Should I take it as a compliment? - Page 1

Hi all,
  I was at an AKC dog show this weekend with my 3 year old male
he did good in the obedience ring, so we went down near the comformation ring to get a picture with the obedience judge at the podium and a young man that seemed to be working at the nearby comformation ring aproached my dog Rollie and was admiring his nice big head and asked what kind of dog he was, he threw me off as we were near the Shepherd ring...
  Here's a recent picture of Rollie:

 

Don't worry, people have asked me the same thing. Sometomes they'll even ask what my female is mixed with. She's currently 6 months and I know that more people will probably ask the same things. When she was a bit younger, I used to get offended, thinking to myself, 'How dare you ask if my papered purebred shepherd is a mutt!' (no direspect to mixed breeds, I own one:) Now I actually like telling people that she is indeed a FULL GSD and informing them that GSDs come in a variety of coat length and coloring. Beautiful dog by the way.



Here is my girl, Athena.

I used to get thanked for rescuing my "mixed breed" !

I think your dog is gorgeous. I also got asked the same thing with my bicolor and solid blacks, people are niave and only think GSD's are the typical black and tan saddlebacks!

With my typical saddle red and black Shepherd I never get questions of what she is. But with my pup, I always get either what is she mixed with, what is she, is she a wolf-dog, things like that. He looks like a handsome GSD to me haha. This is a picture of the pup. I see no wolf, no Akita, just a long-haired GSD.

Don't feel bad, this is 9 month old Auggie....apparently he is a Malinois who is a military or police service dog.  Too bad I didn't know that's what he was back when I got him at 12 weeks.

Please don't take this the wrong way, macrowe, but I can't help it-- if I didn't know  that GSDs come in varying coats and colors, and didn't know  that young sables go through some really spectrum-spanning color changes, I might think I was looking at a juvenile hyena or African Cape dog or something of that nature.  [DUCKS] 

Let me explain-- when a person sees something that they don't recognize as anything they have a frame of reference to, they mentally try to pair the image before them with something  they have even a passing familiarity.  So a person who is completely unfamiliar with dogs, but had seen hyenas or Cape dogs on Nature or Nat Geo or at a zoo, might try to identify him as one of those if just shown a photo and given no context whatsoever (as in not told it's a domestic animal, let alone being told it's a dog).  T'he 'halo' effect of the 'puppy down would contribute to the uninformed's dilemma, too.

[PS--yes, I see a handsome young, coated, sable GSD, too!  And I'm no stranger to the 'what kind of dog is that?' experience, either. Happened with Hexe, and it happens now with Rykkah.]

                                         
       Hexe                                                                                                                          Rykkah                                                                                                                                                                                              

mirasmom, do you think the fellow possibly meant what "kind" of dog Rollie was in reference to bloodlines, i.e. European working lines, or even more specifically West German WL? Belgian WL? etc.  Or was maybe referring to what 'kind' as in what show activity-- conformation, OB, agility?  'Cause I can't really see how someone would mistake your dog for anything OTHER than a GSD....hell, even in the Am showlines you still see the bi-colors, so that shouldn't have thrown him....

Rollie's a handsome boy...whatever else he is!! LOL! If you don't want your whatchamacallit dog anymore, I'll take him!;-)) jackie harris

Hexe, I agree - although even standing right next to a show ring, you can sometimes get the odd spectating
member of the public who knows nothing about anything.  You make a good point about people only recognising
what they are used to:  if all the general breed books and dog encyclopedias and Internet entries made a point of
showing colour variations instead of almost always black & gold /saddlemarked /standard coats  to illustrate the
GSD it would sure help with public recognition.
I wonder if other breeds get this non-recognition problem ?