[chronicles] Papa Was A Rolling Stone

[redroanchronicles]

My dog Trudeau is a mystery. He is a mystery wrapped in an enigma that sort of walks in a circle around a riddle. He bays like a bloodhound, and his color is a little shepherd-y, and his white paws are rather dapper-looking but not particularly helpful in identifying his breed. Taking a walk with him is like taking a game show on the road: random passersby engage in self-styled trivia quizzes to try to discover his heritage. Simply being in Trudeau's presence turns everyone in the world into a dog expert, and they will not only guess what breeds compose his background, but they will tell you, quite emphatically.

malnpudl, drunk with the power of modern science, dropped by my vet's office awhile back and pre-paid for me to have the mutt genetically tested. Yes, that's right. You can DNA test your dog to find out WTF sort of genetic material spawned the mutant beast, and if you're anything like me, you can even have a roommate crazy enough to pony up the cash for it.

Unfortunately, if your dog's heritage is too heavy on mixed breeds -- mutts for generations back -- there isn't much a DNA test will tell you. And even then it's not 100% reliable. My vet had warned me, before we did the test, that the results she'd seen from it to date weren't terribly enlightening. But it wasn't my dime, and apparently Mal had a burning need to know, so I went ahead with the test regardless, and after waiting and waiting very patiently for results that, as it turned out, were mailed directly to my vet and not to me, today I managed to access the company's online system to review Trudeau's test results.

Prepare to have your minds blown, my friends.

Trudeau's lineage is muttly enough that there are no breeds listed as "significant," which means that neither of his parents were purebreds. There are also none listed as "minor" genetic contributors, which would be breeds that had contributed at least 12.5% of the beast's genetic material.

However. There are two breeds listed as "intermediate" breeds, meaning that at least 25% of Trudeau's genetic makeup comes from these breeds, "so you may see some physical and behavioral traits represented in your dog." So what, you may wonder, are his "intermediate" breeds? My bet was on bloodhound and some kind of shepherd dog. My vet was sure it was bloodhound and Anatolian shepherd. The shelter had him listed as a Great Dane cross. But actually, the only two breeds that appear at all in his genetic profile are:

Alaskan Malamute

and......

Basset hound.

Thank you, science. You've just completely blown my mind. I might need to go curl up in a fetal position while all of my ideas about the universe rearrange themselves in my brain.

Comments

[janinedog]

Well, Basset hounds bay too! :)

I did this for my mutt too. She came back with only two breeds in the "In the Mix" category (the "minor" category for your test, it seems like). They were Whippet and Kerry Blue Terrier. Nothing in the primary or secondary categories.

Another inaccuracy with these is that not all breeds are actually detected by all tests. So if there's a breed that's not detected by the test in the dog, then it'll miss it (sometimes it gets a close relative though). Plus the whole thing where breeds are not detected by single genes, so obviously it's a lot of guesswork anyway. :)

That said, I did it because I thought it'd be interesting. :)

P.S. Trudeau is very handsome! :)

[redroanchronicles]

LOL, they do! I actually could see the basset part being accurate. The malamute, not so much. I wish there was a way to really know for sure, but a few minutes of internet searching tells me that these tests are even less accurate than I had presumed, and I had presumed they weren't very accurate. :D

[janinedog]

Yeah, they're not very accurate. :) It could be that something related to a Malamute is what he really has in him, but the test couldn't detect whatever that breed is. Or, it could just be wrong. ;)

[malnpudl]

I think the test results are bogus.

I don't regret having done it; a failed experiment is, scientifically speaking, as meaningful as a successful one. And finding out whether this test works and is worth the money (no and no, IMO) is worthwhile because now I won't recommend it to anyone else.

But as far as I'm concerned: NO. Tru shows absolutely zero indication of any northern/spitz traits. And those long legs... just... no.

Ah, well. So it goes.

I shall henceforth and always consider him a German shepherd/bloodhound mix, possibly with some other bits here and there. And since (as far as I'm concerned) there's nothing to contradict me, I can happily wallow in my own opinions. *g*

[redroanchronicles]

Hah, we probably should've just saved your money and done more Internet research; I happened across this in-depth analysis of the MARS test on a Yorkie forum:

One dog that I owned I had tested twice. The dog was some sort of a dalmation/australian shepherd mix. The first test came back as 75% dalmation, and 25% unknown. Six months later the dog tested as 35% labrador, 15% dalmation, and 50% Husky. Tests are completely bogus.

Perhaps they just insert a northern breed at random? And pull their other results out of a hat? :D Although that forum is also this huge clusterfuck of dog-breed politics so I have no idea what's genuine analysis and what's clusterfuckitude.

I actually could see the basset hound part, though. Provided there's also like... great dane or something in there to make him HUGE-SIZED.

[malnpudl]

The other thing is that those two breeds are, respectively, challenging to train and really hard to train. Tru is easy -- eager to please, delighted to play the game, and a fast and happy learner. I see a herding breed in that, and his coat, tail, and ear set practically shout GSD (IMO). So I'm happy with my extremely opinionated bias assessment. ;-)

[jenlev]

Wow, that's awesome. What a great combo! :)

[redroanchronicles]

I totally think it's a test result that they pulled out of a hat, but whatever. I still amuse myself by calling him my little bassemute. ;D

[jenlev]

Heh...I'm reminded of the legend of the Basselope. ;)

[cofax7]

I think it's pretty clear he's got a lot of hound in him. Dunno about the Malamute, though: those ears are pretty dispositive. Could be, you go far enough back, you'll find some mastiff or a Rott, maybe, to give him the size.

But most mixed breeds are, like Trudeau, really mixes, and it's almost impossible to tell for sure. I swore up and down that my old dog was a Chowbrador, but it's entirely possible he wasn't.

[redroanchronicles]

Totally, I just think it's more likely that the hound is like... bloodhound. It really is hard to picture getting this dog out of any combination that's 25% malamute and 25% basset. And as Mal has sworn repeatedly, there is really nothing spitz-y about him. Malamute would've been my last guess. :D We're going to stick to our story that he's a bloodhound/shepherd mix of some sort, because our guess seems to be as good at the DNA tester's guess. :D

[multimediafunhouse.blogspot.com]

That is so, so awesome. If that were my dog and people asked what kind of dog he was I would insist "basset hound" for ever and ever.

[redroanchronicles]

I'm going to tell everybody that he's a chihuahua, and when they say, "um, he's a little big..." I'm going to go, "SHHHH! He's adopted! He doesn't know! Jesus, how insensitive can you be?"