Do you know what breed this is? No pic, just description.

[elizavixen]

I was thinking about what breed one of my dog's was. We had her since I was born until I was like 12 or so. It never occurred to me what breed she was. I asked my mom and she said Akita (the other thread got me thinking about this) but I don't think she was an akita. She was from Japan (adopted from a military couple) and she was a rare breed.

Description:
Medium (70-80 lbs) - like the size of a lab with skinny legs
She had a whiteish coat - not short - not real long though - maybe 1 1/2 inches. But she was not completely white. Her back and sides (like where a saddle would go on a horse) and tail were sort of speckledish (blend of different colors - black, yellow, white, tan, etc).
Her head was kind of like the head of a lab/shepherd mix, she had black eyes.

This is a horrible description but I'm going off pure memory here (from like 10 yrs ago). I didn't think she was a strange dog then but now I do b/c I haven't ever seen another dog like her. She looked like a shepherd type dog (I looked on the akc website and she looked most like the anatolian shepherd but I don't think that is what she was). It is her coloring that throws me off. Whiteish and then that blend on her back. ? Not sure why my mom thinks akita (she definately wasn't an akita) but she was a foreign breed.

Any ideas?

[Shineillusion]

The Akitas in Japan don't look much like the American version of the breed. When my daughter was studying in Japan, she was amazed at the difference between the two. So it's possible she WAS an Akita. It's also possible she was some other Japanese breed. It's hard to say, based on just a description, without pictures. Did her tail curl over her back?

[elizavixen]

That might be true. I just looked at the akita on the akc website.

No her tail didn't curl over. She just had a straight tail.