It never fails: Every time I take my senior dog Otto into public, people ask what breed he is. And I have to smile and shrug. My standard answers:
“He’s a Disney dog!”
“He’s an Oroville Chickenhound!” (He was found as a stray pup, about four months old, in someone’s chicken coop, and brought to my local animal shelter. When I adopted him at the estimated age of 7 months, I couldn’t believe that such a cute pup had been languishing there for three months. It may have had something to do with the fact that his cage card indicated that he killed chickens.)
Mostly what I say is, “He’s very mixed.”
However, this tend to make people ask “Why don’t you get one of those DNA tests that tell you what he is?”
And I have to say, “I have! Five times! And the results are mixed!”
Otto’s DNA Journey
In 2009, I sent Otto’s DNA to the two companies that seemed to be the most reputable at the time, Wisdom Panel and Petco’s Canine Heritage. The technology was new and the results were a sketchy on details, but both companies detected Chow Chow and Border Collie. Wisdom Panel thought there was also German Shepherd and Basenji; Canine Heritage thought there was also some Poodle. I thought any of that was possible, with the exception of Basenji.
In 2016, I planned to write an updated article about DNA tests, and I again sent Otto’s DNA off to two companies that offered mixed-breed identification, just to see what they had to say.
One of the companies was DNA My Dog. Its results agreed with my “very mixed” assessment, but the breeds they suggested that might be present bordered on ludicrous: Collie, Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, English Setter, and Norwegian Elkhound. Given the rural and economically depressed area in which Otto was found, I think it’s unlikely that any of those four breeds have ever set foot in the area—or at least not in the same generation!
The other company I sent a sample to in 2016 was Wisdom Panel. Shortly after the company received the sample, I received a message indicating that they recognized that they had tested the same dog previously, and that they would test the new sample anyway. Cool! That lent the endeavor credibility.
Wisdom Panel’s 2016 results offered a lot more detail than in 2009. “Basenji” had disappeared (it had been pretty unlikely), and the previously detected Border Collie, Chow Chow, and German Shepherd were still present. However, topping the list were two breeds that had not been reported by any of the companies previously: American Staffordshire Terrier and Australian Cattle Dog. At that time, the company didn’t offer estimates of the contributions of potential ancestors by percentage; instead, it offered a theoretical family tree. Otto’s showed no possible purebred ancestors until at least the great-grandparent level.
I think I might have written a blog post about the results, but I know I didn’t get around to writing a feature article about DNA that year.
Some New Information
In 2018, I asked one of our contributors to write an updated article, instead. I revisited the Wisdom Panel website, knowing that they promised to occasionally “refresh” their results as their technology improved. I also sent a sample of Otto’s DNA to a new player on the mixed-breed identification block, Embark.
In 2018, Wisdom Panel was expressing the contributions of various breeds in the dogs’ DNA as percentages. All of the results in Otto’s 2016 report were the same, but percentages had been added. They indicated that there were about equal amounts of Am Staff, Cattle Dog, Border Collie, Chow, and German Shepherd in Otto.
This was very interesting in light of the results I received from Embark’s 2018 test of Otto’s DNA. Its results were very similar—with a notable exception. Embark identified Otto’s bully breed ancestor as American Pit Bull Terrier, and also indicated that he was more APBT than anything else, as much as 21.2%! This company also found Cattle Dog, German Shepherd, Chow, and Border Collie in Otto, but added some Labrador.
While I have to admit that I’m looking forward to any future testing or updates available, I’m going to stick with calling Otto “very mixed.”
Has anyone else had your dog tested by different companies? How did your results vary?
I received 2 Embark kits for Christmas to test my 2 shelters girls. Zoe, is tall (27″ at the shoulder) and blond, single coat with white socks & chest, one blue eye and one hazel eye, very independent and always roaming and assessing her territory. I know her mamma was a white Aussie, but not a double merle, so I figured she was a mix as well. Zoe’s results came back as mom being Pyrenees/Aussie and her dad being Doberman/Pitbull. There were small percentages of other breeds, like Border Collie, cattle dog and supermutt. My second girl, Kaylee, is a medium size, white with brown patches, with fur soft as a cats, is jumpy and nippy, and herds everything. Her test came back as cattle dog, pitbull, American bulldog and supermutt. Given both of my dogs personalities and physical appearance, and the fact that I live in an area with a high amount of pitbulls, I believe these tests to be pretty accurate. I also got the health testing, which was mostly fine for both except Zoe came back with the DCM gene, so that’s good to know!
These ‘results’ remind me to not bother getting a Breed Analysis test done.
There is one dog here whose mother is known, Bernese Mountain dog. He is black with white feet and a chest blaze. His father was thought to be Border Collie — not just for the colouring but also because a ‘border collie’ had been seen ‘lurking around’ when the bitch was in season.
His DNA test certainly picked the Bernese Mountain Dog, but it came out as Cardigan Corgi and Kerry blue Terrier!! Which to me is ridiculous. Both breeds a re pretty thin on the ground here. Corgi/ blue Terrier cross sounds as pretty unlikely
I have two smallish terrier mixes I got six years apart from my local shelter in Washington DC. They are 11 and 27 pound couch potatoes. Same age and very similar appearance, when I’m only seeing one of them I’m not always certain which one it is. Almost certainly not related, one came to DC from a shelter in Ohio, while the other was a local dog. Curiosity finally got to me and I did the Royal Canine blood test through my vet.
Luke, the bigger one, came back as pretty much half Rat Terrier with Beagle and show collie.
Jane, the smaller one came back about half Rat Terrier with Russel Terrier mix.
and mixed breed.
Seems reasonable, the Collie surprised me, but what do I know. They do look like Rat Terriers. How I managed to get two couch potato terrier mixes I don’t know, but they’re perfect for me.
Has anyone tried darwinsark.org? It’s a citizen science project using the DNA, in combination with questionnaires, to learn more about these companions we love so much.
Our little adopted mutt, Ava, has some interesting ancestry.
39.1 % Dachshund
17.3 % Chihuahua
16.9 % Unknown
13.8 % Australian Cattle Dog
6.5 % Jack Russell Terrier
3.7 % Miniature Pincher
2.7 % Yorkshire Terrier
100 % LOVED!
She basically looks like a slightly elongated black and cream long hair chihuahua/yorkie mix with drop ears. She’s also an uber smart healer, herding the family around by nipping at our heels.
They have a smaller breed data base but they care only about being accurate for science’s sake.
We used Royal Canine’s DNA test through our vet. It is a blood test and I think the results were accurate. We have a pure English Mastiff puppy we just adopted and a mastiff/Pyrenees/ridgeback we rescued 11 years ago. Both appear to be accurate.
I think it’s interesting that no one here with a pure bred dog has commented. Meaning to gage how accurate the test is, should detect the same breed going back for the number of generations of a controlled breeding, as reflected in the pedigree.
However one variant that came up using Wisdom is that a pure bred poodle (like 95%) showing no other out-crosses did show the DNA of an Alaskan Malmute. While there is no physical resemblance the connection could be made in terms of his intelligence and determination. A born decision maker and leader. Exceptionally grounded, gets along with every do he’s ever met, even at twice his size.
I recently ordered the DNA allergy test from the same company that does DNA My Dog. It’s called “Allergy Test my Dog.” It’s also done with a cheek swab. He’s a long-haired pure-breed German Shepherd who has always been sort of an itchy-scratchy fellow. They did a breed analysis that came back as German Shepherd, (no surprise there), but the allergy tests showed many surprises, like high sensitivity to beef, turkey, salmon, and a few others. He has a chronic rash that was evaluated by the doggie dermatologist at the University of Florida and he is on maintenance antibiotics and Apoquel, an anti-allergy med. We’ve changed his diet to eliminate foods that he apparently is sensitive to. Our local vet said she does not have faith in these mail-in tests. Any opinion on these allergy tests? Thanks.
Wisdom Panel said my “Pariah Mongrel” from India was 1/4 Canaan, 1/8 Basenji, 1/8 Border Terrier and 1/2 African Middle East, Asian breed dog. I think I made the mistake of sending a photo and telling where he was from. I think it was guesswork on their part. Then someone who studies aboriginal dogs globally said “No way.” They suggested Embark which is connected to Cornell. Being a birder I felt that gave some credibility. I gave them no info. He came back South Asian Village dog, no standardized breed detected except a tiny band of Gray Wolf. Apparently there is a number system, all dogs score a 1 for Gray Wolf, he scored 3.5, which I was also told means little in terms of breed. I hear they are trying to make it an official breed, South Asian Village dog to be INDog.
My term when asked is “Bitza” or, I suppose, “Bitzer”; bits of this and that.
we adopted a shelter dog 5 yrs ago and 2 yrs ago we did a DNA test thru Embark it came back 78% Chinese crested powderpuff and 23% Chihuahua noting else in the mix, since then we have looked at various CC powderpuffs on line and can see that yes, he really is one. but to us he is still our very much loved fur baby regardless of what DNA says. it was something we did in fun to to know, BUT we also did the Medical and found out our fur baby carries a PPL gene (it’s a lens issue of the eye) so far he has not shown or has issues.