What Breeds Am I? - Page 3

Genetically speaking, which is dominant? Curly tail or straight tail? 

If it is curly tail, then I think this mix has to be cattle dog/ GSD.  The no ball drive thing though.... it could happen? LOL Does he like sticks instead? I had one like that. Wouldn't bother chasing a ball but if you threw a stick......! 

Australian cattle dog, german shepherd

That is my best guess.

ACDs are my breed and I see zero ACD in this dog :-). Doesn't mean it is not the case but I find it unlikely.

It's precisely the lack of the curled tail that eliminates most of the spitz-family breeds in my mind...I'm sticking with the coat, color and size coming out of racing-line Siberian blood--while the showline Sibes do tend to carry their tails up and arced towards being over the topline moreso than the racing line dogs, both lines usually hold their tail the way this pup is when they are at rest [that curled tailset affects the structure of the croup, and the tighter the curl on the tail, the less efficient the dog is in harness...thus the racing-line Sibes usually have little, if any, arc to their tails].  Granted, he's not likely to be purebred [though it is possible...there were some very prolific racing-line Sibe breeders on the West Coast, and particularly in Northern CA, so the genetics are in that area] but I would expect a tight tail even when relaxed if there was Elkhound, Shiba, Jin-do, or any of the other spitz-family blood in there.

I just googled images of Australian cattle dogs and I just don't get how you guys can see that. OMG I can't believe how it isn't so obvious. Someone help me here.

By the front sitting position, cattle dog comes to mind and can be like you described.

Barb

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Akita showing western mastiff influence.

Jananese Akita showing spitz and not western influence.

Elkhound

Australian cattle dog

It's the small ears and shape of the face that makes him look a little like a cattle dog.

Shepherd red nosed pit mix.
Just to name a few.

Thanks for that.  I still stand by my guess. Of course, there does look to be some elkhound in there as well.  But i think the curly tail is dominant so I don't know if it has elkhound in it. Perplexed.

Akitas (American or Japanese, as we in the UK deliniate the two types)
both carry their tails in a curl, but both types seem capable of letting
their tail straighten out when they want to, or relax.  So it isn't fixed in
a curl permanently.  I don't know whether Elkhounds also have the facility
to straighten their tails, am less familiar with the breed at close quarters.
Does this assist  ?