June 2010
21 posts
Reader submission: suspected non-Cardigan
This pup came home last week as a purebred Cardigan, but his new owner has some suspicions:
His feet shape and ears do not look cardigan to me and he curls his tail up. I think he’s a PWC mix. I can see the corgi in him but can’t tell what the other part is.
I wish I had the answer! I’m inclined to agree that he is perhaps a little long-legged to be entirely Corgi, and a bit foxy in the head to be a purebred Cardigan.
I’m less convinced (at least in these photos) that his feet are off for a Cardigan — sometimes you see Cardigans with horribly crooked front ends, but they should really only be slightly bow-legged (“forearms slightly curved to fit the spring of the ribs”) and the feet should toe out just slightly - no more than 30 degrees, according to the breed standard. This could be my Pembroke-person bias talking, but of all possible Cardigan front ends, I think Bogie here may have lucked out!
If there’s a Corgi Mutt here instead of a Corgi, I’d confidently say that it’s not a 50-50 mix, unless it’s a mix of Cardigan and Pembroke! This may be one of those situations, though, where ‘mutt’ and ‘wildly deviating from breed standard’ are nigh indistinguishable. The kind of Corgi breeder who is placing dogs through the co-workers of acquaintances instead of waiting for the Corgi aficionados to bang down their door and reserve the puppies before they are even born… well, they’re probably not starting with stock that looks just like the AKC champions, who look just like the breed standard. Who knows whether it’s just that or if they maybe started with a Corgi-jack and bred it to back to a corgi…
However he came to be, congratulations on your new addition. I hope you make each other very happy!
What do you say, dear readers? Maybe you can come up with a better explanation than me! Any guesses as to how this fellow might have come about?
