Friday, November 22, 2013

Doggie DNA

The last two years, my niece who lives with me, has asked for a DNA test for each of her dogs on for her birthday presents. It's been quite fun. The first year, we found out that her dog, Tanner, was half Chihuahua, as we suspected. He was 1/4 poodle and then then the other 1/4 was quite a few other breeds. In the mix, was Pharoah hound. He looks like a minature Pharoah hound without the big stand up ears.
Then we did Cisco, the little feral dog she captured on Valentine's Day this year. I thought he was all Chihuahua. Again, he came back half Chihuahua, the other half had a lot of different breeds, including 3 different kinds of terriers. It helped explain the wiry hair on his back, his unusual coloring. Way back, he even has a smidgeon of St. Bernard. Pretty funny for a 7 lb dog.
In August, I ended up getting Giselle from the pound. She was billed as a French Bulldog/Chihuahua. I thought she was dang cute. I had always wanted a French Bulldog, but they were way too expensive. So she was my bargain Frenchie.
We just got back results on Giselle's DNA. It is so entertaining. So on one side, she is completely purebred French Bulldog, back four generations. On the other side, she had a great grandparent who was a purebred Shetland Sheepdog. That dog bred to a mixed breed dog. The Sheltie mix bred to another mix and then that dog became one of her parents.
They are calling her a French Bulldog/Shetland Sheepdog mix. . Not a speck of Chihuahua in her. She looks a lot like the fawn puppy above.

But she has way more energy than most French Bulldogs and is quite a runner. I guess maybe she inherited something from her Sheltie ancestery after all. She loves people. Is very outgoing. She loves to hunt, which I think she gets from her Sheltie side too. In the other smaller "dectectable" breeds she has the following in descending order:
Anatolian Shepherd ( Ha! A big dog)
Lakeland Terrier
Shiba Inu
Beagle
Japanese Spitz
 

Here is my little Frenchie/Sheltie. She is my very own designer dog.


She is generally very relaxed unless she is chasing something.
We have really enjoyed doing the tests. They are around 60 to 70$ on Amazon. You should try it!

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