Sid from Dallas, Texas, works at an animal shelter where staffers lovingly refer to the many large, tan mixed-breed dogs there as Texas brown dogs, or TBDs. Are there other colorful regional terms for mutts? In the U.S., they’ve been known as curbstone setters or curbstone sitters, as well as Heinz 57 dogs or Heinz dogs. In South Africa, they’re called pavement specials, and in Brazil, they’re referred to with the Portuguese term vira-latas, or “garbage-can tippers.” Throughout the Caribbean, there are several more terms, including potcakes, pothounds, rice dogs, and coconut retrievers. In Brussels, Belgium, a mixed-breed dog is a Zinnike, a name that has also come to describe proud residents not born there, and in fact, that city’s multicultural nature is celebrated with a Zinnike parade. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of ““Texas Brown Dogs,” “Pavement Specials,” “Potcakes,” and More Mutt Monikers”
Hello.
You have A Way with Words.
Hi.
This is Sid calling from Dallas, Texas.
Hi, Sid.
How are you doing?
What’s up?
So I’m calling in because I wanted to share one of my favorite pieces of workplace jargon.
Mhmm.
I work at an animal shelter in Texas, and so being in The US South, we have a pretty significant issue with dog and cat overpopulation.
So between backyard breeding and accidental litters, we actually end up with a lot of mixed breed dogs that are some combination of separate pit bull husky, and they all kind of end up looking very similar to each other.
They’re like these big dogs, tan, just kind of like your quintessential dog.
And we like to lovingly refer to these in my shelter as Texas brown dogs.
So whenever we have somebody, like a client coming in for an adoption and they’re looking at a puppy and they ask, what breed is he?
We don’t really have any way of knowing exactly what mix of breed they mix of breeds they are.
So really, we just say, oh, he’s a good old Texas brown dog.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I love it.
Do you call them TBDs for short?
We should.
Yeah.
Because I’ve seen that in some of the some of the places where these lists are collected of of terms for for mutts and and and this is what we’re talking about, right?
Just your your good mix of dog.
Yeah, exactly.
I I actually wanted to ask you guys if there were any other fun regional words for mutts and mixed breeds that I can add to that lexicon.
Oh, there sure are, Sid.
And first of all, thank you for your work.
It’s very much appreciated.
I guess I have a Texas brown dog myself, a bear.
Oh, really?
Yeah, yeah.
I never would have guessed it, but we did his DNA and he looks sort of like a lab, but, but he’s a mix.
He’s mostly pit bull and German shepherd and boxer.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, yeah.
So, so I know exactly what you’re talking about there.
And I don’t know if there are other, terms around The U.
S.
I really like Texas brown dog.
I’m gonna appropriate that myself.
But there are some wonderful terms for, mutts around the world.
I know in, in South Africa, they’re often called pavement specials, you know, Yeah, because they’re that reminds me of an old fashioned, American one, curbstone setter, s e t e e r.
Or curb stone sitter.
Would say I, yeah.
It’s very much the same idea, just a dog you find on the street.
Right, right.
Or in Brazil, there’s a term vira latas, which literally means garbage can tippers, you know, because those street dogs will go, you know, from can to can, or in The Bahamas and Turks And Cake Coast.
They call mixed breed dogs pot cakes, which is named into the crusty layer.
Oh, yeah.
Did you have an moment there?
Yes.
I have an old coworker who does a lot of work in Turks and caicos with whales, and she’s talked about the potcakes out there.
She gifted me, like, a little coaster with a picture of one of those dogs that says, like, we love talking.
Oh, yeah.
The Caribbean has some bunches, sometimes called pothounds.
The idea is you feed them whatever scraps are left in the pot.
Or rice dog.
Our coconut retriever is my favorite one.
Coconut retriever.
Yeah, The Caribbean area.
Oh, I need to use that one.
That’s really good.
Yeah, try that one.
But I tell you, one of the terms that I really like is from Brussels, Belgium, because there, a mixed breed is called a Zinnika, which means mutt.
But there’s this wonderful turnaround for this word because, Brussels is a real crossroads.
It’s a really mixed, area of French and Walloon and Belgian, folks and a lot of immigrants there too.
And Zinica, the term for mutt, is now a nickname chosen to represent a person from Brussels who wasn’t born there.
And it’s a very proud term.
In fact, every couple of years they have a Zineca parade, which celebrates the city’s diversity, you know, all the immigrants and all the mix of cultures there.
So it sort of moved from the dog world to the people world.
So that’s, that’s one of the ones I really love.
Yeah, isn’t it lovely?
Sid, I wanted to ask you, this one’s a little old fashioned, but does anyone call the Texas brown dogs the, the mixed breeds Heinz 57 dogs or Heinz dogs?
I have never heard that.
Okay.
Because that’s, you know, Heinz 50 That’s seven an old fashioned one for anything that’s There’s a one more.
I’ve seen this, a Texas amalgamated brown dog.
So the amalgamated will show up again and again in these terms kind of as a fancier word for mix or mutt.
Well, Sid, the cool thing is that we have listeners all over the world and all over The United States, and I’m really excited to hear what other terms we have for these wonderful animals.
Me too.
Alright.
You take care now.
Give those dogs some extra scratches from us, alright?
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks so much for having Tell them hi from Bear.
Bear says hi.
Take care, Sid.
Y’all have a good day.
Bye bye.
What do they call a mixed breed dog out your way?
You know, those dogs where you’re not quite sure of their origins and they don’t much matter because you love them anyway.
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