So the girlfriend and I were headed into Walmart this past Monday and this guy is walking around the parking lot with a puppy in his arms asking someone to take it because he doesn't want to leave it in the cold to die. He said his son got it for Christmas and they just can't keep it. Doesn't want any money for the dog, but he could use $20 for gas. I'm a sucker and my ex-wife just got my Lab so I am without a canine friend. I tell him I'll give him twenty bucks after getting what I need in the store. In the end I give him forty because I like being kind and I figure a guy seeking money at Walmart needs it more than I do.

He said it was a lab, but I don't think so. Maybe some in it, but way too red and not enough brown to be a chocolate. Plus he has the white chest. He's a good little pup so far other than pissing and shitting all over my floors. He figured out how to climb himself onto the couch where the sectional makes a corner in about a day and a half. My hand and plastic bottles are his favorite toys, and he loves to growl at you when he plays.

So what says the horde? Some kind of setter? Mutt?

IMG_6901 by Team 1 Group Development, on Flickr
IMG_3341 by Team 1 Group Development, on Flickr
IMG_3343-1 by Team 1 Group Development, on Flickr
IMG_3344 by Team 1 Group Development, on Flickr
IMG_3342 by Team 1 Group Development, on Flickr

Not a setter...

Good rescue OP, cunning little boy.

Canine American

no idea

Thanks for your informative reply. Lolz.

I'm not seeing lab at all.

Fuck if I know.

Sure is a cute little guy, though.

Pit Shepard/pit collie/pit lab... Take your pick.  

I once knew a Chow Shepard that kinda looked like that too.

I just got a Pit Shepard rescue pup last month... She's relentless.

Best Walmart pick up yet!

I feel like his face looks like some pit too. Something about the shape of his snout and his forehead looks like some pit to me. And he's definitely aggressive when playing.

Ya.  The red nose and white patch is why I lean pit something.

Check the google for a decent canine dna place? Some are more expensive and offer to check against every breed known to man, the one I used was not as expensive, checked for "fewer" breeds (still had about 100 or so, and the 5 that I suspected were all there).

Should run you about $80 (should have kept that 2nd $20 you gave the guy, you were 1/4 of the way to paying for it already!), and they send you a package where you do a check swab or something and send it back and they send the probable parentage percentages.

Also, crate training is good...you will have far fewer "accidents" to clean up all over your carpet / floors.

Cute pup, what's his name?

He does have a short snout like a PB, but his ears and coloration look like a Golden Retriever. Maybe a mix of the two is my best guess, but he could also just be the offspring of generations of mutts. After six months or so he should present better characteristics. Doesn't matter though, he looks healthy and cute!

He's a cute puppy.

Webbed toes by chance?  Might be a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever... same markings and red nose.  They're like miniature Goldens.

FUCKING. ADORABLE.  That's what your new puppy is.  ZOMG his chubby little belleh

slipper chewatus monkeykus

I think that there's definitely some potential here. Quite the random breed. His lateral toes seem to be more prominently webbed. I can't decide if the other are or not. There feels like there might be some webbing between them, but it definitely isn't so prominent at this point as to be a certainty. His ears to seem to be set back similar to this breed though. Not sure on the double coat it says they have. He seems to only have the single layer right now, but it is a very fluffy and soft layer that I would think of as being more of an undercoat in a grown animal.

This is unlikely, but....

When you take him to the vet to get his shots, ask the vet to scan him for a chip....just to make sure that this guy didn't snag someone's pup and then sold it for beer money.

My brother breeds labs and this has happened before.

Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever














................

That 3rd picture is a classic:  "Now before you get any ideas, I was here FIRST!"

No idea what he is, but good job!  Keep us updated with pics as he grows.

Haha, yeah, that's actually the next door neighbor's GSD. She's quite fond of jumping her fence into my yard. She did pretty well meeting the little guy for the first time though. She'd come sniff him some and then bolt across the yard and run a circle and come back. He just kinda sat there thinking, "bitches be crazy."

It does actually have a lot of the characteristics of a NSDTR, but that would be very surprising to find being given away in a parking lot. They are rare and pretty expensive.

Probably just a very muttly mixed up pup. Good on you for giving the little guy a home. Make sure you exercise him a lot, as a tired pup is a well behaved pup. And another recommendation for crate training, as it makes housebreaking so much easier.

Dagus 'Mericus

Breed, to him it doesn't matter.   What matters to him is that you saved his life.  Good job.



Heinz 57 as my father would say.

He's so cute! Maybe some red cattle dog in him?

Start his shots ASAP, and get him on heartworm preventative after the test. Letting him out in the world is a big risk until he's fully immunized.

Pitbull

He has started on shots and gotten a couple pills for some roundworms. Those seem to have all come out at this point. He goes back in a couple weeks for the next boosters.

Do the kit. Every time my family gets a mutt pup we are so excited to do the kit.

http://www.wisdompanel.com/

Pretty sure the TV said it was a Pitbull.

Breed is Mutt, best breed type there is.

Thanks everyone for the guesses and hypotheses. We might do a DNA kit. I have heard mixed reviews about the accuracy of those. Sounds like people here think they are worth it.

We have named him Nova since he might have some NSDTR in him and we liked the sound of that.

I brought him to drill this weekend and he ended up getting pretty sick while here. He had some diarrhea on the way to the armory when we made a pit stop. He was fine Friday night but continued with the diarrhea on Saturday and wouldn't eat or drink. He got really lethargic and wouldn't do anything but sleep so I had my girlfriend meet one of my cadets between here and home and she took him to the ER vet. All the tests came back negative for parvo and other nasty stuff, but they said he was anemic and dehydrated for sure. He stayed overnight and got some IVs. I will pick him up later this evening. Right now they are saying he is doing pretty well and has eaten some and been playing. Hopefully it was just some freak thing! My almost free puppy has gotten really expensive suddenly.

They do have a way of costing us money unexpectedly! (It's good practice for any possible  future two-legged additions to the family, because those things get super expensive!)

Glad to hear he is on the mend. Poor pup!

My first "free" pup, many years ago, would get sick in the car any time I would try to take her anywhere with me, even though she enjoyed whatever we did (hiking, hanging out with friends, etc.) once we would get to our destination. She would throw up EVERY SINGLE TIME she was on a car ride for the first year I had her, which totally sucked since that year I was off at grad school, and had to make more than a few 3 hour drives to and from "home" home.

I had to clean dog barf out of my car every ride we took, long or short, even if I would hold off on feeding her breakfast (or dinner the night before, if I knew we had to drive in the morning, whatever). I had taken her to the vet early on with this issue (she had a clean bill of health) and finally got her some doggy prescription "valium" for the long trips (since the only hypothesis we could come up with was that she was either consistently car-sick from an upset tummy or sheer anxiety--we speculated that maybe she had been pitched out of a car or dumped by the side of the road, and associated car rides with "bad things," despite my efforts to make sure she had only good experiences--besides barfing--on any car ride we took).

After a year of this (a YEAR!!) one day she just stopped barfing on car rides. We went for a ride to a reserve to hike a trail we would do about once a week and that trip she did not get sick. I was surprised, but thought THAT was a fluke, I was so used to her getting car-sick. But every trip after that watershed moment was barf-free.  Finally! And I don't actually know what did it...did she finally outgrow her puppy carsick tummy? I have no clue. She was actually an excellent traveler after that, we took her on all sorts of car trips, cross-country camping, you name it, and she loved it. She would sit or relax in the back, and get really happy looking out the windows when she got to see horses or cows if we passed farmyards.