Hi, not sure if this is the place to post this question or not? but here goes...I'm not a hound person, it's not that I don't think they're lovely useful dogs. It's just, well, I've just never been around them much, my experience is in hunting labs, a few spaniels, terriers and now mostly herding breeds. I've come here looking for some guidance and a bit of experience to help my sister. She recently ended up with what is OBVIOUSLY not the pure lab puppy the people who had it were 'told'. We knew by first glance that he definitely wasn't pure but we figured at least half lab as he's solid black with tons of intelligence and drive (reminds me of some of the drug bred labs I've been around he's that smart & driven. and I have Aussies, he rivals my Aussies too) but as he ages he's showing less and less lab in his looks. His voice is also changing to a more houndish voice though I don't believe it's matured out yet. I found a very small reference on the wiki redbone coonhound page that rarely redbones can be black. How common is this really? are they just culled and we don't hear about it? or is it a true rarity? I'm trying to figure out if someone passed this puppy off as a lab. The people she got him from were not too dog savvy, they insisted that the pup could have had papers (now what kind of papers is anybody's guess since they didn't have them,) my sis just wanted him out of the situation he was in! and I don't blame her, the pup was mangy, underweight, and out of control. As he's filled out his hind end is definitely looking houndish, and those ears have changed shape to resemble some of the pictures I'm finding of redbones...but not all...I'm not familiar enough with these breeds to say this is common? but it's defintely not Lab like at all. His tail is also way off. It's longish, and high set, curls a bit (but not curly) over his back and moves so unlike a lab's tail (I call it his propeller.) Honestly other than color and attitude he's not looking very lab at all to me. However I'm also reading that the redbones love water (this puppy definitely does,) have a good deal of intelligence and problem solving skills (again, matches this puppy.) I'm just baffled how a 'mix' lab has not a speck of white on him. Even some pure labs can breed a hair or two of white, it's common in mixes and if you look up houndxlab almost all have white. This puppy also has webbed feet...yet I read the redbone does too...lol see where I'm going? Does he have any lab at all? If it's really rare to have a black redbone, I'll say he does but if y'all tell me it happens more than most are aware I'm gonna start call him a black redbone, lol. Either way he's just an adorable good boy. A little dorky at times but he's a puppy, lol. I'd share a pic but he's a black ball of motion, lol, it's hard to keep him in focus on my cell phone! I'll try to see if sis has been able to get any. He's definitely fun, we just want to treat him as well as possible, and if there's a hound vs lab thing that we should or shouldn't be doing we'd like to be informed. Some breeds respond differently to different methods and we just want a little guidance. TIA!
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