DNA Testing

[Drift's Owner]

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Hi, I would like to get our dog's DNA tested, (we are curious and it would help solve the mystery that has engulfed our local park discussions) as to the mix of our dog. I've been doing some research online & I am wondering if anyone has any recommendations for the UK services?

 

[arealhuman]

There are some people on here who've had it done (can't remember their names) but I.m sure someone will be along soon with an answer. I'd be interested too.

 

[thedogsbeforetime]

I have done Embark on my mystery mutt, and it's the only DNA test I currently trust. It is an ongoing program who works with breeders and owners of specific breeds - to continue to add accurate DNA to their system. They also will let you retest for free in the future; as they continue to add information and breeds to their system. They also test for over 160 health problems, even if you're just getting a breed test done. Here is one of my dog's tests:

Little Foot’s Embark Dog DNA Results

 

[Drift's Owner]

I have done Embark on my mystery mutt, and it's the only DNA test I currently trust. It is an ongoing program who works with breeders and owners of specific breeds - to continue to add accurate DNA to their system. They also will let you retest for free in the future; as they continue to add information and breeds to their system. They also test for over 160 health problems, even if you're just getting a breed test done. Here is one of my dog's tests:

Little Foot’s Embark Dog DNA Results

Thanks so much! I did see Embark and they looked like the most comprehensive.

 

[Drift's Owner]

Just a quick update after doing a fair bit of research. I decided to go with Wisdom rather than Embark, firstly as it was over half the price and secondly it had all the breeds that I think Drift might be, as he certainly isn't a Kelpie Cross...but a something else Cross perhaps with some herding dog. So it will interesting to see what he comes back with. He has over shot the height of a Kelpie by a long way! So much for getting a small to medium dog!

 

[Teddy560]

Have you got anymore pictures of him? He's definitely some sort of collie/ kelpie cross...maybe with great dane? His coats, muzzle and chest look like a great dane to me?!

 

[Drift's Owner]

Have you got anymore pictures of him? He's definitely some sort of collie/ kelpie cross...maybe with great dane? His coats, muzzle and chest look like a great dane to me?!

Hi, we think Great Dane too. He looked more lurcher when we first got him & I can see some heeling traits, but the older and larger he gets the more Great Dane he looks. I have no experience of Great Danes, so I am not sure on their behavioural traits. But he loves to run on a slant with other lurchers and sleeps like one a lot of the time. We are betting on a Great Dane / Lurcher-Sighthound cross. The fact that everyone in the park is asking if he is Scooby Doo is adding to that bet! He is also afraid of ghosts If he has not a jot of Kelpie I wouldn't be surprised. I'm from Australia and he would be the world's largest ever Kelpie if he was! We are also now thinking of getting rid of our kitchen table and installing a bar! If he keeps growing, it is on to a bigger house!

 

[Drift's Owner]

Hi, we think Great Dane too. He looked more lurcher when we first got him & I can see some heeling traits, but the older and larger he gets the more Great Dane he looks. I have no experience of Great Danes, so I am not sure on their behavioural traits. But he loves to run on a slant with other lurchers and sleeps like one a lot of the time. We are betting on a Great Dane / Lurcher-Sighthound cross. The fact that everyone in the park is asking if he is Scooby Doo is adding to that bet! He is also afraid of ghosts If he has not a jot of Kelpie I wouldn't be surprised. I'm from Australia and he would be the world's largest ever Kelpie if he was! We are also now thinking of getting rid of our kitchen table and installing a bar! If he keeps growing, it is on to a bigger house!

 

[Teddy560]

Hi, we think Great Dane too. He looked more lurcher when we first got him & I can see some heeling traits, but the older and larger he gets the more Great Dane he looks. I have no experience of Great Danes, so I am not sure on their behavioural traits. But he loves to run on a slant with other lurchers and sleeps like one a lot of the time. We are betting on a Great Dane / Lurcher-Sighthound cross. The fact that everyone in the park is asking if he is Scooby Doo is adding to that bet! He is also afraid of ghosts If he has not a jot of Kelpie I wouldn't be surprised. I'm from Australia and he would be the world's largest ever Kelpie if he was! We are also now thinking of getting rid of our kitchen table and installing a bar! If he keeps growing, it is on to a bigger house!

I'm not an expert at all, just like guessing have no experience of great danes either, he just looks like one lol. I was thinking some kind of border collie/ herding cross because of his colouring and the way he's bowing for the ball like they do.... also, would he not get the height from the great dane if that's what he's crossed with?

 

[Teddy560]

Another great dane x border collie on google

 

[Drift's Owner]

Another great dane x border collie on google

Similar for sure. Ours has a longer snout, so hence thinking a greyhound or something similar, but it will be interesting! I have done some readings about DNA results and there are always some real surprises! I am pretty sure there is no Cavalier King Charles in him though! Then again...he likes to be treated like Royalty! LOL

 

[Kara 1]

He is lovely. ..he looks just like a pup i fostered. ..he was a boxer mastiff X bullterrier ....be interesting to see what the DNA says

 

[Shalista]

how would something like this work on a dog like Bax. Rat terriers are a fairly new breed and are a cross of five or so different ones (white terrier, silver terrier, jack russel, whippet, beagle) if he took it would it show the crosses or would he just show as rat terrier?

 

[leashedForLife]

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Rat Terriers were developed in the late 1800s / early 1900s, IIRC, in the USA. So I don’t think of them as a “recent” breed, LOL.
Teddy Roosevelt, then-POTUS, had a black-&-tan Rat Terrier who accompanied him on safari to Africa.

The American Hairless is a more-recent sport / spontaneous mutation of the Rat Terrier, the 1st appeared in a purebred Rat Terrier litter in 1971 or ‘72, & she became the founder of her breed, when her 1st litter was born in 1982.
AHTs do not have the lethal gene present in other hairless breeds, nor do they suffer missing teeth and other dental or jaw issues, common to other hairless breeds (Xolo, Crested, Inca, etc).

Hairless AHTs can be bred to another hairless without worry, & there are also coated AHTs.
It is not necessary to mate a hairless to a haired dog only, for fear of congenital defects or still births, & other lethal-factor consequences of hairless-to-hairless matings.
I’ve only met a couple of AHTs, but all have been delightful pets, not classically terrierrrist at all - not barking fiends, not snappy, not highly reactive. Similarly, all the Rat Terriers that i’ve met have been lovers, not fighters - but of course, I am not a rat, & I never saw their behavior around a prey species.

I must confess that i’m not keen on terrierrrists as a type, although I do enjoy training & B-Mod with them - they are fast learners, with sharp minds as well as teeth, independent, up for anything, self-willed, & a real challenge... but i’m Not enamored of barky dogs, & at the end of a session or after boarding a terrierrrrist, I am always happy to send them home.
AHTs & Ratties are such a refreshing change from the typical terrier breeds, that I could easily see myself owning one.


- terry

.

 

[leashedForLife]

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@Drift's Owner , do U have a birthdate on Drift, & what does he weigh, now?

Just for general reference (to anyone) doubling a pup’s weight at 16-WO should get U within 5# of her or his adult fit weight. FAT weight can of course, be anything, so fit wt is the lean to acceptable range of body condition.
That formula will not hold for toy sized or giant dogs, who will respectively mature to less-than-20#, or will weigh 125# or more, as adults.

- terry

.

 

[Shalista]

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Rat Terriers were developed in the late 1800s / early 1900s, IIRC, in the USA. So I don’t think of them as a “recent” breed, LOL.
Teddy Roosevelt, then-POTUS, had a black-&-tan Rat Terrier who accompanied him on safari to Africa.

Similarly, all the Rat Terriers that i’ve met have been lovers, not fighters - but of course, I am not a rat, & I never saw their behavior around a prey species.

I must confess that i’m not keen on terrierrrists as a type, although I do enjoy training & B-Mod with them - they are fast learners, with sharp minds as well as teeth, independent, up for anything, self-willed, & a real challenge... but i’m Not enamored of barky dogs, & at the end of a session or after boarding a terrierrrrist, I am always happy to send them home.
AHTs & Ratties are such a refreshing change from the typical terrier breeds, that I could easily see myself owning one.


- terry

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sorry i do consider past 200 years to be fairly new actually. compared to some other breeds thats practically an infant.

also refreshing to hear the perspective of someone else whos met the breed!!!! bax is the only one of his kind that ive met and no one seems to know what to do with him. they all think hes a jackrussel.

i was sold on the breed by the phrase "a quieter, less energetic jack russel" but the quote failed to specify how MUCH less. he certainly has plenty of drive for me.

you definitly know the breed, i 100% agree with everything you said. he's SUCH a go getter, always on a mission, and hes the greatest hiking buddy. i love him because hes very rough and tumble out for adventure type, in a tiny package.

also can confirm - prey drive is terrifying. hes caught and killed a rat before that was bigger than his head. i no longer allow him off lead because no recall in the world can out train that drive. he sees somethign and hes just GONE.

 

[leashedForLife]

QUOTE, Shalista:

sorry, i do consider past? 200 years to be fairly new, actually.
Compared to some other breeds, that’s practically an infant.
...

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I’m a bit confused by the phrase, “past 200 years”. Usually ‘past’ means ‘beyond, more than, exceeding’, or similar.
If it’s more than 200 years, I would think that U’d be more likely to see that breed as more established, as opposed to being a recent breed?

In any case, it’s immaterial; virtually every British breed, European breed, & American breed was developed around the same time period, during the Victorian era, when Darwin was positing the origin of species, class was a powerful social determinant, eugenics was on the rise, & one’s “blood” or kin or lineage was considered to determine personality, trustworthiness, & destiny in life.

Breeds didn’t really exist prior to the Victorian period, except as land-races or regional types - every farm with cattle had a drover dog, every shepherd had a sheep-herding dog, every hunter had a hound, but they weren’t defined breeds, with standards, markings, a certain coat, etc, they were just useful dogs.
The oldest supposed breeds are re-creations of the original, they do not date back that far; claims that modern-day Pharaoh Hounds descend “from ancient Egyptian hunting dogs” are poppycock. Yes, they do look like the dogs depicted on pharaohnoic tomb walls, but their mitochondria say they’re modern.
Rottweilers, for all the hoopla, are not direct descendents of Roman cattle dogs, either. . It’s romantic & appealing, but DNA tests say it ain’t so.

Truly old dog breeds are the primitives - who were either geographically isolated, or vigorously defended from intruding genes. New Guinea Singers, Dingoes, Basenji, etc, have a single estrus not biannual, are indigenous to their home countries or regions, & are not the highly domesticated pet dogs of Western civilization. They are unpolished diamonds, very raw.

The Akita Inu of Japan, the Siberian Husky, the Aleutian Husky, the Greenland dog, are also ancient breeds that are closer to their wolf-like protodog ancestors than any terrier, retriever, setter, hound, guard dog, or toy dog of the modern breeds.
Tibetan Mastiffs are also among the surviving primitive breeds.

Over 90% of modern-day Western breeds are actually Victorian era creations.
Argentine Dogo, Rhodesian Ridgeback - which sadly wiped-out the indigenous African dog-breed that contributed the ridge AND the Rhodie’s heat tolerance; the S Af Boerbel, the Newfoundland, Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, PRT / JRT, etc.

Originally, the Cairn, Westie, & Scotty were all the same breed. They were split into colors, then the Scotty was further differentiated by head & furnishings (beard, moustache, brows...).

- terry

.

 

[Shalista]

did not know thx for the education. if you dont mind me asking why do they seem so rare then? ive litteralyy never even met someone whos heard if them much less met another one

 

[Mad Murphy]

did not know thx for the education. if you dont mind me asking why do they seem so rare then? ive litteralyy never even met someone whos heard if them much less met another one

Rat terriers? Ive heard of them although living outside the US Ive never met one unless you count the Dutch Boerenfox (farmersfox) these little dogs are used to kill vermin and they are less terrier and more terrorist..
My little dog Remy was brain damaged but even he would hunt anything that moved. Ive tried to find some info about them in English but I cant find anything so * small terrier type with a max of 40 cm tall. Dark oval eyes , body colour white with black or brown patches. Ears can be hanging or stand up , tail half long and lightly curled although some have short 'bob' tails from the days when docking was normal. They are vermin killers bred to live on farms energetic little dgs who love to play and work. If not guided /trained they have the tendancy to become dominant and are very independant.*

the picture is Remy..

 

[Shalista]

yup thats about right =) that dog looks liek he could be bax's cousin

EDIT: they have the same eyebrows!