Thursday, February 3, 2011

Drumroll Please...

As I mentioned in my first post, my dog walker Paul gave me a DNA Breed Identification test for Maisie as a belated holiday gift.  I am happy to announce that the results are in. Are they accurate?  I am very very dubious.  You be the judge.

Apparently Maisie's genetic makeup is comprised of seven different breeds, with varying levels of DNA represented.  She is...20-36% American Staffordshire Terrier:
That looks a LOT like her and I think it is definitely accurate.  I've always suspected that might be her primary breed (it is generally lumped in with others considered "pit bulls"), though I predicted the smaller Staffordshire Bull Terrier variety.

According to the test results, she is also 10-19% bulldog:
Um, OK.

And 10-19% Pomeranian:
Insanity.  We're starting to veer into a place dangerously removed from reality here, I'm afraid.  Because she's also 10-19% West Highland White Terrier (aka Westie):
That dog clearly has no relation to my black pit mix.  Crazy.  Moving on...


Less than 10% Australian Shepherd:
Less than 10% English Springer Spaniel:
And finally, less than 10% Miniature Pinscher:
*sigh*

Besides the cuckoo bananas canine melting pot of random breeds listed here, the biggest surprise was the lack of Jack Russell terrier in the mix.  I thought for sure that one would show up.  So it seems Maisie will officially be known just as a pit mix (or AmStaff mix if I want to get more specific).

"Whatchoo talkin' bout, Breed Identification Test?"

7 comments:

Narciso Lobo, Jr said...

You never know what ethnicities lie beneath the surface. Who knows, you may even have a little Filipino in you. *insert punchline here*

Maisie's Mom said...

hahaha! don't sell yourself short. :P

Two Pitties in the City said...

We were always interesting in doing this with Miss M, but the results always came out so strange. Then we happened to be watching this program on Nova that was talking about how humans had such an impact on dog development and eventually began manipulating breeds to get exactly what they wanted. I don't remember the breed exactly, but there was a dog that looked like an American Bulldog and they said they added some kind of white fluffy dog to the whole mix to get the white coloring. I thought it was an odd addition, but then I wondered if many of the 'purebred' dogs actually have all kinds of weird dog breeds in their DNA as part of the breed creation and development.

Maisie's Mom said...

I don't think anyone would purposely create Maisie. I'd say the test is 20-36% accurate. ;)

Unknown said...

so fun to read Francers

rebakay said...

Catching up......Ummmmmm, this post is hilarious!!!

Anonymous said...

i have a natural skepticism of these tests too, but i wouldn't write this off completely. what if one of maisie's parents was a pit mix where the staffie is very dominant (as is often the case), and the other was just some silly, crazy, mutt-type dog? they say that physical traits are really only visible from the parent generation, so without knowing what kind of silly mutt her other parent made have been, it's hard to write this off. It could have been something smallish, with that unique ear shape, and the head that is slightly more elongated than a traditional staffie?

we did one of these test with our Chick and thought the results made a whole lot of sense . . .