Testing Our Dog’s DNA
July 7, 2009 by Paris and John
Filed under News
Have you ever been curious about your dog’s heritage? If you have a rescue dog or a shelter dog like we do, you’ve probably wondered just what breeds make up his or her background. Today we took a DNA swab of our dog Irie’s cheek for the Canine Heritage Breed Test. This easy-to-use DNA test identifies over 100 breeds. The test was easy to administer. Using a small cheek swab that was packed in a small sleeve 
we swabbed Irie’s cheek for 30 seconds. (We picked a time when she hadn’t eaten anything for over half an hour so we didn’t have to worry about food particles.) We packed the swab back in its plastic sleeve, filled out a short form, and now it’s off in the mail while we await the results (in about four to six weeks). So now we wait…and we guess! Do you have any guesses? We think she’s a lab mix…but with what other breed(s)? She weighs 65 pounds, believes she’s a lap dog, has cat-like paws, has a thick tail that’s quite a bit heavier at the base than the tip. Her hair is extremely short and she’s a medium shedder. Her hair’s a reddish color that sometimes turns more blondish; her nose is reddish then gets darker in the summer (and can get sunburned if we don’t keep sunscreen on it.) Her nails are unusually long and have to be cut frequently and are reddish as well. When we got her (at six months old), she still had many wrinkles around her head and back legs; we still see the back leg wrinkles now and then. Any guesses? We’ll be posting the results in a few weeks! 
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There's a lot of lab in there and some hound. I got my DNA tested and it came out with 12% lab and traces of other dogs. I am a purebred mutt!
Merlin Wylt
I did a test on my poodle mix Oliver. It took less than 3 weeks. I would've bet money he was poodle & Bichon Frise…turns out he's mostly poodle mixed with small amounts of 3 other breeds – Lhasa Apso, Pekingese & Shih Tzu!! It's so cool that you can do DNA tests from home. I just adopted another dog last weekend & would love to get her tested too…but I think I'm gonna have to save my money for her vet bills. She's definitely part Schnauzer… Maybe someday!
I can't wait to find out our results! I've been on the Canine Heritage Test page on Facebook…they've got a lot of photos of dogs that have been tested with information on what you might THINK they are and what the test revealed. Looking at these photos, I'm thinking that Irie is probably some breeds we haven't guessed yet! http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?drop&ref=mb#/pages/Canine-Heritage-Breed-Test/225057250563?ref=ts
[...] cheek (similar to brushing teeth…but brushing the inside of mouth instead.) You can see photos of the swabbing on our original [...]
[...] Testing Our Dog’s DNA Have you ever been curious about your dog’s heritage? If you have a rescue dog or a shelter dog like we do, you’ve probably wondered just what breeds make up his or her background.Today we took a DNA swab of our dog Irie’s cheek for the Canine Heritage Breed Test. This easy-to-use DNA test identifies over 100 breeds.The test was easy to administer. Using a small cheek swab that was packed in a [...]