Possible Kai?
So my rescue pulled a dog from an Alabama shelter. Normally I just scroll through these emails, but this time, this guy caught my eye. It's possible he's just some kind of cattle dog or herding breed x, but I wanted to see what you guys thought. I see a possible brindle spot on his back/base of his tail., but I know you guys will know for sure better than me.
I asked for more information about his personality and his size/characteristics.
edit: I got this back - apparently, the picture was mislabeled. The dog is female and named "Maggie" (pictured was labeled "Jax"). This is what I got back after I asked for a few more details:
"Maggie is black, about 35lbs, young, playful and good with all humans and other animals. We also have her sister that looks identical but is brindle. Personality is the same."
I asked for more information about his personality and his size/characteristics.
edit: I got this back - apparently, the picture was mislabeled. The dog is female and named "Maggie" (pictured was labeled "Jax"). This is what I got back after I asked for a few more details:
"Maggie is black, about 35lbs, young, playful and good with all humans and other animals. We also have her sister that looks identical but is brindle. Personality is the same."
Comments
Do you have picture of the sister?
@brada1878 what do you think?
I think another picture would be good.
Piper was pulled from the shelter with Maggie.
I know more pictures will help ID more accurately. I just keep asking more and more questions and waiting on replies. It's getting late on the east coast, though, so I suspect I won't be getting any more replies tonight.
Her head looks too blocky for a female Kai?
I hope to get more pictures today! I'll follow up with this thread when I do.
Maggie often keeps her tail low, but it becomes erect when she's alert. She looks less Kai-ish to me in these pictures, but I still can't be sure. I'm not very familiar with the breed.
I'm still not clear if her "sister" is blood related or not. I don't know if the woman who pulled them actually knows. They were pulled and are being fostered together. They are similar sizes and appear somewhat similar in shape (from what I see in pictures), but they are still being labeled as different breeds.
FYI - Molly (the second dog, formerly Piper) is the dog they are referring to as brindle. She looks like a possible agouti + merle to me, but certainly not brindle.
https://picasaweb.google.com/110436127678722938418/Maggie02#
Here are some more pictures of Maggie if anyone is interested.
It looks like she has some scattered white hairs on her chest and some brown on her feet and other tiny patches.
Hope she finds a home!
People do see what they want to see. I know I can sometimes be guilty of it, but I try to be rational. We have an Akita/Lab mix at work that I could not believe for a second, but the owner is the one that owned the Akita mom--all I could see was Labrador. There was no power that could convince me that it was part Akita until I learn'd myself.
When I saw her face, though, I literally just stopped in my tracks (we get emails of the dogs we've pulled all the time with pictures and I scroll through them and get to know their story if I see a red flag, but that's it), despite the voice going "don't be stupid, it's probably a cattle dog x".
Maggie is labelled as an "Ewok" now (jokingly) in the system for a lack of a better breed. My rescue thought I was crazy when I brought up that Maggie bore a striking resemblance to a Kai until they saw pictures of Kai.
In a related story (which also made me think of Sage)
We had a purebred Pyr who came in (puppy) that another Pyr rescue wouldn't take because she had a crooked nose and a semi-erect ear and "didn't look like a Pyr".
https://picasaweb.google.com/110436127678722938418/Jessica02
I think it can be splitting hairs to choose breeds, why they dont just say "Asian Spitz/Northern type and herding type" for example, based on structure and behavior, is beyond me. The adopting owner doesnt need to know what exact breed it is- we cant tell them anyway- if they wanted an exact breed they would go to a breeder. They need to feel a connection, and they need to know what behaviors the individual exhibits, play preferences and health status. Breed type should be enough to help an evaluator parse what behaviors may be hardwired/hard to modify and should be accepted and managed (or loved!) vs which behaviors are easily modifyable with training and security in a home and relationship.
This case of labeling wasn't a huge issue, I was just genuinely curious what people thought of her since she made me stop in my tracks. I just wanted to see if I was crazy. I guess I'm only as crazy as thinking "yeah, there could totally be a Kai running around in Alabama" - but hey, we've seen Shikoku/Cane Corso puppies from AL, so maybe it's not as crazy as it sounds. Thank you @shibamistress @brada1878 @spj051993 @tjbart17 and everyone who contributed.
At the end of the day, my biggest issue with mislabeling dogs is when they label the Anatolian (and other Turkish/shorter-haired guardian breeds) X's as Labrador Xs... but that's a story for another day.