[ServicedogMichae]

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!

 

[greenkouki]

try using a site like photobucket or flickr to share the photos. You can also copy and paste a link from facebook.

Welcome to DT. Dobermans can make great service dogs.

 

[melbrod]

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.

 

[Gretchen_Red]

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. >

 

[4x4bike ped]

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. >

Yeah.... you've always seemed part Weim to me. Damn annoying dogs!

On a sad note.... My sister, Jeanne is about to lose her 11 yo Weimaraner due to osteosarcoma. She will still have her Golden and her Pittie.

 

[ServicedogMichae]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1131497756935551&set=pcb.1131498190268841&type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1131497760268884&set=pcb.1131498190268841&type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1131497763602217&set=pcb.1131498190268841&type=3&theater

I hope these show up XD

Thanks for all of the help so far, everyone!

If the pictures look sketchy, that's because we had to meet outside. Her daughter was sleeping.
Thanks for the help!

 

[Rosemary]

Really hard to say at this point. Maybe pittie, maybe Lab, maybe something else entirely.

 

[bigfootlives]

I don't see any Doberman in them. I see lab and pit bull... maybe some weim? Once they get older it will be easier to tell.

 

[ServicedogMichae]

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.

 

[alan j.]

Koala bear??

 

[melbrod]

Cute leedle white toesies.

Half dobe (you said fawn?), and half pittie....maybeeee with yellow lab.

 

[ServicedogMichae]

Well they turned 3 weeks today. I guess I will ask again when I get more pictures. Hopefully by then I will be able to tell. Thanks everyone!

Pit bulls are a strong possibility, although if they do have pit in them, only the color shows it. Those are some big pups!

How much did your dobes weigh at 3 weeks?

 

[dobebug]

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.

 

[ServicedogMichae]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1133008273451166&set=pcb.1131498190268841&type=3&theater

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.

 

[greenkouki]

They remind me of some "fawn" dobermans Garretts was selling years ago. See here
http://www.dobermantalk.com/puppy-corner/5238-garretts-dobermans-no-health-testing.html#post1123340

 

[Rosemary]

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).

 

[Darkevs]

I think they are Dobe Pitty crosses.

for one thing....Pitties are one of the horniest dogs on the planet, , along with labs and GSD's.

very cute pups, hugz to them all.

 

[dobebug]

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.

 

[ServicedogMichae]

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.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1133008273451166&set=pcb.1131498190268841&type=3&theater
That's not a pit face lol. The eyes are too close together. The nose is red, and they have patches of white on their chests and paws, like I said before. Yeah they could be pit, and it's more likely than Rhodesian ridgeback or black mouth cur in my area. However, they don't look like pits in my opinion. I've owned a pit puppy mix. He was 1/8 pit and even he still looked like he had it. He's more hound, but the pit still showed even with that much dilution.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...126775.-2207520000.1476929555.&type=3&theater
^^Haku^^

 

[dobebug]

All I get is a red X in a box--no picture.

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.