Dutch Shepherd Forum

Hello,

My wife and I adopted Grace in November of 2018 and been learning a lot ever since. The shelter, in the Chicago area, had her listed as Dutch Shepherd and while I know that a great deal of listed Dutchies are other things, I am a bit hard pressed to not see it in her. She's just over 2 years old now and seems to have finally stopped growing. Grace is currently just under 50 pounds and 23 inches to the shoulder. Temperament wise she has a decent amount of drive and locks in on you and the task once you get her going. She comes at everything with a lot of intensity. Not as much as our trainer's Malinois but I don't think Grace is likely a super well bred example nor do I expect she had the kind of upbringing that would make such a driven and level dog. Grace does have some leash reactivity issues, which we have been working on, but that's the only thing that can break her focus when we are working. She also shows herding and protection instincts.

So, what do you think, is Grace a Dutch lady? I tried to include a good cross-section of pictures but I can take more if it helps.

Here's a short gif of Grace from last winter practicing her ribbon dancing.
https://imgur.com/Cszn2iH

Wow she could be Bramble's twin without the broken ear. But I don't know what exactly Bramble is. I call her a Dutch Shepherd mix, but haven't spent $$ on a DNA test.

Sure looks like one from the pics but what about a fore head profile.
She does have a blaze on her chest.

I've wondered about that. White on the chest and paws is a "fault". But fault does mean "not a _____". Dals with patches are still Dals. I've often wondered if Bramble just is a very "good" Dutch Shepherd.

Too much white is "undesirable", but not a full indication of "not-a-DS."

Grace is probably mostly DS, but of course DNA testing (Embark or Wisdom) is the best path to confirming.

Here's a profile shot of her head from this morning. She was pretty fresh from waking up so she was not interested in keeping her head up for me, ha.