Dutch Shepherd Forum

Meet Isabelle, Izzie for short. She came to live with us last June from a local rescue group. The rescue wasn't sure of any sort of breed, catahoula leopard dog was mentioned but when I looked the breed up I couldn't find anything that resembled my girl. Recently on another forum someone asked about her and then showed me photo's of their DS and my jaw dropped. I will try to get decent profile shots of her later, she see's the camera and thinks I want gigantic dog nostril pictures so it's an event getting her to sit still while I take her picture.

At any rate, what do you think?



Some other pictures:
http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/03525 ... 3d6194.JPG
http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/5f715 ... fbaaf3.jpg
http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/47325 ... 1168e8.JPG
http://images.yuku.com/image/jpeg/7b425 ... c8f66a.JPG

I'm thinking Akita mix

her color is amazing.

Now that is some TIGER fur!!!!! :dswink"

Wow. She is really beautiful. (Okay...Izzie is her name, not yours.)

If she is Akita-Dutch...interesting. Now I'm even more interested to find out what your experience has been thus far (referencing what I posted in your introduction).

about the tiger fur.

Akita, that's interesting and something I would have never thought of. I always associated akita with a poofier coat. Poofier...highly technical term there eh? Googling akita brindle mixes led to some photos that I could see some of Izzie in.

She does have some serious tiger striping, I've had people tell me she looks like a tiger, a hyena, a dingo, she's almost become the Rorschach dog in that turn her a certain way and you can see almost anything. LOL

(And yes, Izzie is her name, not mine. )

I have been told that Gwen looks like a hyena, dingo... fruit bat etc.... a homeless guy calls her that leopard fur dog...

Very cute! Her proportions seem off to be a DS.

I have met one DS with lighter than usual coat coloring (and not many stripes, actually). He was at the DS event in 2007, Catch Me If You Can Zombie. Back in 2008, he was #13 on the all time Dutch Shepherd list for flyball with 10335 points and his FMX title (Flyball Master Excellent). He's in Wisconsin.

look mix but she is beautiful!

Raven wrote:Wow. She is really beautiful. (Okay...Izzie is her name, not yours.)

If she is Akita-Dutch...interesting. Now I'm even more interested to find out what your experience has been thus far (referencing what I posted in your introduction).

about the tiger fur.

I dont'think she is Akita -DS mix! I think she is a mix of something?? with an Akita! Akita's come in brindle too you know And they do have a full coat, but that can turn out totally different when the other parent has a less woolly coat. Like Cheryl says, the proportions are off to be a shepherd. Very nice looking dog tho

here's a brindle Akita

I have seen this lovely brindle pattern like that on DS's too, but mosty without the lighter belly, neck and leg coloring that occurs in your girl and the picture of the Akita that Marjolein posted. I agree that your Izzy is a bit stockier and longer in the back than you would expect to see in a DS, as far as I can tell without a full side shot though. The most poignant difference between Izzy and a DS would be the lack of mask, though. DS's almost always have a mask. Sometimes it is minimal, but you would still see black lines around the lips at least. I do not see any mask on Izzy (and it brings out her lovely brindling on her face, so I think that mother nature knew what she was doing when adorning Izzy like this) and the gene that is responsible for the mask is dominant. If at least one parent had been a DS, how could she miss out on something that 99% of DS's have?
Unrelated: Thank you for adopting a shelter dog and working past some issues. You helped save a life and I hope that your reward lies in a wonderful relationship with a lovely dog.

When we were last at the vet they mentioned a test that could tag breed markers to give a general idea of what she has in her. I'd never heard of that before, and have no idea how accurate it may or may not be. It would be interesting to say the least, at what the results could show. I'll have to ask them for more details on the how's and why's. They already told me the price tag, $300, which seemed a bit steep just to have a general idea that may or may not be on the money. Has anyone ever heard of those sorts of tests? And if so, were they accurate(ish).

At any rate, whatever she has in her, it's been interesting and educational reading up about Dutch Shepherds, a breed I knew nothing about prior to a few days ago.

I've heard of those tests, I believe they are a super invention for those who do the test, I wish I had thought of it. Just think of the money you can make by satisfying the ongoing curiosity of mankind!
I know for a fact that they have not been able to make a clear DS profile, because they are too related to Malinois and because there has been too much fraude with FCI bred dogs (can you say that out loud? ) So there is no profile to link to a DS, so even if you're dog has DS in it, unlike labrador or something, they simply will not be able to locate it :dswink" Total waste of money, spend it on some good dogtoys :dswink"

Marjolein wrote:Total waste of money, spend it on some good dogtoys :dswink"

DITTO!!

When I got Sugar, the lady who worked at the SPCA said she sent away for a DNA test (I assume thats what you are talking about, only about $150 I was told) for her pup she had adopted, and they had asked for a picture to be included. She decided to not send a pic, didn't want to give them any suggestions, so the results were just from the DNA. She has some really large dog, it was like 50 pounds at 4 months. The results came back as a Shitzu mix (Not sure if I spelt that right). There was nothing Shitzu about her dog, so I'm not inclined to believe on the reliability on those tests either.

Izzie is gorgeous! You must get comments every time you are out with her.

you spelled that wrong, its shit's-too
And DNA can be used for many things, this is one of them.

Fraud?? please do tell.