I'm sorry if this isn't the right place to post this, but I'm hunting for a service dog and I am currently focused on an orphaned litter. Their mom was a stray fawn doberman (yes, a stray) who was hit by a car. Six of the puppies died and five survived (all males). They were born on September 27, 2016. They opened their eyes last week. They're very healthy, gaining weight nicely and already play biting. I'm trying to get a vague idea of what breed they might be mixed with. I live in Florida so I thought pit bull would be likely, but they don't have that look.
Since I can't post pictures from my iPad, I guess I'll just describe them??
They currently weigh about three pounds each (the smallest is 2.4, mine is 2.8, and the largest is 3.2). They are a reddish color (if you look up "red pit bull" it's just a shade lighter than that; it's a bit lighter than the light parts of red dobies) with a blanket of darker coloring on their back. NOT German shepherd dark, and it isn't in the opposite direction like ridgebacks, but it's a darker dorsal. Their faces have the shape of dobermans and have the same wrinkly snouts (not pitbull short though, just doberman). They have red noses and white patches on their chests. Mine had a white stripe going down his snout but that went away already. They have some white toes. Their tails are docked (by the emergency vet via rubber bands) so that can't be an identification factor. My puppy has very slightly longer fur than his brothers. It is by no means long, but it is longer than the rest. They coats are sleek, smooth, shiny, and soft, like the normal dobie puppy coat. They have the blue puppy eyes. Their paws are pretty big in comparison to their bodies. Their paw pads are red and pink.
Any ideas?
Also, if you have advice on what to feed them when they're older (I'm thinking Fromm golden puppy which has 26% protein and around 14% fat) then feel free to propose a food. I'd like to raw feed but as of now that isn't realistic.
Thanks for all of your input! If I can get a picture up I certainly will!
Many puppies look more or less the same; it’s only as they get older that they become more identifiable. You may be starting too early to figure them out, except in a general sort of way (long face/nose vs squashed face, for example).
Another complicating factor that makes the process of trying to identified the breeds that contributed to a particular puppy is that puppies even within the same litter can have different fathers.
Keep us supplied with pictures and we’ll help you guess as they grow.
Most folks find a photo hosting site online (like those above mentioned), download their pictures from their cameras to the site and then from the site to here.
I just found out the 1/2 dobe puppies I fostered (we thought were mixed with lab) were 1/4 Weim., 1/8 lab and 1/8 visla. But knowing their lines explains why they were so good looking. I assume because they take after their foster mom. >
They're definitely half dobe but I just don't know what the other half is. In person their faces and bodies look very dobe it's just the coloring that's throwing me off.
Their caretaker said they're already using the bathroom outside of their den and they're very aware of their surroundings. They're some big puppies but she's socializing them well. They let her touch their faces all over without protest. I can't wait to see them again.
I finally took a look at the pictures--the bodies look generic puppy (which is what you'd expect at +/-3 weeks). But the heads don't look like Dobe puppy heads at all to me.
Did the "fawn" bitch get killed? Did you actually see her or the body?
I've seen far more Dobe litters from just born to whatever (adults) and only a handful of pitty litters but that one puppy looks much more like a pit puppy than a Dobe puppy.
The only reason I ask about whether or not you actually saw the mother is that even as an adult my fawn male has been misidentified more often than not. Even at almost 11 years people still want to know "what he is?" The only people that usually get it right are either Dobe breeders or long time Dobe owners. And he's an AKC Ch and pretty identifiable as a Doberman.
I did not personally see the mother, no. I'm not as focused on him being a dobe as I am him being 60+ lbs. I'm just curious about how his face will develop later and what breeds he will look like. I know he is a dobe because I asked the caretaker who the mom was and she said a doberman, and she didn't know what the color was called until she found a pic online. Unless she was lying (which is entirely possible), they are at least part dobe.
I've seen pittie pups and they don't look like these guys. They have the wrinkles but their snouts are far shorter.
I wonder if they are possibly Dobe x Black Mouth Cur or Rhodesian Ridgeback? That reddish color is typical of both breeds, and since the ridge is a recessive, a cross breed likely wouldn't have one (not all RR do, for that matter).
I don't know--I've never even seen a Black Mouth Cur (only pictures because someone was swearing that their new "from the dog pound puppy" was a pure bred Black Mouth Cur--it wasn't). I think I'm in the wrong part of the country for Black Mouth Curs. And that head (just went back to the pictures and looked again) doesn't look like any Ridgeback puppy head I've ever seen--I've seen a fair number of them from new born to adult because the daughter of a friend of mine (who had Dobes) got into Ridgebacks.
And the head also doesn't look like any Dobe heads I've ever seen at around 3 weeks. It's way too blocky and way too wrinkly--it actually look rather more like a 3 week old Great Dane puppy head.
Those Garrett puppies had much cleaner color than these puppies do--it was the clear light red of what they probably were mixed with--Viszla--and they had black noses.
I wonder if that darker tan on their backs is still darkening?
They still look much more like Pit or Pit crosses to me.
Dobe puppies can vary hugely in weight at birth--especially if it's a big litter. A medium sized litter would usually have puppies in or around a pound--plus or minus. But one of the litters I saw years ago was clearly the result of the two breedings that took place. There were three puppies that were well over a pound--one was almost a pound and a half. The other 4 puppies were in the 3/4 pound range and looked slightly "underdone"--by 8 weeks you couldn't tell which puppies were from the bigger batch and which ones were from the smaller batch. The breedings took place about 2-1/2 days apart.
I dunno what Dobe pups weigh at 3 weeks--because there is such a variation--we see that all the time when people are trying to figure out why their 10 week old puppy weighs 11 pounds and someone elses weighs in at 20 pounds or more.
It'll be interesting to see what they look like at 6 or 8 weeks.
I hope that works...
That's the picture that the caretaker sent to me when describing the mother. She had seen her as a stray for a few months before she hit her, and had tried to catch her. She has seen her up close and personal, and sat with her on the way to the emergency vet. She got a very good look at her. The mom was definitely dobe. Maybe she had some other things in her, but if anything she was mostly dobe.
Oh well--hope you keep updating the pictures as the puppies get older. Bottom line is that puppies change so radically as they grow. As a very young puppy (up to about 4 weeks) my Afghan Hound looked like nothing so much as a badly bred cocker spaniel. After that until he was close to six months old he looked like a random long legged mutt.
Okay well I probably sound frustrated in my previous posts so sorry for that...
The wrinkles on their faces are gone. They've lengthened already which is kind of amazing.
Here's a quote from one of our latest emails:
They are so alert now! They dont sleep as much so its getting fun! Trying to watch them walk around, they are still a little wobbly. I cant wait until they are running around and playing and puppy cuddles and puppy breath lol. They already lick my face and i just love and they love being held like babies. But more mess!
She has quite the personality but basically they are maturing nicely and we should be able to find out their breed combo in a couple of weeks. Eh, as long as they're big it doesn't really matter.
You may have already said this, so I'm sorry if you did. When you say "as long as they're big," do you mean as long as they're healthy?...or are y'all hoping they are a large breed so that your pup can work as the type of service dog that you are looking for? Either way, the pups are cute and look "healthy" and happy.
I couldn't find it (of course I couldn't because I was looking for it) but I think somewhere early in the thread the OP said that the kind of service dog that she needed had to weigh 60 pounds or more. So it was that a larger breed was needed not just that the puppies were healthy.
I did not see that in an earlier post, but I think it's worth mentioning you really can't predict the final weight of mixed puppies this age that easily. If the weight and size are important I would look for an adult dog or purebred dobe.
That's what I was thinking, too, but I'm a complete novice; I always hesitate to comment on anything for fear of getting my ass ripped :laugh:; I probably missed something. Oh well...hope the pups are doing well.
I don't know--these puppies have not looked very Doberman-like to me right along but now the heads are looking quite Labrador like.
Are there other colors in the litter other than the light color that looks like it's trying to end up yellow Lab? And what ever the mix is it has a healthy dose of something carrying white spotting gene.
Well, it's at least interesting watching these puppies change over time.
Nope, they're all that reddish fawn color. When comparing their forms with dobes and labradors I think they definitely look dobe. Labradors have a stockier look and their heads are different. Their snouts are shorter and they have a very distinct look that isn't doberman. These puppies are definitely looking dobe to me and my sister, which I get isn't much, but it's something.
At this point I'm not seein any other breed very distinctly, so I guess I really have to wait. Thanks for the input!
Here he is today. He weighs about 8 pounds (I think... communication hasn't been fantastic) and he is 6 weeks old today. You probably can't get anything out of these but I still want to update you.
Thanks for the update--do you still think these puppies look like Dobe puppies? 8 pounds at six weeks sound small for a Dobe or Doberman cross. These guys have looked healthy all along and even though we've had people talk about puppies they got who were "runts" of a litter from a litter that didn't have very good care from birth who were 3 or 4 pounds at 5 and 6 weeks generally most of the well taken care of Dobe puppies I've seen tend to weigh a little more by 6 weeks.
Keep sending pictures--this is interesting to me as I said earllier.
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