Has anyone DNA tested their mixed dog? UPDATE ADDED PICS OF "POTCAKE" PUP POST #1

[xeroxchick]

Just a Thought

For what it’s worth, I was having this same conversation with Mr. Hardaway this spring. Mr. H is a master of our hunt and has bread hounds for fifty plus years and is known for his breed of Hardaway Crossbread Foxhound. When I first joined twenty years ago his huntsman had a PhD in genetics. He regularly did DNA tests of his hounds and told me that you have to have a really good person doing it. He spoke very highly of an expert he used in Tennessee. From what I gather it is a bit subjective (which makes me wonder about human DNA tests) and told me lots of stories about hound lines, etc. where someone thought a hound was out of one sire, but actually turned out, on his correct observation, to be out of another and verified by DNA testing. So while they were actually trying to match with a known DNA, it sounds like these general DNA tests for mutts are not really worth it.

[BabyGreen]

Mine came back as a 50-50 cross between an Australian Shepherd and Australian Cattle dog, which makes sense, because she looks like a AS with no white. I knew she was part AS and suspected something else. She also came from a part of the country where both breeds are common.

[vacation1]

The last time this came up, I chimed in with what I’d concluded - that DNA testing for breeds makes no sense because a major aspect of DNA testing is that you need something to test against and from what I’d heard, breeds are nowhere near unique enough to use in this way - you have to test individuals, ie, does this mutt have ancestors from the Doberman line we have a sample for? But someone made a pretty strong argument that I was totally wrong and science had solved that snag in some manner, so I’m not sure anymore. I am still pretty sure that an affordable pet DNA test kit from the Petco probably isn’t going to be accurate except by accident, though.

From what I understand, the AKC has been requiring DNA testing for litters for several years. And when its puppy millers get caught faking the paperwork, that registry gets VERY CROSS. It may even fine them.

[alto]

My fav Canine DNA test result video
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Now since then (this was uploaded in 2008), the test kit company has added a rider stating that their test is only accurate with actual mixed breed dogs & not applicable to purebreeds :rolleyes:

[JER]

I did the Canine Heritage test with two of my dogs.

One came back as Chihuahua-Papillon, which was not unexpected.

The other came back with nothing, just an email from the company telling me I could test her again or test another dog for free. In the email correspondence that followed, they asked if my dog was a Maltese, Bichon or Havanese (which they didn’t have markers for). She’s not a Maltese, she’s not a Bichon, but I’d never heard of a Havanese. I googled ‘Havanese’ and the image section brought up hundreds of photos of dogs that were dead-ringers for my dog. So it’s also fair to say that Canine Heritage helped me ID my dog as a Havanese.

[PRS]

[QUOTE=skip916;5610014]
I did it for fun with my “Georgia Black Dog” that looks mostly lab but is much taller, long tailed, deep chested, light eyed and much different personality than most labs. Jefferspet.com had the tests 50% at Christmas time and I figured I have wasted money on less interesting things before so might as well! The company is called biovet pet labs.

It came back primary labrador, then rottweiler, mastiff and greyhound, in order of percentage.

It could be fairly accurate if you consider the definite labrador presence, her face/head is kind of rottweiler shaped, her chest is deep and tail long like a greyhound and she LOVES to run fast and then go to sleep…

Here is her confo pic: Doodle[/QUOTE]

I totally see it…especially the lab and greyhound.

[DarkenStormy]

I did my lab/whippet mix and he came back with NO lab in him at all and a mix of Dobe, Schnauzer and something else stupid.

I got it as a Christmas present. My vet can do a blood test that’s more accurate, but whatever, he’s awesome and I don’t care

[HydroPHILE]

The DNA tests are not accurate and will only identify (correctly or not) some dogs with the AKC. If you want to use it just for fun - that’s fine, but keep in mind they’re not accurate.

I DNA tested one of our purebred German Shepherds (can trace his pedigree back to the start of the breed,) and it came back with Standard Poodle, Siberian Husky, German Shepherd. The dang dog looks like “Rin Tin Tin: K-9 Cop.” I did it…just because

[Chester_s_Mom]

I have a dog of known mixed heritage… Pug purebred mom and dad is 1/2 Bassett and 1/2 Collie (BIG oops at the breeder facility there, but all grandparents were purebred) and always thought I’d get a hoot from seeing what they said.

Never had the $$ to flush away tho just for a laugh.

@alto;5610540

My fav Canine DNA test result video
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Now since then (this was uploaded in 2008), the test kit company has added a rider stating that their test is only accurate with actual mixed breed dogs & not applicable to purebreeds :rolleyes:

And how the heck can you test a mixed breed (which by definition is made up of purebreds) if you cannot test a purebred??

[Big_Grey_hunter]

[QUOTE=alto;5610540]
My fav Canine DNA test result video
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Now since then (this was uploaded in 2008), the test kit company has added a rider stating that their test is only accurate with actual mixed breed dogs & not applicable to purebreeds :rolleyes:[/QUOTE]

:lol: The dog doesn’t seem to upset.

What a great money making scheme :lol:

[wendy]

that DNA testing for breeds makes no sense because a major aspect of DNA testing is that you need something to test against and from what I’d heard, breeds are nowhere near unique enough to use in this way - you have to test individuals, ie, does this mutt have ancestors from the Doberman line we have a sample for?

What these companies have done is look for specific patterns of polymorphisms (in test groups of purebreds) that seem to be strongly associated with a particular breed. They are probably using SNP chips and computers so skill isn’t required- they run your dogs DNA through the machine, the computer tries to match the pattern to various breeds.
A big problem with this is the very idea of a “purebred” hasn’t been around very long; most “breeds” weren’t entirely pure until very recently, and even recently dogs can sneak out, there are different lines, many breeds are closely related, the DNA can mutate, so on and so forth.
The fact that they have trouble ID’ing some supposed purebreds is probably because they aren’t. My biggest concern is also quality control- it’s easy to contaminate/ mix up DNA samples.

I sent two samples in- one from a rottie mix, one from a bloodhound mix (mothers both known), and the company correctly ID’d the breed of the mother. Father we didn’t know anyway and their results were basically “fathers were mutts”. For what it’s worth I sent one sample to three different companies and they all correctly identified the mother breed but the weird mutt mix of the father varied a bit from company to company.

[Big_Grey_hunter]

@wendy;5615511

The fact that they have trouble ID’ing some supposed purebreds is probably because they aren’t.

HOw do you explain the AKC confo chamions that have been tracked for many, many generations and still get results completely wrong?

[wendy]

don’t know. They haven’t been DNA testing AKC dogs until very recently, maybe breeders have been sneaking a bit of other DNA in here and there in order to rapidly get with the current fashion in the conformation ring, which tends to change over time.
Have you read the study where someone quite rapidly produced a naturally tailless boxer by an outcross to a corgi? couple generations the dogs looked exactly like prize-winning boxers.

I’m not impressed with people’s visual identification of breeds. For example, my bloodhound mix- most people, oddly enough, guess the father was a lab. I haven’t a clue how one gets a medium-sized dog from a huge dog mixed with a large dog, but they all guess “lab”. Lab was a breed that never showed up on the DNA tests. The father was generally attributed by the DNA tests to be a beagle/shiba inu/ various random other breeds (less than 10%) mutt. No one ever guesses that.

[tpup]

Bumping as I added pics of my pup in Post #1. Would love to know what you think as far as breeds go??

[MunchingonHay]

[QUOTE=tpup;5617901]
Bumping as I added pics of my pup in Post #1. Would love to know what you think as far as breeds go??[/QUOTE]

oooo!OOOOO!OOOO!

I know what the dog is now…

Its a BLACK one!

there is lab in there somewhere with a tail like that. may be even chihuahua I see it in the head.

[tpup]

So funny Munching! She is JET JET black. Tiny bit of white on the tips of the paws. WOW I never thought of Chihauha but she does have that wider upper head. That is very interesting.

Keep em’ coming!

[Big_Grey_hunter]

She’s cute! I don’t really think she has purebreeds in their, at least not close enough to matter. She’s proably just a hodgepodge of good old fashioned mutts

[Alagirl]

I am not seeing Vicla in there.

But I would not surprised if Iberian hound was in there somewhere…

[clm08]

She is a purebred mutt! Seriously, most of the streetdogs in developing countries are exactly that, several generations of mutts bred and due to natural selection, the more mixed they are, the better the chances to survive and leave offspring.