# Is my dog a Pit?



## scottytheoneandonly (Jul 14, 2011)

Sure looks like a Pit to us. We adopted him from an animal shelter where he'd been for 2 months. The shelter said he was a Boxer (it actually states that on the paperwork we got from them). :rofl: we used to have a boxer. he's no Boxer. My sister in law has a pit mix. she told us that it's common for shelters to list pit puppies as "boxer mix" because people won't adopt pits.

We think he's 9 months old now. He's been in our house for a month so far. He's gained 1-2 lbs each week since we brought him home. He's about 45lbs right now and according to our vet all his teeth are in.

Our vet said he's definately a Pit. But as I've run into people I keep hearing different things. The woman who runs the Petco obedience class we're taking him to says he looks like a Bull Dog. A couple of Pit owners in my neighborhood have tried to tell me he looks nothing like a Pit. To us he most closely resembles Pete from our gang. In fact, last week while out on a walk a very old grey haired man said "that looks like the dog from Our Gang." I said, "Yeah, he's a pit bull." and the old guy said, "Oh, in that case he probably doesn't look like that dog."


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## Carriana (May 13, 2008)

He is most likely at least part pit but without papers you will never know. He sure sleeps like a pit in that first picture, hehe. And that old man didn't know what he was talking about because Petey from Our Gang WAS a pit bull. There are a lot of preconceived notions amongst the uneducated about what a pit bull looks like but don't listen to what joe schmoe on the street tells you because chances are, they are incorrect. 

Stick around here, there is a ton of information and knowledgeable people here. 

Welcome to GoPit


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## davidfitness83 (Jul 7, 2009)

No papers no sure answer..


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## EckoMac (Aug 25, 2010)

He's wicked cute regardless of what he is. I LOVE the eye patch.


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## APBT4LYFE (Jun 19, 2011)

might be a pitbull american bull dog mix is what i would think, but you will know when he is fully grown by his height and weight and that will determine it. BTW nice pics and welcome!


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## davidfitness83 (Jul 7, 2009)

APBT4LYFE said:


> might be a pitbull american bull dog mix is what i would think, but you will know when he is fully grown by his height and weight and that will determine it. BTW nice pics and welcome!


You cant tell a breed by weight and height, you need a pedigree. There are 130 pound American bulldogs and then there are 60 pound American bulldogs. It is impossible to know even if the dog is fully grown.


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## MamaTank (Jun 12, 2011)

Welcome to the forum! Don't listen to what "Most People" tell you about your dog. "Most People" don't know what they are talking about. I have run into that a LOT with my girl. She's a Pit Bull...but I have had people try to swear that she was other things. Yours looks similar to mine in the face  
But the others are right, without a pedigree, there is no way to tell for sure. 
(But Petey the Pup from "Our Gang" was a Pit Bull.

This is my little girl:









But in the end (Especially since you aren't breeding or showing your dog) it doesn't matter whether he's pure or mixed. He's your dog, and you love him. That's all that really matters.


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## PatienceFlame (Dec 22, 2009)

davidfitness83 said:


> No papers no sure answer..


:goodpost:


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## ames (Jun 6, 2010)

cute pup either way! welcome


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## Joewilly (Mar 6, 2011)

Looks like a duck, ( from the old bromide). Truth is even w/ papers u don't really know what u have unless u know for a fact the breeder is trustworthy...there are plenty of people who falsify papers to make sales ( when I mentioned to a breeder I met some time ago that the person I bought one of my dogs from never sent papers as promised, and ducked my phone calls to find out why...he responded, ' no problem, I'll give you papers from one of mine'). Like others said, if your not breeding or showing it doesn't matter. good luck, very cute pup.


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## NateDieselF4i (Sep 14, 2010)

9 months, 45lbs. with that big dome of his and structure i'd say he's on track for an APBT look / size. At least part.

Regardless congrats on the little fella! he looks awesome. I really like that second picture with his tail going 

For reference Kane at 9 months was around 55lbs. He's really slowed down though


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## davidfitness83 (Jul 7, 2009)

Just for a body reference this was my brothers American bulldog he was close to 80 pounds.



















In my opinion this gorgeous puppy looks nothing like an American bulldog.


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## k8nkane (Jul 9, 2010)

In the first and third pics it almost looks like he's got Bull Terrier in him with how the stop is so shallow and smoothed out.


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## stonerreakinhavok (May 22, 2011)

ok as for the shelter putting him as a boxer run with it (if you rent). average joe thinks shelters know everything about dogs, so the fact that the shelter says your dogs a boxer is a good thing more paperwork to show to your landlords trying to convince a future land lord to let you move in with the dog.

@k8nkane i saw that too, the first pic has a slopey smooth looking nose. 

but like every ones said no papers no definitive answers even with a k9 dna test you wont know for sure. seen one with a lady who had a pure blood am staff (i think i saw it some where on here) and it came up with like 2 or 3 different breeds that weren't even close. cute dog though

lovin the bull dog with the brindle spots btw


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## 9361 (Jun 25, 2009)

That dog is def at least part pit bull. Adorable! People say my dog looks like Petey all the time!


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## rob32 (Sep 22, 2010)

your dog is a mutt. without a pedigree any guesses you or anyone else makes about its breed are just that, guesses. could be a boxer, could be a pit bull, could be a chihuahua, at this point, no way to know.

btw, nothing at all wrong with a mutt.


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## Carriana (May 13, 2008)

k8nkane said:


> In the first and third pics it almost looks like he's got Bull Terrier in him with how the stop is so shallow and smoothed out.


I was kinda thinking the same thing, but really only the first pic. I think it is just the way his face is resting on the couch. I wouldn't rule out bull terrier though.


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## scottytheoneandonly (Jul 14, 2011)

we don't really care about papers. we've only been curious. as far as most people on the street are concerned he's a Pit. That's not a big deal for us. And if our town every dabbles with BSL i have paperwork from the shelter saying he isn't a Pit. 

our rescued Greyhound is purebred, but it makes no difference to us. Although, to her there seems to be a difference, as greyhounds seem to identify very strongly with one another. they act differently with other greyhounds than they act with any other dog.


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## scottytheoneandonly (Jul 14, 2011)

another picture from this morning. he's approx 20 inches at the shoulders. he was weighed yesterday at the vet. 47lbs. he's gained 7 lbs in 4 weeks.


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## davidfitness83 (Jul 7, 2009)

He looks Like a pointer or Dalmatian, def not American
Bulldog. 20 inches is tall, was he neutered early ?


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## cEElint (Oct 6, 2009)

in that pic i see no pit bull


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## NateDieselF4i (Sep 14, 2010)

Yeah - looks like a pointer.



















My neighbor has one. Fun dogs. Very athletic. They're pretty tall too.


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## Black Rabbit (Nov 14, 2009)

I'm gunna agree with David on this as I've been around my fair share of AB's and helped my BF with a litter of them. AB's have some very distinct facial features and see none in this pup. Even though Davids AB, and mine were on totally different sides of the scale, My Mack was about 130lb, they still had the same distinct facial and body structures you should see in the breed.

This one one of the pups from the litter I helped Ryan with










You can see in this pic how big the dog really is


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## Carriana (May 13, 2008)

Wow, funny how you see something completely different in all 4 pictures. He doesn't look pit at all in that last one. I would go with pointer on that one too. Beautiful dog!


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## scottytheoneandonly (Jul 14, 2011)

funny how in different pictures people see different things.










He looks to us nothing like a pointer. I've had several pointers in years past. He doesn't look or act like them at all. His head is like a brick, more than twice as wide in the forhead than my greyhound. and when he smiles he has that Pit grin.

No biggy either way. He's been a good dog so far. He learns commands very quickly and is very very social with people. I'm afraid that if anybody broke into my house, they greyhound would be all alone defending us while ben would be begging the intruder for treats.


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## KMdogs (Apr 22, 2011)

Many breeds have the "smile", it doesn't mean he has APBT in him. You have a good ole mutt if anything, i cant really point 1 breed out specifically that he looks like. He could be a number of things and chances are he is.


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## davidfitness83 (Jul 7, 2009)

I bet he is a heck of an athletic and intelligent dog. I dont see any fighting breed in him at all. He is very refined light, his muzzle length and jaw muscle size is indicative of something else.


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## stonerreakinhavok (May 22, 2011)

different pictures show different things its like how you have 2 pics of one person, 1 looks like the person you see every day, the other doesnt even look familiar. they show different traits different lighting so on so fourth. the first pic i think his jowl was up so it gave his nose a smother look. also why cops take profiles and front shots. the profile looks like a pointer to me

@KG wow that dog is a beast


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## Black Rabbit (Nov 14, 2009)

Cage was a great dog too, I loved that big old lug. Sadly he passed away last year


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## Loke-a-doke (Jun 11, 2010)

Wow he is tall. Loki is tall too he's 49 lbs 24 inches tall. I'd like to get some more pictures on here of him just to see what people think. Its funny cause I said since he was a puppy he looked to me like he could have pointer in him but nobody would listen!

But yeah as far as what people you meet say...I knew absolutely zero about pit bulls and I learned pretty quick that other people know less haha they tend to generalize just to one or two breeds and base it off of "a dog they had once..."
My best friend will swear on her life that Loki is pit/boxer. My dad on the other hand swears he's pit/whippet. I feel like I'm the only one who will consider hell, maybe he's all three! lol


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## APBT4LYFE (Jun 19, 2011)

davidfitness83 said:


> You cant tell a breed by weight and height, you need a pedigree. There are 130 pound American bulldogs and then there are 60 pound American bulldogs. It is impossible to know even if the dog is fully grown.


you are right the world will never know, but what i ment with my comment was that once the dog is fully grown the weight and height will narrow it down. Like if the dog grows and ends up being over 100 pounds then its obviously not a pit, i think u catch my drift.


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## davidfitness83 (Jul 7, 2009)

Gotcha man


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## KMdogs (Apr 22, 2011)

APBT4LYFE said:


> you are right the world will never know, but what i ment with my comment was that once the dog is fully grown the weight and height will narrow it down. Like if the dog grows and ends up being over 100 pounds then its obviously not a pit, i think u catch my drift.


Thats faulty as well, even if we are talking 50 - 50 mixes the result can still vary. Granted i get the idea your going for but weight and height it can still be many breeds. A mixed dog can still be over 100lbs with one dog being 40lbs and the other being 180lbs as its impossible to predict with a 50 - 50 how the dogs will vary. It makes it more complicated when you throw even more breeds in there.

Now adding physical traits, weight and height you can surely assume this dog has no neo in there but in the end even if you are able to rule out x amount of breeds you are still going to be left with too many possibilities to say for sure what it is.

Theres only 2 ways of knowing what you have, going through a respectable breeder with a ped OR going through a respectable breeder that has documentation of whats in the yard and not walking away with a ped. If you want to be able to prove to everyone what you have a ped helps but in the end you still have to trust the breeder didn't hang papers or have trust that person(s) in general.


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## scottytheoneandonly (Jul 14, 2011)

we'll just have to see where our dog will be in about 6 more months. I suspect he'll top out around 65lbs. That's what our vet estimated. 

The shelter said the people that dropped him off said he was a Boxer mix. But our last dog was a boxer, and I'm not seeing any of that in him.

We're more interested in breed just so we can anticipate his eventual size and behavioral traits. But since we've had him for over a month his behavior is less and less of an issue. We know all that now.


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## Black Rabbit (Nov 14, 2009)

You can never really tell. He may be mixed with more than just two breeds. Take Marley for example. His mom was a pit sharpie cross and his dad was a German Rott Queensland cross. The vets have him listed as a Rott mix but he really doesn't look like one at all to me. He kinda looks like he could be something else intirely.

Old Mr. Marley


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## Chinadog (Sep 14, 2009)

Oomgg hes super cute I see alot of pit.


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## scottytheoneandonly (Jul 14, 2011)

So, we've had him about 5 weeks. He weighs 50lbs, 10lbs more than when we got him. Not sure if he's getting any longer or taller, it mostly seems to be going to his head and shoulders. He's like a giant ball of muscle.

We were thinking he would top out around 65. but being only 10 months old at this rate he might end up bigger than that.


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## MamaTank (Jun 12, 2011)

What a handsome guy!


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## scottytheoneandonly (Jul 14, 2011)

found out yesterday that he has a staff infection. It presented like skin allergy. It looked like a rash and he was scratching a lot. I tried changing his food, which made him sick. Brought him to the vet and now he's on meds to clear up the infection. 

our vet has a pit and said that hers has had the same type of skin infection and that pits are susceptible to these types of skin infections. she sees it regularly. and that it's probably picked up outside (he likes to rough house on the law and rolls around a lot outdoors).


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