Our first question upon hearing that someone has a new baby is usually “Is it a boy or a girl?” But our first question upon hearing that someone has gotten a new puppy is more often “What breed is it?” Breed is at the heart of how we perceive dogs. It affects many of our expectations of them – energy level, intelligence, friendliness – for better or for worse. With mutts, however, our urge to make breed-based assumptions can be stymied by the lack of a known breed to which to attach those assump