Mystery Mutt Now Less Mysterious
Once again, here's my dog, Cassidy. If you had to guess, what mix of breeds would say Cassidy is? For reference she's 30 lbs.Take your time.
If you guessed Beagle and something else, you're right where we were. But what else is she? How would you find out? And maybe she's not a Beagle. Maybe she's something cool--like a Doberman/Mini Pin/Raccoon mix. It could happen...right?
To unravel the mystery of Cassidy, we got the BioPet DNA breed identification kit. It comes with a little paperwork and some cheek swabs. Here's everything:
All you do is swab the dog's cheek, like so:
Yeah, she's overdue for a teeth cleaning. You have to make sure the dog doesn't interact with any other dogs for a few hours. Otherwise you might get some really fun results. After the swabbing, I sent it off to the BioPet people for analysis. In the meantime we went back to our usual guessing. Coonhound/Chihuahua?
Two weeks later we got the results. They came with some documentation on understanding the results and a nifty certificate of ancestry.
Drum roll, please... The final results are as follows:
- 37-74% Beagle
- 10-19% Bichon Frise
- 10-19% Pekingese
- 10-19% Shih Tzu
- < 10% Brittany
- < 10% Saint Bernard
So there you have it, little Cassidy is a Saint Bernard mix. It was so obvious!
If you want to know what your mystery mutt is, check out the BioPet DNA breed identification kit. It won't tell you why your pet looks like it does or why it acts like it does, but it's kind of fun to know a little more about its strange parentage.
--Spanno
Laura on July 27, 2009 at 08:42 AM
What's the level of error? I'm tempted to send in a purebreed sample just to see what they come back with.
Spanno on July 27, 2009 at 09:39 AM
I'm sure they build in a little room for error. But my guess is that it would come back as Level 1 (greater than 75%).
--Spanno
Smitch on July 27, 2009 at 10:23 AM
That's so great, I just had a McBichon Frise for breakfast today.
Like they say, dogs look like their owners
http://www.clipandsnip-brynmawr.co.uk/Images/prices_pics/Bichon.jpg
Kate on July 28, 2009 at 08:32 AM
My dog looks almost exactly like Cassidy in the face, except that her lighter color is cream (but no white). Down ears (though one sticks up now and then), same smile, same markings. But, Sara is 50 lbs.
My guess with her was beagle (she bays), husky (with her ears up she looks the part, she has a thick undercoat, and she has the go-go-go mentality), border collie (she's intense, agile, and has a medium top coat). Cassidy's assessment makes me reconsider a bit and think about more small breeds! Or just get a DNA test!
http://www.dogster.com/dogs/341422
Kurt on July 29, 2009 at 11:04 AM
I'm pretty sure I know which breeds are in my dog, as the leading candidates both explain key parts of her appearance and her personality. I'm tempted to try this out, but I've also heard a lot of stories about erroneous results coming back. If you read the reviews on Amazon, you will find some that sound very odd. For instance, someone thought their dog was part Labrador, and it told them their dog was a mix of Chihuahua and Newfoundland--as if anyone can imagine that highly unlikely pair getting together under any circumstances. I wonder how much error is due to the fact that the database might not yet contain many less popular breeds, and so certain ones are overrepresented in the results.
Bathroom Shower Stalls on February 01, 2010 at 05:52 AM
Interesting post thanks for the information.