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What's my dog's breeds - new DNA Test for Mixed Breeds

It's all over pet magazines and the internet now - although the tests have been around for well over a year. If you really want to know what 'Fido' or 'FiFi''s breed is - there are now DNA tests to determine this. There are limits if your dogs maternal/paternal grandparents were mixed breeds themselves as the dilution would make breed detection difficult, but if a mixed breed dog has four purebred grandparents then the test would be able to identify the four breeds. (The maternal/paternal parents can be mixed). There are two tests available one based on blood drawn and the other a cheek swab. I believe the blood test can test against 157 different breeds, whereas the cheek swab is against 100. What's the purpose? Well I suppose it could be that if you know what breeds your dog is made up from, you could identify what type of activities he/she may enjoy, what kind of diseases he/she may be prone to - and keep an eye out for telltale signs and any behavior issues that may be breed specific. For me I'd love to know exactly what breed my adopted dog Brewster is just because I'm curious. I guess I'll just have to remain curious as the cost is a steep $120 to $125, not including the cost for a blood draw by a vet. I suppose I'll just have to stick with this fun little game (no affiliation to the company):

http://www.whatsmydog.com/

Enjoy

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bill on May 14, 2009 at 9:54am

Interesting. People will be shocked by this because a lot of papered dogs were conceived immaculately. Also, many purebreds had intentional crosses mixed in. For example, the red Siberians got the color from Irish Setters back in the seventies.

Then again, there are limits to DNA testing. Expression of genes can vary and identically cloned animals can express the same genes differently resulting in a clone of a white cat to come out spotted. There is still a lot we don't know.

However, the genome testing in cattle has been quite successful in identifying trait expression. Fun stuff.

Permalink Reply by Patricia Bradley on May 14, 2009 at 11:36am

Bill said:
People will be shocked by this because a lot of papered dogs were conceived immaculately. Also, many purebreds had intentional crosses mixed in. For example, the red Siberians got the color from Irish Setters back in the seventies.>>
Yes that's true as well as the Cavalier King Charles, one of the types of this breed is part pug or Japanese Chin.
Hmmm - interesting thought.

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