It's not a mystery. Any quick look in the classifieds will show multiple ads for AST puppies. Sounds like a responsible journalist being accurate. The dog looks like an AST to me. Nothing wrong with accuracy and precision in journalism. The writer could have provided a phrase like, "a pit-bull type breed," I suppose, but it seems irrelevant. Maybe the AST breed is more well-known here, I don't know.

In any case, it's terrible that the dog was shot. There was a case of a dog being shot here a few years ago. It was a Austalian Shepherd that was running loose and a neighbor with a gun freaked out. The dog survived but suffered brain damage. My dog is a fierce watchdog and I do wonder if someone would shoot him in order to break into my house. Luckily, that seems pretty rare.