Ty was such a beautiful dog and I never knew what mix he was. I always thought he might be part akita or if not, then part chow, but I never could guess the rest. I never got to talk about it with any breed experts before so I wanted to ask you guys.
His whole litter was at the pound. He was the only white puppy. The others were varying shades of reddish brown with black shadings on the extremities. It's hard to tell in a picture, but his main coloring was cream with black markings, and then he had pure white accents on his face, chest, front socks, belly and tail. This is hard to describe, but where the cream fur met the white fur, there were black tones in the undercoat.
I don't know how tall he was, but he weighed 65 lbs. and was sturdily built. He had big shoulders and a big chest.
He was double coated with a shedding undercoat. He shed a lot, but was very clean as long he was brushed often. He had very fluffy pants!
He liked the snow, and had lots of fur between his toes, which were webbed. He would go in the water but wasn't into swimming. He had black spots on his tongue.
He was a one person dog - aggressively protective of our home when we weren't here, even with friends. But easy going, happy and friendly if we were here. Deep bark, no unusual or unique vocalizations.
Not interested in children. Not tolerant of them if they bothered him. I avoided mixing them.
He was never neutered, but he was also never bred or allowed to even try. He was not aggressive toward other dogs, but two male GSD's really didn't like him and would try to kill him if possible. He had a confident prancy demeanor that I think they didn't appreciate. This resulted in a couple of really scary fights, but luckily his fur protected him.
He was socialized to be good with horses, cows, and cats but he loved to chase and kill vermin/rodents, if allowed - a rare but exciting occurrence.
Not into food or treats. A finicky but adequate eater.
Very intelligent, affectionate and empathic.
I adored him and he was a near perfect dog for me. If he were his own breed, he'd be called a Bavarian Squirrelface, for no reason. I always wondered what he really was and people always asked. I just told them he was adopted and I didn't know.