DNA tests?

Breed specific discussion of your favorite breed.

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Lady Krimson
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Joined: Sun Nov 22, 2009 7:22 pm

DNA tests?

Post by Lady Krimson »

Do those dog DNA tests really work to tell you what your breed is?
emmabeth
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Re: DNA tests?

Post by emmabeth »

At present - no.

From what I understand none of the companies offering this have the relevant info from ALL the known breeds, and their programs are set to give you the closest match, so if for instance your dog was part Border Collie but they dont have that in their system and the closest match to that is Rough Collie... thats what your results would tell you even though thats not actually correct.

So far as dogs and ancestry is concerned, all you can accurately identify is that Dog A and Dog B are or are not the parents of Dog C - if you have all three dogs available.

Anything else is really no more accurate than using a combination of common sense (your dog is not likely to be a mixture of very rare breeds for example), dogs appearance, dogs behaviour and experience with a variety of dog breeds/their crosses, in fact it is probably LESS accurate than this.

Possibly when these companies have the dna information on ALL the dog breeds in existance, then you may get somewhere though personally... I doubt it. I would definately not waste my money!
West Midlands based 1-2-1 Training & Behaviour Canine Consultant
Marley
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Joined: Sat Jul 05, 2008 5:33 pm

Re: DNA tests?

Post by Marley »

No, they can't tell you your dog's breed. They can tell you which breeds are included in the genetic background of your dog.

The results can vary between companies. It depends on how much they have invested in their database, which basically means how many different breeds they have in their database. There are a lot of great articles out there expaining how the procuedure works. If you really want to do it, you may want to spend some time researching the companies and the number of breeds they have on file.

I find it facinating and I had it done to my dog. My dog was a rescue and I expected her to be Min Pin, Papillon, and some kind of hearding dog. The results indicated she is Min Pin, Greyhound and Pommeranian.
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