. If therre are, I'd say it's almost certainly the rott as the other two breeds are exclusively one colour.

I wouldn't even hazard a guess as from the photos of him, either cross would be possible. It depends what the two prospective fathers look like - I've seen some enormous labs and tiny little rotts. His behaviour is no indicator as I've known pedigree labs act like that and that behaviour is very typically chowlike.

I'd vote Rottweiler from that picture, not that it really matters as you say - very attractive dog.

Of course, the litter mates may give some clue or no clue - if the bitch in season was loose, some may be sired by the Lab, some by the Chow, some by anything else that was passing LOL.

M.

Thanks for your opinions everyone.

The Chow was not loose during her season, whoever daddy was he found his way into a secure garden. The Chow owner has owned and bred Chows for a very long time and this was his first 'accident'. The rest of the litter are also black and look pretty much like Shay. The main variations between them are in size (Shay being the biggest that we know of), tail carriage (the curl over the back being much more pronounced in some than in others) and coat length/texture. There is no tan on any of them but Shay has a definite brown/red tinge (the Chow is red).

The owner of one of the littermates who my Mum spoke to has owned several Rotties in the past. She is convinced a Rottweiler was the culprit and there is an entire one living nearby. Like I said, i don't care what he is. I would have offered a home to any dog being kept the way he was (locked outside 24/7 with little human contact). As it turns out, we couldn't have wished for a better dog and we love him dearly (dodgy recall and all!) :)

Not a clue, but he is absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!! :-D

That nose and those eyes and that expression look much like a Lab to me :)

Would love to see some pictures of how he looks now :)

Lucy
xx

Looking at the pics i would say rottie.His expression and his eyes are just like looking at my pals rottie.He is gorgeous whatever he is.

Thanks guys. He is a bit of a handsome devil, isn't he? Not that I am biased or anything :D I'll try and get some more pics of him soon. I've just got a new digital camera and the amount of buttons on it are so intimidating that I haven't been brave enough to attempt to use it yet (bit of a techno-bimbo :D )

what breed is lola ? id say rottie to

LOL :D :D

Lola is very definately a Newfoundland and my house has the layer of mud and fur to prove it :P

lola is a sweetheart i love that breed but ive never seen a pup she is soooooooooo cute and i meant i thought your x was 1/2 rottie not lola

Aah, I read that wrong. Makes sense now :) My excuse is a very long, tough day and not enough wine drunk yet but I'm working on it ;)

Lola is 6 months old now. Don't let that sweet exterior fool you. She's a right wee minx. She's discovered kitchen counter surfing in the last few days. Oh the joy...... :rolleyes: Oh well, its teaching us to be very tidy again!

Shay's ears shout Rottie to me!

Lovely!

(and Lola is ace)

Em

Thanks Em.

The more I look at him (especially the ears), the more I'm thinking Rottie too. Although he's such a lazy big lump at times that I wouldn't be surprised if there was some 3-toed Sloth in there too..... :D

I have been following your thread with great interest.............because I veer from one opinion to another :D

Definitely Chow in there.......of that I'm in no doubt <LOL> but then you know that don't you and I'm saying that because it's the only thing I'm sure of........oh do excuse my half wittedness today :rolleyes:

The expression on the couch is pure Lab but then when he's standing there looking all "he-man" and gorgeously macho, I think Rottie :rolleyes:

Can't you DNA him or something..........just to put me out of my misery :P

He's GORGEOUS ;)

LOL @ HP :D :D That pheasant incident has obviously taken it's toll on you today ;)

The only bit we can be sure about is that mummy is a Chow and a damn lovely one at that. I suppose we'll never know who Daddy is without rounding up every entire male in the village and questioning them as to their whereabouts around November 2003 :D

There is something in her face that says rottie, but who cares, she is so cute.

I think the ear set is very rottie, the face certainly says rottie to be (but in black :D) so could poss have rott in there somewhere.  Rotts are very stubborn, have selective hearing and love the water :)  From what you said on the last post that indicated I should look here ball playing and paw smaking is a regular occurrence?  Every rott I know (I know a lot) HAVE to give you their paw for an under arm tickle :D