Trying to understand the Dangerous Dog laws

What a cutie pie! Looks like a boxer to me, from my untrained eye. Hope it works out.

Very cute!  He does looks to have "Pit bull characteristic" to my fairly trained eye. 

I used to work in an animal shelter that bordered a county where pit/pit mixes were banned, so I've had to make the call on hundreds of dogs. I wouldnt have felt comfortable at all classifying this dog as a boxer mix.  I would be very surprised if you would be able to convince many people of that.   

I'd be inlclined to classify him as a mastiff mix, but still would not have allowed adoption to the banned county.  (or to the UK, unfortunately)

Why don't you get a DNA test?

DNA test sounds extreme, but I think Mirra is right.  If you can prove he's a boxer mix you're in the clear I would guess.  My pup is a very large, old chocolate lab and I've found that he's happy with my mom here.  I'd love to take him with me, but he leads such a lovely life here and he only has a few more years left.  If your dog is older can you find a lovely life for him/her?

Here's one of the many companies who offer DNA testing: http://www.canineheritage.com/

This particular one looks like they cant identify APBT, but can identify boxer, lab, and mastiff, so it woud have to be a process of elimination.

To my untrained eye he looks like the sweetie-pie of a Staffy my friend's ex had.  Zeke was more likely to lick someone to death than anything else!

Maybe the DNA test is a good idea. Looks like you can get one for $80 or less
http://www.frontgate.com/jump.jsp?itemType=PRODUCT&itemID=28946&k=ZZ50985&mr:trackingCode=9CC92DA6-EE89-DF11-9DA0-002219319097&mr:referralID=NA

This one does identify APBT

I hope it works out for you!  I have a chow chow and feel your pain.  Luckily the UK doesn't have a chow chow problem, but Allstate won't insure my house if I have a chow chow because of their "vicious" reputation.  It's definitely frustrating when you know your pet is a sweetheart!

If that's your furball in the icon, pretty! We have a bunch of places like that here, but a few of them will accept a high ATT rating or equivalent for an individual dog.

I classify canine temperament by average response to "cues". Chows, like most working breeds, have some protective and defensive cues that are part of their working heritage. All that means is I might not put some individuals in the same situation I might put a lab or a classic bull terrier. However, I'd rather work with a chow with defensive cues over quite a few other breeds because I've found their responses to be fairly uniform and predictable. You can anticipate them, and control the dog's environment to keep him from having to engage those cues, like not taking your setter to your friend's house if they have a pet rabbit that runs loose.

If you've never seen any ATT data, you might get a kick out of this site. Bear in mind; percentages are calculated based on a varied amount of test subjects, so look at the number tested as well as the overall scores.

http://www.atts.org/statistics.html

What a cutie pie! Looks like a boxer to me, from my untrained eye. Hope it works out.

Thanx muchly!

Very cute!  He does looks to have "Pit bull characteristic" to my fairly trained eye. 

I used to work in an animal shelter that bordered a county where pit/pit mixes were banned, so I've had to make the call on hundreds of dogs. I wouldnt have felt comfortable at all classifying this dog as a boxer mix.  I would be very surprised if you would be able to convince many people of that.   

I'd be inlclined to classify him as a mastiff mix, but still would not have allowed adoption to the banned county.  (or to the UK, unfortunately)

Why don't you get a DNA test?

I like the idea of doing the DNA test, and getting him registered as a therapy dog. What I'm antsy about is that if he does come back non-APBT enough to not be considered one, and I have the paperwork to prove it, it may not matter if someone there looks at him and decides he looks like a dangerous dog. My understanding at this point is that he could get passed by someone in customs, and six months later I could stop for gas somewhere in Yorkshire and someone else could opt to seize him, and have him put down before I got a ruling on whether his DNA test and etc were accepted universally.

DNA test sounds extreme, but I think Mirra is right.  If you can prove he's a boxer mix you're in the clear I would guess.  My pup is a very large, old chocolate lab and I've found that he's happy with my mom here.  I'd love to take him with me, but he leads such a lovely life here and he only has a few more years left.  If your dog is older can you find a lovely life for him/her?

He would be somewhere around eleven if our current target move window stays the same. I'm used to keeping even large dogs 15-16 years as norm barring disease. I probably could home him; he does well with anybody he meets. If I can work it out at all, though, we want to keep him, and we'd both be willing to put off the move for him.  A lot can happen in a few years.

He's one of the best rescue cases and therapy dogs I've ever dealt with, and an incredible dog attitude overall. In spite of all the abuse he's endured, this dog knows no enemies. The two times someone has tried to attack him while I was walking him, he's hidden behind me because he trusts me to be alpha. He'd only been in our vet's office for a couple hours, barely knowing any of us, and he sat still with no restraints to let us stick his neck and draw a pint of blood for a car casualty that came in for emergency surgery.

To my untrained eye he looks like the sweetie-pie of a Staffy my friend's ex had.  Zeke was more likely to lick someone to death than anything else!

Maybe the DNA test is a good idea. Looks like you can get one for $80 or less
http://www.frontgate.com/jump.jsp?itemType=PRODUCT&itemID=28946&k=ZZ50985&mr:trackingCode=9CC92DA6-EE89-DF11-9DA0-002219319097&mr:referralID=NA

This one does identify APBT

I love Staffies; they have the same loyalty, problem-solving skills, and human-as-pack dynamic ABPTs do. Will ask the vet about this one and any others I run across; might not be a bad idea to do more than one. Thanx for the link!