Best Mixed Breed you have owned.

[sleachy]

I have never owned a mixed breed dog! Even growing up, we had a springer, a beagle, a manchester, a lab, a wire hair fox terrier...in my adult life, I have had 2 gsds and a cocker. I have also rescued and placed a rott and a German shorthair.
I think I am a purebred snob!
So, I asked my parents...and neither of them have ever owned a mixed breed either!

[1911]

Best mix dog was a half lab half chow chow. Looked like a chow chow. Great in the house, great with kids. Sad day when we put her down but it was the chapter one of purebred shepherds for us.

[Nikkoli110]

The best mixed dog we had was Jake. We "inherited" him from my uncle. He got Jake from my aunt in Maine. We were watching Jake for my uncle for 2 weeks while they moved into their new home, but his wife ended up not wanting him back. When we took him home he was 7. He was an excellent dog. He would stay in our yard and play with us for hours. I remember as a kid (11ish?) I would play "circus" with him, have him jump over our picnic table benchs, jump through hula hoops, etc. Now I look back, and I'm like "wow, that dog did alot!" He was a mix of Shepherd/Lab and we think some chow. He had shepherd markings, but was a lab body, and had some funny fur around his collar like a chow does, and had a purple-ish tounge. He was just so loyal, friendly with strangers, he'd come when called and would stay in our yard. He was just awesome. Sadly we had to put him down at age 15 in 2003. I miss him alot still!!

[zarburg]

Only ever had GS.

[MassiChewSits]

My childhood dog lived 17 years. We guess she was a mix of Beagle,Bordie Collie,Doberman an maybe Lab.
Her marking were Doby(head) and Bodrer(body),her ears were like a Labs.. The Beagle made her small,short-haired and gave her the instinct to mindless chase small animals and birds. She had the speed and agility of Border, but no real herding instinct. She was dog aggressive, but an absolute sweetheart with people. She had the softest fur I have every felt on a dog, and we miss her.

[SouthernThistle]

Not a clue what he was mixed with.

His card said "St Bernard/Akita," but he was neither. He may have been a boxer/Golden Retriever. I went to the shelter to see him, and he was in a pen with another puppy. He stepped all over the other puppy to get up to me. He was a little butterball. It was love at first sight.

He was chestnut in color with four white paws, a white chest, and a white muzzle and blaze. He was about 8 weeks old.......and housebroken. Well he may not have been trained to be housebroken, but he'd hang out by the door, I'd let him out, and he never messed in the house.

He had a sense of humor, too. I rented a small house on my landlord's property (large estate in the woods). "Frankie" would hang out with my landlord's dogs during the day (a lab and a mix). The lab had a constant limp (had been hit by a car as a pup), and Frankie, seeing the lab would get attention, started limping as well....same leg...........but wasn't injured. I took him to the vet, and he was fine. I'd even catch him standing and running fine on his leg.

He would never run off.
He never barked.
He never chewed anything, and he got along with EVERYONE.

When I moved overseas for a few months, I donated him to a woman that trained dogs for pet therapy. She had met Frankie and I several times out in public/around town.

He's now a Pet Therapy pooch that visits Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. He looks like a golden with some fawn boxer coloration

[Chicagocanine]

It would be hard to choose a "best" but my terrier Pooch was an awesome dog. He was very high-energy, typical terrier personality- very smart and a fast learner, very LOUD and fun-loving. (the only non-terrier thing is he did not chase small animals at all.) Also completely toy crazy. I don't know what mix he was but my best guess was mostly Rat Terrier. He might have been part Boston Terrier, Jack Russell, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, or some other breed. He was my "trick dog" as he knew tons of tricks. He was also my first clicker-trained dog, he took to the clicker very quickly and he loved it. I think he thought it was a great way for him to train ME to give him treats. Pooch always kept me laughing with his antics. He had a lot of fun quirks and the cutest underbite. He passed away last August at 14 years old.

Here is a photo of Pooch:



I've know a lot of great mixed breeds that were not owned by me also, mostly I knew them as a kid. Several were owned by a woman in my neighborhood who rescued dogs/cats. She was a police officer and often came across dogs in her work, or would take home the strays that other officers picked up. She had several dogs of her own in addition to the ones she found homes for, and her dogs were all mixed breeds with great personalities. There was Spats, a Lab mix who had "tuxedo" markings. She knew how to open doors and gates. There was Henrietta, a sweet quiet Collie mix with soft fluffy fur. One of my favorites was Sparky, who looked like a Greyhound/pit bull mix. Sparky was the dog I usually would go over and ask to take for walks. He was very playful and friendly and cute, a light brown brindle with a large chest and tuck-up, tail like a Greyhound but with some fringe, and a head like a pit bull's but a little narrower and longer. Sparky learned where I lived from all the walks we took, and he would escape from the owner's yard or get away when he was being walked off-leash in a nearby forest and show up outside my house. Another great dog was Wildboy. He originally was rescued by that police officer, but a friend of mine in the neighborhood ended up adopting him. Wildboy was part German Shepherd and maybe Golden Retriever. He had the most expressive brown eyes and was very friendly and playful. When my friend's family went out of town, I would petsit him at my house and he got along great with all the other pets. He was an escape artist and when his owners were walking him or opened a door he would sometimes get loose and roam the neighborhood, then come back home smelling awful. When I saw him loose I would call him to me and bring him back to my friend's house, but eventually he would get loose again. He had been a stray previously so was very street-smart. Sometimes if I was riding somewhere with my parents I couldn't stop and get him when he was loose, so I'd yell out the window "Wildboy, GO HOME!" and he would run back towards his owner's home. Unfortunately my friend had to move due to financial reasons and could not find an apartment that would allow Wildboy. I ended up fostering him for her for a while while she was at a temporary apartment, she found one that allowed dogs but was not able to stay there and she eventually had to give Wildboy back to the police officer, who found him another home somewhere.

Here is a photo of Wildboy. I had this taken for my friend's birthday one year. I pretended I was taking Wildboy for a walk, but instead I took him to the groomer and had him groomed and then took him to a photo studio and had a professional photo taken.




Another awesome mixed breed I knew was Vivian. She was owned by a friend of mine. Vivian was a very large dog, about 110 pounds. She was a Collie mix, possibly part Malamute. She had very dense fluffy fur and great-looking "mascara" around her eyes. She was one of the sweetest dogs I've known, very laid-back and friendly. She was great with other animals too. When I was about to enter high school my friend (Vivian's owner) brought me a litter of feral kittens her neighbor had taken out from under their shed. She helped me to bottlefeed and raise the kittens, and Vivian also helped by pretending to be their mother and cleaning them! Vivian loved to give her paw, and when I was at my friend's house if I sat down she would keep giving me her paw over and over so finally one day I told her if she gave it to me again I was going to keep it. So after that I told my friend that I owned Vivian's left front paw. When I rescued my Golden Retriever Ginger, Vivian became her best friend. We would walk the two dogs together all the time and they loved to spend time together.
Here's a few photos of Vivian:



Here she is hanging out with my Golden Ginger on a walk:

[WillsMom08]

Shaddow.
She was my German Shepherd Coyote mix. She was my best friend. I got her when I was 8 years when she was 2 weeks old. We bottle fed her and she was the best. She died in 2006 from Renal Failure. I want to cry every time I think of her. She should have been here when my son was born. She wasn't my first dog but she really was my best friend.
I moved to this country and kids were very cruel to me, teasing me, calling me names, throwing stuff at me, and telling me I was a freak and to go back where I came from. My dog was always happy to see me no matter what and she always loved me.
She went everywhere with me. When I started working as a vet tech she came to work with me every day. She slept with me she ate while I ate. She was my girl!



I get creeped some times because Fe looks like her and has a LOT of the same behaviors. Eating habits, where she likes to poop and pee, how she talks to me, even her bark.

Shaddow was my best dog! I miss her very much!

She is pictured with a little boy i used to babysit. He was 2 and she was 9

[clfike]

We've had several mixed breeds through the years. My first was Sebastian. He was a Shepherd, Collie, coyote mix. He was basically my brother. We got him when I was 2. That started my lifelong love of Shepherds.

A little over a year ago we lost Spencer. He was a Shepherd mix. We heard various guesses on mixed with what. They originally said Rottweiler, but who knows. He was the sweetest boy ever. He lived to be 15 yrs. old. I still miss him everyday.

[TxRider]

Best mixed breed for me was my border collie/lab mix Cinder.

She was all black with a white spot on her chest, about 40lbs. I got her 3rd hand at about 6 weeks old and had her until she was 16 and I had to put her down.

She inherited all the smarts and drive and none of the herding from the collie, and the drive and fetch from the lab I guess..

I could teach that dog anything, and did until I ran out of ideas. Fetching monster, frisbees, sticks, pine cones, tennis balls, she knew them all by name and would even fetch me a bat to hit the balls with. I had to use the bat to tire her out, otherwise I would get a sore shoulder throwing before she got tired.

Then there was climbing trees, closing doors, turning off lights, etc. etc.

I even tried her out dove hunting and she did great.

I didn't get replacement dog till now, years later. Cinder just wasn't replaceable in my eyes. Actually my first pure bred dog ever, a GSD rescue that brought me here. At least the shelter and my vet believe she's all shepherd, and supposedly rescued from a breeder that neglected her to the point of almost death.