oh and not trying to pick a fight with you Seamaiden but the vet is probly rite.Cause having a ridge is what makes them what they are.Years of being purebred would not all of the sudden pop out a dog wit know ridge.Did you see both parents?if not its probly a cross just like all these peeps wit 80-100+ pound pits IE mutts or crosses.
Hey, no worries, I'm not precious about it, I got her from animal control.
She may very well be a cross, but I am positive she's not crossed with a Lab. It was the animal control who made the ID on her, and to my eyes, if she's been crossed with anything it's a bully breed, Staffie, something like that. When she's gaping her mouth she's really got that "gator mouth" look.
I have not a clue about her dam or sire, she was turned in to animal control
twice before she was 6mos old, previous owners said she was 100% untrainable. It was a Ukrainian fellow who suggested she was a Ridgie because he breeds them. He said you still get purebred pups that don't have the ridge, too, so I took him at his word. Talked to me a little bit about it and he said back in the day a dog without a ridge like her would have been culled (euphemism for killed at whelp), but nowadays people aren't so strict on that.
She's too well-built to be a mutt dog, though. Not to my horse-eyes, and it's what attracted me to her immediately. But you've called it on her size, she outweighs a "proper" Ridgie bitch standard by at least 20lbs. That said, I've seen the American Ridgies and they're nothing like the European dogs, I do not like them anywhere nearly as much, they look too much like greyhounds.
Took her to Lowe's with me, there was a woman with an uncut red wheaten male (nowhere nearly as well behaved as my Hazel). I think we've got a Ridgie breeder somewhere locally and that's where my girl came from. If that's the case, that person either isn't a member of the RRCUS or they wantonly violated their rules.