What Kind of Mutt Was It?

What kind of dog is this?

In our April issue we asked for your help in identifying the breed of the dog on our March cover. Many readers had called and e-mailed to ask: What breed is it? Where can I get one?

The photographer knows only that it is a mixed breed. So we asked local experts. One veterinary office thinks the dog is a blend of Lhasa apso and Shih Tzu or that it has Norfolk terrier in it. Another vet’s office said it looks like a schnoodle (a schnauzer/poodle mix) or a Shih-poo (Shih Tzu/poodle). A Virginia pet-shop owner guesses it’s part Lhasa apso.

We asked you to send in your suggestions, and several readers responded with wonderful pictures of their own dogs, resembling the one on our cover.

Some readers are more sure than others when guessing the breed, “I have no doubt that the dog on the cover is a Border that has not been striped recently,” writes Joanne Prothero.

Other readers believe it's a mix of several breeds. Dorris Lin is one of them and writes, “I would venture to guess that the dog on the cover of your March issue is Lhasa/Shih Tzu + Terrier/Poodle.”

Another guess comes from Mary Barnett who believes it's “a mix of Shih Tzu and Jack Russell.”

Kristie McGehee wrote us and told us she thought her dog Jackson was our cover dog's brother and sent us a picture of him on a white couch. They seem to share the good taste in great home design. McGehee believes her dog “is part Tibetan terrier, part Lhasa apso.”

They are all good guesses but as Lin mentioned in her e-mail to us, “Who knows? Cute just the same.”

Photos of McGehee's dog and others are below.

Kristie McGehee thinks her Jackson is our cover dog’s brother.

Here’s “Bubbles,” Beatrice W. Gaines’s six-year-old Shih Tzu. She says, “Yes, Bubbles is a boy. Think of his bows as earrings like the athletes wear.”

Here’s the Clarks’ Lhasa apso Baxter.

This is Dorris Lin’s Herbert, who, she explains, “is ambiguously-breeded, but surely part Lhasa Apso, and perhaps parts Poodle or Havanese. I would venture to guess that the dog on the cover of your March issue is Lhasa/Shih Tzu +Terrier/Poodle.”