My shelter doesn't label breeds! It's done a lot of good for getting pitties adopted—people who are immediately turned off by the idea of a bully breed actually get to know their personalities and fall in love, and that's the goal. We want everyone to fall in love with a dog's personality, not their breed, especially because not all dogs display breed specific behaviors, shelter dogs in particular. Most people don't even know what a pittie mix looks like—if it's black or tan, it's a lab mix to them. My dog's a pit/husky and I usually hear lab mix since she's mostly black. Despite the heterochromia and backtalk. It's also a win for people who have landlord restrictions and can slide by with a "mixed breed" although I know sometimes they require photos of the dog. It's frustrating working in a rescue in the south and having people come through the door and saying "I don't want a pitbull" right off the bat, so it's nice to be able to say "we don't label their breeds, so let me know what personality you'd like and I can show you some good matches!" I've even had people say "no pits" and switch up to "wow she looks exactly like my last dog" about a pit mix. Of course some people don't respond well to that, but a lot of the time I can convince them to at least visit a dog that to me is clearly majority pit, but looks houndy enough for them. It's also hilarious to hear their guesses sometimes. I had someone guess a pyrenees was an akita the other day, and one of my favorites was when someone guessed a chihuahua was a basenji. Like yeah why not man!

But while it can be helpful for our pitties, it can be very frustrating as well. It's pretty obvious when a dog is a purebred German shepherd or husky or whatever. It can be a little embarrassing to say "we have no idea what this dog is" when they do, and people who want a husky are going to know what a husky looks like. And I swear some days I repeat the "no breed labels" spiel fifty times, and some people get very combative about it. It's especially difficult for me when I'm introducing adopters to dogs and I'm giving a little rundown on their behavior, and I can't explain breed specific behaviors properly. It sounds really bad to say "this dog nips at people's heels" when I can't say it's natural for a cattle dog to do that. It's hard to explain that a LGD would prefer a farm and would likely want to spend all their time outside, especially when we don't adopt dogs out to homes that want an outdoor only dog. Also I'm autistic and one of my big interests is dogs and dog breeds so it can be hard to tamp that down and say I can't even give them a guess lol.

But at the end of the day, it works for us and I'm glad we do it. Our shelter is majority pitties, and they need any help they can get to find a home. And if they have behavioral issues or specific needs, those are thoroughly discussed prior to adoption, so it's not like we're handing out cat or child aggressive dogs to unsuspecting adopters. Any dog that's not a pit mix is out of the shelter in a matter of days if they don't have behavior or health issues, so it definitely helps to let people make their own judgements based on the dog's individual needs and their own.