How To Determine What Breeds Your Dog Is Made Up Of!
Do you have a dog that is a mixed breed, or a mutt, and you are just dying to know what breed they are comprised of? We got our amazing dog Max from a co-worker of mine who couldn’t keep him anymore because her older dog wasn’t getting along with him. All she could tell me was that he was about 2 years old and was some sort of cocker spaniel/pug mixture. We never could see any pug in him and we often got stopped and asked what kind of dog he was. After 9 years of answering “I’m not sure”, we finally decided to find out! The process was so fun and easy! I can’t wait to show you!
I use the term “mutt” lovingly. I think mutts are the best dogs ever! Whether you got your dog from a family’s litter of pups or maybe you rescued them at a shelter and don’t know the breed, I’m willing to bet that you would LOVE to find out! I know because we were so excited to find out what breeds made up Max!
Max is a medium size dog weighing about 35 pounds. We figured if he truly was a cocker spaniel and pug mix then he would be smaller and not hit 35 pounds. We knew he had to be some other mixture. He also had some health issues with allergies which is not uncommon for cocker spaniels. We decided that doing a Wisdom Panel® Canine DNA Test would not only be fun, but also be beneficial to knowing what to expect with the health issues of his breeds. Knowing the breeds in your dog can help you proactively plan for their individual health, nutrition and behavioral/training needs.
We received our Wisdom Panel DNA test in the mail and I was so excited! I couldn’t wait to send it back in and get the results. We ended up choosing Wisdom Panel for our dog’s DNA test because it is the most comprehensive breed test on the market. Wisdom Panel also includes the potentially life-saving MDR1 screening for drug sensitivity as well as Exercise-induced Collapse screening. EIC is most common to labs, so lab-mixes, which are quite popular, can really benefit from the testing! Wisdom Panel also offers the largest breed database on the market covering 250 breeds, types and varieties. The test uses 1,800 markers for breed and disease detection and a proprietary algorithm that makes more than 18,000,000 calculations before assigning a final family tree. We also liked that the test could be done at home with no blood necessary!
The kit contained two swabs and easy to follow, step-by-step directions. I simply needed to use the swabs on the inside of Max’s cheek and get a good swab. The hardest part was getting him to hold still while I collected it. It was a very easy process. Then I mailed them back in, using the provided container!
The hardest part was waiting! In 2-3 weeks you will receive an email containing your results!! Here is our loving old dog Max along with our brand new little puppy! They are best buds!
Most people think they can tell the breeds in their dog by simply looking at his or her physical (phenotypic) traits. That’s simply not the case! Visual identification even by professionals is only accurate about 25% of the time – that means they’re incorrect 75% of the time! Being that we couldn’t see any pug in Max I was excited to see if we were right or wrong!!
After not-so-patiently waiting for our results I got the email that his results were ready! I was SO excited to pull it up and I quickly called in the whole family so we could view it together. Everyone was excited to see the results! Turns out Max DOES have pug in him! He is 12.5% pug! As we suspected he was 50% cocker spaniel and we were surprised to see he is 25% English springer spaniel and 12.5% Boston terrier! What an interesting mix!! It was beyond fun to see these results and now we can easily anticipate any health issues related to each breed. It also helps us in identifying different training methods that work with his natural instincts. Since we now know what breeds he is we can also assess whether he is at a healthy weight or not. This information was not only fun to find out, but also very useful to his health and overall well-being.
Curious what breed your dog is? Find out with the Wisdom Panel DNA test!!
*This sponsored post was brought to you by Mars Veterinary.
I always love trying to guess what breeds go into a dog’s pedigree. I guess you can figure it out for sure now!
I am a huge animal lover and can usually tell the breed by looking at the dog. But this would be useful for the ones that can be tricky.
I was always told that my dog was half Chihuahua and half dachshund. I would love to know for sure myself!
I heard about this test the other day. I think it is such a fabulous idea. Especially for people who rescue their animals, you often don’t know what breed exactly your dog is so this can come in handy!
This is brilliant! One of our grand dogs is a tiny mini dachshund but we’re not sure if she has a bit of something else in her. This would be a great way to find our her health precautions.
That really does sound like fun! I would totally do this if I had a mixed breed dog.
Oh, great to know about this. Never know about this, glad you share.
I am so curious about my dog’s breed. I will check it later.
How interesting. I always wanted to do DNA testing on my dog, Eddie but sadly he passed away in 2013 before it was fairly reasonable. Max is a darling pup.
Interesting! Thank you for linking up with us at #HomeMattersParty .See you again next week.
This would be fun! Our dog was rescued from the pound and she’s definitely part rat terrier and maybe a little chihuahua thrown in there. Thanks for sharing at Thoughts of Home on Thursday. 🙂
We did our dog, Nellie, too. We thought she was beagle and some kind of a coon dog. Wrong! She’s part rat terrier, which explains her habit of digging for chipmunks. Our vet was very interested in the results, too, because of health reasons.
It is so neat to find out what they really are made up from.