Wednesday, June 17, 2009

It's in the genes


What I'm about to tell you will probably solidify my place in your minds as a complete wackadoodle pet owner...but I don't care. Because when I found out I could have a DNA test run on my mutts to find out what breeds are in their heritage, I couldn't wait to do it. And Jeremy was psyched about it too, so we submitted some of Cubby's & Wrigley's blood (that Dr. Olson drew at the hospital...we didn't like do it ourselves! Duh!).

There are a lot of companies doing this nowadays, but the one our clinic uses is called Wisdom Panel. You can visit the website if you wanna know all the little details about how it's done. Basically they look into the dog's DNA and decipher the genetic codes and badda bing, badda boom, you find out what your dog is. That's the simplified version. :)


Here are the results!


Wrigley

We've always thought that Wrigley was a mix of maybe a Rat Terrier and Italian Greyhound (especially before we fattened him up). And maybe some other kind of terrier too. As it turns out, Wrigley's heritage includes:


(Can totally see this in his body structure and probably hair type.)

(This is where we were getting the Italian Greyhound thing from. Just a bigger, hairier version. Possibly the source of Wrigley's polka-dotted skin?)

You can see the face shape similarities when he has his ears back. See?

(Reeeally?? Hmmm. We can only assume this is WAY back in his lineage. *haha*)

(This surprised us, too. But perhaps it's the Doxie gene that makes him plump up so easily? *wink*)


Cubby's turn!
When we purchased Cubby from the shelter, we were told that he was a Chihuahua mix (it was their best guess), but we also thought he probably had some Pomeranian or Long-haired Dachshund in there too. But really, we've been mystified by this question for as long as we've had him. Well mystery solved!!! Cubby is a mix of:

(But of COURSE! Why didn't we see this sooner? The coloring, the fur type, the curly tail, the long-ish body! Its so OBVIOUS now.)
I got especially excited when I compared these two photos (Just change the face and it's the same dog!):

(*haha* Hilarious. Is this where he got his face shape? I kinda think so.)

(Hmm..you've got me!)

And the best one of all...wait for it...wait for it....



(NO WAY, right? Well it's waaaay back there in his heritage, like earlier than the Great Grandparent level. They did point out that Cubby did not have the same "size" gene as a Lab. Duh. *haha*)

So there you have it. Kinda neat, huh? It's especially fun to look at the temperaments of each dog and compare the similarities. If you have a mutt, I'd recommend you try this out! It's a bit pricey, but if you've always wondered what your dog REALLY is, it's so fun to find out. And the folks at Wisdom Panel were extremely helpful. (Cubby's lab results originally came back as ONLY Labrador, which naturally I wasn't satisfied with. So I e-mailed them and got an almost immediate phone response. They gave his blood sample to their top geneticist for further testing, and that's where the rest of the results came from.)

Now the only problem is when people ask what kinds of dogs they are, I feel obligated to run down the whole list! Like people even care? *haha*

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's really cool! I would love to do that for Sparky. It would be interesting to find out what's up with him. I'm sure he is more than Dapple Doxie dog.

Dancing Sweet Pea said...

That is really awesome Sarah! I had no idea that you could do that!
Jackson is a purebred, so we wouldn't have use for it -- unless I suspected he wasn't or something -- but very neat. And I can see a resemblance with both of your dogs to most of the breds.

Cheerful Homemaker said...

Those results are really surprising! I like to call mutts a genetic surprise. :)

Krissy said...

Haha! That's great! Maybe I should have that done on MOLLY!!! I have no idea what I am, and it'd be fun to know! And Richard's family has conflicting stories. LOL That's awesome to see all the different breeds in them though! I never would have guessed on some either.

Ginger said...

omigosh I love it! So cool! We know what Asher is, but we're SO curious about Cali... makes me want to do it!! I'm going to talk to Joe... I'll blame you for making me want to spend $$ - ha ha! :)

Kari@Onederland said...

I've heard of having this done. Kinda cool. I wouldn't so much care to have it done on my dog but I sure would love to see what kind of results we would get with my cat. I swear he's mixed with something wild. Do they test cats?

sarah said...

i don't think you're weird for doing that! if i didn't know my dogs' breeds, i wud have done the same thing! hehe.

hope you are well,
sarah.

Heather Rose said...

This is great! I sooo have to do this with my girls. I just know Chewie is a collie mutt, and Nermal is no doubt a direct descendant of a corgi/weenie, but I have to find out now!

Your babies are so sweet. I love Wrigley's freckly ears. ^_^

Ashley said...

Oh wow, that is soooo cool!!!! What about Mojo?? Did you already know what he was? (Sorry, I've been out of the loop for awhile, so I'm late reading this.)