The wait was long. Four to six weeks for lab results drags on until you nearly forget about them. Then, one day, they arrive in your mailbox and everything you鈥檝e been waiting for, like the results of the Canine Heritage Breed Test, is right there in your hand, sealed. Will the word 鈥溾 grace Rio鈥檚 Certificate of DNA Breed Analysis? And will (a.k.a. pit bull) be printed on Odin鈥檚?
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Odin, 2.
Odin, 2.Well, as it turns out, no. No, no, and more no. Apparently, we were only right about one thing.
Within the results of a there are three groups in their analysis鈥攑rimary breed, secondary breed, and 鈥渋n the mix.鈥 Dogs like Rio and Odin, who are mixed breed, will only have something listed under primary if one of their parents is purebred. Primary also indicates that a dog is mainly made up of a specific breed. Unfortunately, 鈥減rimary鈥 was left blank for both of my dogs, meaning neither hailed from a purebred. Had there been something listed, I would have been able to attribute my dogs鈥 characteristics more significantly to that certain breed.
Secondary breeds are those that 鈥渕ight be easily recognizable within your dog.鈥 Here鈥檚 where I would guess rhodesian ridgeback for Rio because of her golden coloring, floppy ears, and large chest. The last category, 鈥渋n the mix,鈥 is made up of breeds that affect a dog鈥檚 composition in very small amounts, but are recognizable as markers in their DNA. Drumroll, please.
RIO:
Primary Breed: Nope.
Secondary Breed:
In the Mix: (thus, the furry tail and petite stature),
ODIN:
Primary Breed: Nope.
Secondary Breed: Nope.
In the Mix: (the source of his brindled coat, white chest, and cat-like boxing moves), (also possibly the culprit behind the white chest), (why he rounds up cattle),
According to the breakdown of the analysis, when a dog only has breeds listed 鈥渋n the mix,鈥 it is likely that only small traces of these breeds will be noticeable in the animal. Perhaps that鈥檚 why Odin isn鈥檛 鈥10 to 12 inches tall at the shoulder鈥 like a corgi and doesn鈥檛 hold down a like his ancestors, the collie and Shetland sheepdog, but why he does have high-perched ears, a high-pitched bark, and a high-velocity ability to wrangle cattle.
Was I surprised about Rio? Nah. She might not have the brown-and-white spots of a German shorthaired pointer, but she鈥檚 got the moves to; she chases down rabbits like it鈥檚 nobody鈥檚 business.
In the end, it鈥檚 nice to know Odin is not a pit bull (for insurance purposes) and to be able to attribute his boxing habits (I swear, they exist) to something and not the idea that he was raised by a cat before coming into our home. Besides that, we didn鈥檛 learn much about our dogs that we didn鈥檛 already know. They won鈥檛 change because we know sort of who their grandparents were. But, it does fill that little thing inside called curiosity.
Are you surprised by my dogs鈥 results? Would you test your dog based on my experience?
This article originally appeared on 国产吃瓜黑料 K9, the former dog blog of 国产吃瓜黑料 magazine, on November 9, 2009.