As I mentioned in a previous post, my husband and I recently got a mixed breed puppy, which we named Ginny, after the Harry Potter character.
When we got her, the shelter guessed that she was a shepherd mix. Facebook friends who saw the puppy pictures and strangers we met on the street walking her around guessed that she might have some boxer or pug or pitbull in her. Our vet technician was convinced the shelter was right and she was a shepherd mix.
We decided to get a DNA test done and purchased a home kit on Amazon. We swabbed Ginny's cheek and sent in her saliva sample, and recently got the the results. It turns out that one of her parents was an Australian Cattle Dog/Italian Greyhound - meaning that one of her grandparents on that side was a purebred Australian Cattle Dog, and the other grandparent was a purebred Italian Greyhound. And her other parent was a Boston Terrier/Golden Retriever/Mixed Breed - meaning that one of her grandparents on that side was Boston Terrier/Golden Retriever mix, and the other grandparent had so many breeds that specific ones were not detectable (although there was a strong probability of at least one breed from the "toy group").
So 75% of her DNA was detectable, and of that 75% none of the breeds were any of the breeds we thought she'd be! It is possible that some of those breeds we thought she looked like (shepherd, boxer, pug, pitbull) might be in that 25% of the "Mixed Breed" grandparent - but they would be present in such small percentages that they shouldn't contribute much to her looks.
Genetics is fascinating stuff!
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| Ginny, on June 13th, 2015, the day we brought her home from the shelter. (Her birthdate is estimate as March 25, so she's about 11.5 weeks old in this picture.) |
When we got her, the shelter guessed that she was a shepherd mix. Facebook friends who saw the puppy pictures and strangers we met on the street walking her around guessed that she might have some boxer or pug or pitbull in her. Our vet technician was convinced the shelter was right and she was a shepherd mix.
We decided to get a DNA test done and purchased a home kit on Amazon. We swabbed Ginny's cheek and sent in her saliva sample, and recently got the the results. It turns out that one of her parents was an Australian Cattle Dog/Italian Greyhound - meaning that one of her grandparents on that side was a purebred Australian Cattle Dog, and the other grandparent was a purebred Italian Greyhound. And her other parent was a Boston Terrier/Golden Retriever/Mixed Breed - meaning that one of her grandparents on that side was Boston Terrier/Golden Retriever mix, and the other grandparent had so many breeds that specific ones were not detectable (although there was a strong probability of at least one breed from the "toy group").
So 75% of her DNA was detectable, and of that 75% none of the breeds were any of the breeds we thought she'd be! It is possible that some of those breeds we thought she looked like (shepherd, boxer, pug, pitbull) might be in that 25% of the "Mixed Breed" grandparent - but they would be present in such small percentages that they shouldn't contribute much to her looks.
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| Ginny is 25% Australian Cattle Dog, 25% Italian Greyhound, 12.5% Boston Terrier, 12.5% Golden Retriever, 25% "Other" Mixed Breeds, and 100% Adorable. |
Genetics is fascinating stuff!
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