One of my favorite games to play at the dog park (and when walking down the street) is, "What kind of dog is that?!" but it completely gets amplified as soon as I see what I deem as an, "indistinguishable mutt."
Enter, Niya! The Basset Hound/Beagle mix, with a bit of Chow Chow and Pitt Bull!
If you've ever seen a large litter of mutt pups (and working at two different shelters I've seen my fair share), you can see quite the mixture of coats and characteristics in each puppy.
An interesting fact about dogs, is that while female dogs are in heat, they can actually have more than ONE male dog (or sire) come along and fertilize their eggs. It's what can sometimes cause such diversity in a litter. But before you call your dog a party gal, another possibility at hand is that you're just dealing with what Geneticists call heterozygosis, which simply means you're dealing with a broad mixture of genetic variation. Simply put, if her pups looks quite different from one another, chances are she just mated with just one lucky dog of a different breed.
Now having all this said, the question may have crossed your mind if it is possible a puppy can have two fathers. The answer is no, but the litter can be sired by different fathers. In other words, a few puppies may be sired by one male and the rest may be sired by another. It all sounds a little crazy, but if you want to read up more about this phenomenon—click here, this article sums it up quite nicely! :)
But! Getting back to the pup of this post—Niya was adopted from the Delaware County SPCA last September and it's very possible due to her uniqueness that she has quite the broad mixture of breeds in her lineage.
While Niya's owner Kelly isn't 100% sure of her past, she was nice enough to share with me what she's learned about her. Niya is 1 year and 7 months. What Kelly knows is that in her young life thus far, The Delaware County SPCA had rescued her from a high kill shelter in Kentucky.
Niya was at the Delaware County SPCA for only a week before Kelly and her husband walked through the door, "just to look":
"So we really had no intention of adopting any dog that day, but my husband was the first one that saw her and fell in love with her immediately. So, we were like, 'We have to take her home'".
But shortly after adopting her, Kelly noticed from the way Niya acted that she was unfortunately potentially abused. Kelly had figured this out when Niya would be timid towards other people, and shy away from anything stick-shaped the first few weeks they had her:
"I think she was abused a little bit, because when we first brought her home, my husband plays Golf, and she would shy away from anything that was stick-like, even real sticks. We would try to play fetch with her and she would just shy away every time we picked it up. So we kind of worked with her on that, and so she's not as scared anymore...She wouldn't go near anybody for a while, but now she's more trusting of people".
I definitely noticed this, because when I started to take pictures of Niya the camera shutter click sounds startled her (see photo above), and until I let her sniff/check out the camera, she was a little apprehensive. But once she started playing with the other pups in the park more, she eased up and I was able to snap a few more shots.
Niya definitely had some personality, and when I asked Kelly what she believed Niya's Motto would be, she laughed and said:
"It would definitely be the Kirstie Alley one, 'Life, Lick it!', because she likes to eat everything!! No matter what it is, she doesn't beg but she loves food!"
Kelly told me Niya's been very easy to train, but she did have a pretty comical time trying to figure out how she would be when her and her husband were at work:
"When we first got her, we weren't sure how she would be while we were at work, and so the first Monday we had her we were like, 'let's leave her out, put away whatever she could get into, and see how she does.' But when I got home, she hoarded EVERYTHING on our one windowseat—all of the couch cushions, all the pillows, my jackets, my shoes…but she didn't chew anything up! So then after that, we decided to crate her."
Full Name: Niya
Favorite Toy: "A horse stuffed animal I got from my dad…she shakes it with her head, and brings it outside with her."
Fun Fact: "Ate her husband's hat and threw it up three days later. Also has chewed up TV remotes."
Favorite thing about Niya: "The cuddles. She's a really good snuggler!"
