After Snickers died and Wiggles I were sending nearly every minute of the day together, I decided to get a dog DNA test so I could finally determine what breeds made up her genes. I had my guesses. Her long body, long snout and short legs, suggested Daschund. Her tri-color black/tan/white coat hinted at some kind of hound or perhaps a beagle – especially since she barked a lot like beagles I have known.
I was surprised at the results. According to the Wisdom Panel DNA test, she’s primarily Chihuahua, Parson Russell and Pit Bull. They reported her parents were likely a Chi/Russell Mix and a Chi/Russel/ Pit Bull Mix.
I read a bunch of online posts from people who guessed their dog’s breed based on looks who were as surprised by me when their DNA results turned out to be much different than expected. There’s an entire Reddit subgroup dedicated to this. There’s also a running joke that dog shelter workers are no better than average people at guessing a dog’s breed. Unless you know both parents and their pedigree, it’s pretty much a wild guess.
Even so, after I adopted Sparkles, I was pretty confident her DNA results would include Doberman Pinscher or Mini-Pinscher. Her size, 20 lbs, is too small for a Doberman and too large for a Min-Pin, so I also expected some other breeds mixed in. But let’s face it – clearly she looks like a Dobie. S much so, that someone (I’d guess a backyard breeder) even cropped her tail off. I wish they hadn’t, but this was long before I entered the picture.
Here’s what Wisdom Panel reported.
Not a drop of Doberman or Min-Pin in her! In fact, she’s primarily a Chihuahua mixed with various small terriers. She and Wiggles parents have more in common than I thought.
Aside from elucidating my readers on my dog’s breeds,I am thinking something similar applies to human “races”. I’ll save that thought for a future post.