insight into your mixed-breed dog’s ancestral background. Canine DNA testing has expanded considerably since the first tests became available in 2007. However, before throwing open your wallet, be sure you understand what you are getting.
Two types of tests are available: A swab test is simple enough to be done at home and involves collecting a sample of cells from the dog’s inner cheek with a swab brush. A blood test involves your vet’s drawing a small sample of your dog’s blood. With both types of tests, the samples are sent to a lab for analysis, and then owners receive reports of the results. Some companies have a DNA database of more than 130 AKC-recognized breeds, while others have between 50 and 100 breeds. Accuracy of the tests varies, so first decide what and why you want to learn about your dog’s ancestry.
We Just Want a Great Pet
A dog is a dog, right? Not quite. Dogs, like people, have different personalities, temperaments, quirks, and idiosyncrasies—even within the same breed. Golden Retriever puppies, for example, look strikingly similar in appearance, yet each puppy will develop into a unique individual with his own spirit, personality, and genetic makeup. The genes that a puppy inherits and where he comes from will have a huge impact on his future health and well-being, too.
Generations of selective breeding have produced over three hundred breeds of dog with a wide range of appearances, temperaments, and personalities. Many of today’s pampered pets were once hard-working dogs with full-time jobs. Early breeders—primarily farmers, ranchers, and hunters—selectively bred dogs based on working ability and mental soundness. A dog used for hunting fast rabbits and gazelles required a certain body type, including long legs and a deep chest, for speed. Good scenting ability was a prerequisite for tracking dogs who hunted in heavily forested regions. Guard dogs needed to be strong, brave, and aggressive, with imposing body structures and powerful jaws to intimidate intruders. Retrievers needed soft mouths to fetch downed birds without damaging them. Herding dogs had to be powerful enough to move a stubborn bull or cantankerous ewe across a creek bed and fast enough to chase down a 1,000-pound running bull—and they had to be physically and mentally capable of doing it all day long.
By selectively breeding dogs based on their most favorable or desirable traits, such as instinct, agility, stamina, trainability, size, strength, temperament, and so forth, the genetic factors responsible for desired traits tended to become fixed, or concentrated, in succeeding generations—meaning that certain traits could be reproduced with uniformity. The process is slightly more complicated, but it is why a German Shepherd Dog looks like a German Shepherd Dog, why terriers are crazy about “going to ground” (digging for vermin), and why retrievers are manic about water and love to pick up and carry stuff, be it a downed bird, slipper, or favorite toy.
What does all of this have to do with you? Many purebred dogs retain the traits necessary to perform the jobs for which they were originally bred. These jobs required enormous amounts of energy, drive, stamina, courage, tenacity, and intelligence. The qualities that make them superior working dogs are the very qualities that can make them unsuitable as pets for certain owners.
Too often potential owners make the mistake of thinking that they can change a dog’s inherited traits. Taking the sheepdog off the farm or the terrier out of a vermin-hunting environment does not squelch the dog’s drive, energy, or desire to work. If you want calm and quiet, do not get a Siberian Husky. A Siberian Husky will never be a Basset Hound. If you want a dog that behaves like a Basset, get a Basset. In the absence of physical and mental stimulation, dogs quickly become bored, which leads to unwanted behaviors such as shredding furniture, digging, excessive barking, ransacking trash cans, and so forth—a very frustrating situation for human and canine.
Consider what a dog was originally bred to do and whether you are prepared to make a commitment to deal with the associated behaviors. Border Collies, for instance, which are popular everywhere, have been bred for hundreds of years with one primary goal in mind: improved herding ability. They are the working stiffs of the herding world, and they live to herd morning ‘til night. Physically and mentally capable of doing his job and doing it all day long, a Border Collie is never going to be satisfied with a ten-minute walk around the block. Researching a dog’s history and origin will give you some insight into his behavior and why he does what he does, be it barking, digging, jumping, running, and so forth. The advantage of choosing a purebred puppy is that selective breeding gives you a pretty good idea of how he will act—temperament, personality, activity level—and what he will look like—size, coat color, and coat type—when he is fully grown.
Purchasing a puppy from a reputable breeder offers the most advantages to a puppy buyer.
Mixed Breeds and Designer Dogs
In your search for the perfect puppy, don’t discount a mixed breed. Often referred to as mutts, crossbreeds, curs, mongrels, Heinz 57s, or, the more modern term, All-American, mixed-breed puppies grow into adult dogs who can do pretty much anything that their blue-blooded cousins do, with the exception of participating in AKC conformation shows. As ancient as any dog, mutts make wonderful pets and have gone on to excel in performance sports such as agility, flyball, and obedience. What separates the purebred dog from the mixed breed is the inheritance of genes. Purebred dogs inherit fixed genes that reproduce true to type. Mixed-breed dogs inherit random, unfixed genes from their parents, which is why they have a potpourri of physical traits. Sometimes, but not always, the breed of the dam (mother) will be known, while the sire (father) remains a mystery. Because fixed genes produce a certain type, you can sometimes visually identify a mixed breed as having specific characteristics, such as the coat of a West Highland White Terrier, the body length of a Dachshund, or the head shape of a Doberman Pinscher.
Identifying specific characteristics of purebred dogs, such as size, coat type, tail set, or behavioral traits, can shed some light on what breeds might be milling about in your mixed breed’s DNA makeup. More often than not, these are educated guesses because while your dog may look like a Saint Bernard, he might behave like a Border Collie, or vice versa.
In recent years, the deliberate crossing of two purebred breeds created a “designer dog” fad. The craze began in the 1970s when a blind woman needed a hypoallergenic guide dog to accommodate her husband, who was allergic to dog dander. The solution was to breed a Poodle, known for its hypoallergenic qualities, to a Labrador Retriever, known for its intelligence, trainability, and energy. Because a purebred guide dog was deemed more valuable than a mixed breed, the PR gurus worked overtime to market the “Labradoodle” as a new breed. Celebrities jumped on the Labradoodle bandwagon, and it wasn’t long before Goldendoodles (Golden Retriever and Poodle cross), Puggles (Pug and Beagle cross), and Pomapoo (Pomeranian and Toy Poodle cross), to name a few, also started popping up everywhere.
Designer dogs theoretically have two purebred parents that are deliberately bred to create a desired effect, such as the Pomchi (Pomeranian and Chihuahua cross). Today, people are willing to make an easy buck at the expense of the dog, with prospective owners willing to shell out more money for a designer dog than they would for a purebred dog. What is the reason for a Cavapoo (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and Poodle cross), a Schnoodle (Schnauzer and Poodle cross), or a Cockalier (Cocker Spaniel and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel cross)? Most of these dogs are bred as trendy pet companions rather than for a particular purpose, such as herding or retrieving.
Despite their lovable good looks and hefty price tags, designer dogs are still mixed-breed dogs. A mixed-breed dog by any other name is s still a mixed-breed dog. Here is why: A breed is not considered a purebred until the offspring breed true, which means that the offspring are just like the parents. This can take upward of six or seven generations. Additionally, some, but not all, designer dogs are not from two purebred parents. But as long as there is a market for Chiweenies (Chihuahua and Dachshund cross) or Huskamutes (Siberian Husky and Alaskan Malamute cross), unscrupulous people will continue breeding
