Lyla is beautiful!! She looks like she enjoyed her mud bath.

I have heard that large dogs can grow for over a year, Clementine is still growing at a little over a year but not as fast.

LOL...she is a beauty (muddy or not). She is lucky to have found you. I wouldn't

be surprised if she grew more though...she looks like she could become a

bigger dog. But....? LOL

She is beautiful!

If you are really interested, there are several places you can buy a DNA test kit for her and find out. Chewy's for one. Your vet could probably arrange one but that can be a more expensive route to take.

My neighbor volunteered at a rescue and brought home a young adult dog for an elderly neighbor saying she'd been told chihuahua mix. At her first health check, the vet said 'overweight, likely purebred mini red doberman pinscher'.

Whatever she is, she's a pretty girl. Big enough without being overwhelming. Love that she has a favorite mud hole, a little bit naughty is interesting. ;)

What is it with dogs and mud? She looks quite chastened in that second picture. Wonder how big she’ll get? She looks like a sweetie.

Lyla is beautiful. Mud and all :) I like medium to big dogs. My 17 year old female is 45 pounds. She does have really bad hips, so needs to be helped up on slippery floors. That’s manageable, but not always easy. She required a visit to the emergency clinic on Sunday for pancreatitis, but is back to her barking today. She also has dementia. My male dog is 15. He is 60 pounds. In the beginning of July, he collapsed on an evening walk with my husband. Was diagnosed with an enlarged heart. I wouldn’t have been able to carry him home. Since dealing with the older one is really draining mentally and physically, I think I will need to take a break from having a dog for a bit. But I love their company. I might have to choose a smaller size than I like though. Just to be able to pick him/ her up to get into the car for vet visits and so on. How do you handle all this with a 90 pound dog?

Lyla is beautiful. Looks like she expects you will scold her.

Thanks all! Yes I might have voiced displeasure before the last picture. She’s learned to look repentant even if she’s not quite sure for what.

I might get a DNA test for the heck of it, when she gets older. For now I’ll enjoy life’s surprises. An employee at PetSmart actually talked me out of it with my last dog. We’ll see.

He had a growing deformity on his hip which didn’t bother him until it did. And it all went down very quickly from there. And yes, it was extremely hard to carry him everywhere for everything, given my bad back and knees. So from that perspective, a bit smaller might be more managable down the road.

I’ve got to learn how to take pictures of a black dog. Most come out like this. Tips welcome, and I’d welcome others to post some updated pics of their pets if they’d like!

So happy for you!

Lyla is a beauty.

Our current dog, Wally, was adopted from our local SPCA when he was approximately 5 months old. He was in a group of puppies brought up from Alabama. They said he was a hound mix, and would likely be "up to 40 or 45 lbs".

Well he does seem to be a hound mix, but more importantly is the most easy going,sweetest, calmest, least destructive dog I've come across. I tell people he makes up for all our previous dogs. They were great with us, but either not good with other dogs or other people. Wally is the dog every one loves.

About his weight-----DH takes him for long walks daily ( several miles) and we don't overfeed him. He weighs in at between 65 and 70 lbs. :)

Lyla is so adorable! love black dogs! love her white speckled front paw! she looks like she will top out under 50lbs. my vet always says - 1st 6mos they grow vertical, 2nd 6mos, horizontal (fill out) ..

enjoy her, she looks like a sweetie!

Lyla is GORGEOUS! She looks very....black lab. If that's the dominant gene...maybe 45-55lbs. She still has that puppy innocent look in her muddy photo shoot. :0)

Lyla is very pretty and looks like a sweetie. Lab mix maybe? They are so loyal and hang with you everywhere!

My friend always gets pound puppies, does the DNA test, and was surprised when her latest turned out to be a pure bred. It was a curly coated dog which isn’t usual for the breed.

I love Lyla! The white paw is so cute. Mud and dogs, yep. A friend has 4 of these Malamutes.

FOAS, as far as photographing black or dark dogs, I think its better on a cloudy day or with good light behind you if indoors and against a neutral background.

Here’s one of my DD’s chocolate lab taken a few days ago. Hank ‘the Tank’ is well over 100 lbs and she keeps him on a diet. He was around 120 when she got him at age 2. There was a lot of bright light coming from the kitchen.

And here is our lab Sarge taken in 2014. He’s since crossed the rainbow bridge, but was the best dog ever. We adopted him at around a year old. He was around 90 lbs and stuck like glue to us. This was on an overcast day and is one of my fave pics.

The bad news about white dogs is that they look dirty pretty easily. :)

SOMEONE found some lipstick in an unattended purse...

Also, I present to you....the sadly not unheard of GREEN terrier. LOL.

Oh My Lyla is such a cutie. Yep dogs and their mud puddles. My son has a golden retriever and there are a lot of pictures of him in a mud pit covered in mud.

Thank you all for adopting/rescuing! My daughter volunteers at our local county pound and the stories she shares are just heartbreaking. And I'm sure she doesn't tell us everything.

Cute pics, everyone!

I've always adopted. Dogs from the pound make the best dogs -- it's almost like they know they're getting a second chance and are grateful.

Oh dogs! I'm sitting here with my daughters dog who sounds like she's laughing in her sleep.

Lyla is adorable, but if you zoom in on your last pic of her...... I wouldn't mess with her!

Nina, your dogs are perfect models, I bet you have so many great pics of them.

Cyn, that pic, the way they are looking at each other! And both their hands/paws folded!

Jasdip, are you sure that smaller animal in your photo is a dog? It looks like a panda bear.

Outside, Hank the tank, love the name and he looks so cute carrying his stuffed animal. Your Sarge was a handsome boy, I bet you really miss him.

Ally, I'm trying to figure out what the green bean got in to! What color is my dog going to be today!

Salvona, Wally sounds like a love, pic?

My daughters dog is an impulse purchase. They stopped at the pound just for fun and an hour later were on their way home with a free collar, leash, bag of food and a crate. Oh, and a dog. They were kinda pressured into taking her because there were three other people waiting to have time with her. But the minute they sat on the ground and Poppy climbed in my daughters lap, it was game over. I think the shelter employees should teach every dog to do that. Poppy is part pitbull, which I was initially concerned about, but she is the sweetest most affectionate dog I've ever met. The only thing is she stares. She stares at cars going by, straight into strangers eyes, park benches. I like to think she's highly intelligent and wants to understand everything. Or she has short term memory loss and everything she sees is new to her. I love dogs so much!

If someone is looking for how to help larger dogs (or really any size dog), check out the brand "help um up" harness. Our last two Setters were big boys (80+ lb) and both ended up needing help getting up from the floor, walking and loading into the car in their golden years. Just by chance we found this brand and it was wonderful. Designed to never hurt them, or us. We also used it to help them until they had to go into the wagon for walks. As a smaller person, I could lift them on steps, up from the floor or load them into/out of the car by myself. Our neighbors used it several times when their 100 lb Lab was ill and they needed to get him to the clinic. Our Vet was very impressed with the design and recommended it to other patients. It's a great product.

beautiful, I love black dogs! Size doesn't matter!