# Is he a Feist mix?



## RRT Harlies (Apr 27, 2008)

I took in a dog from my vet's house almost two years ago now, and I always assumed he was a Border Collie mix.. Similar looks, but the personality was off. He's not nearly as high strung and work oriented as BC's seem to be. We were looking through various breeds online, and I have to wonder if he could be a Feist mix?

Here's a picture of him - 









He's about 40lbs, a bit bigger than what most Feists are, and the vet told me his brother was a bit taller than him, though very similar looking. He is very active, but has an "off" switch. He is constantly looking for critters and such to chase after - goes after rabbits, trees raccoons (and attacks if given the opportunity), attacks garter snakes, etc. He tries to down burrows and will dig on command to "get 'em." He is generally a very happy dog, but does not like other dogs and is very much against being punished or even yelled at (though that may be from previous bad experiences with another owner). 

I don't know, what do you guys think he is? Part Feist? Or am I way off?


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## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

I don't know...but he sure is cute!


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## JasoninMN (Feb 24, 2006)

A feist may be purebred, a crossbred, or mixed breed dog. They are identified more by the way they hunt than by their appearance. There is no set appearance for a feist but the majority are under 18 inches at the shoulder and usually have a high percentage of terrier in their background. Anything is possible with a mixed breed but I do not see your dog being a feist. In my opinion he does look to be a herding dog mix of some sort, maybe crossed with a sporting breed. All dogs have the instinct to hunt somewhere hidden in them and many times mutts can be phenomenal killing machines. A lot of hunting dogs are intentional crosses of purebreds.


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## cur huntin' kid (Apr 15, 2007)

He doesn't look like a fiest to me. He is too big and looks like he has a larger in his build than most fiest as well. I would say border collie mix. I have heard of a lot of border collies being good hunting dogs as well.


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## cur huntin' kid (Apr 15, 2007)

JasoninMN said:


> A feist may be purebred, a crossbred, or mixed breed dog.


Depending on the breed of fiest determines if they are a purebred or crossbred. Mountain fiest have been bred for many years and are considered pure along with a few other fiest breeds. A treeing fiest can be a crossbred. Most of the time they are a fiest crossed with a rat terrier,pointer,hound, or a cur. Most fiest don't have a lot of terrier blood in them up close. Terriers dont make good tree dogs, normally. Fiest have been bred for a long time to be tree minded and most terriers would rather go to ground. Almost any dog can be trained to tree but these dogs have been bred to do it and it normally comes naturally to them.


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## Pops2 (Jan 27, 2003)

feist ARE terriers bred for treeing. in the process some of the terrier fire has been lost. a huge percentage of terriers bred for earthwork will scent tree naturally and almost all will sighttree.


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## RRT Harlies (Apr 27, 2008)

Thanks for the opinions, everybody. I've had absolutely no experience with the feist breeds firsthand, so I'm just going based on what I've read. I've also had very little firsthand experience with BC's, but he really doesn't seem to be as high energy as I've seen most BC's and BC crosses to be. He also exhibits little to no herding behavior, unless you can count the prey drive as his sort of outlet for that.


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## nancy237 (May 29, 2008)

All 3 of my childhood dog bites were feist so they are not my favorite
dog. In all fairness I was doing things like trying to play with their bone..ect. 

I don't think yours looks like they did. 

I agree he has some Border Collie looks to him.


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