Should You Spend Money on a Dog DNA Test?

I have said in previous posts that it is important to know the genetic make-up of your mixed breed dog because it provides clues into your dogs behavior. For example, Labs, like all retrievers are mouth oriented because they are bred to do a certain job...retrieving. And so you have an explanation as to why your Lab mix chews on everything he gets his mouth on...it isn't displacement behavior, it is his genetic make-up. But if your Peke/Pug mix is chewing up everything, then something is wrong and you better get to the bottom of it fast before the behavorial issue becomes a habit.

It has become increasingly popular lately to have your dog's DNA tested to identify the dogs genetic background. And I applaud that. But I also wonder just how accurate these tests are.

Yes, I have read the manufacturers claims as to accuracy. I have also noticed that some of the manufacturers do not have the ability to read genetic markers of all the pure breeds.So if your dog is 50% Greater Swiss Mountain Dog and the DNA Test isn't able to recognize that breed, then how accurate is it?

The dog pictured above is a case in point....the dog group that rescued him swabbed his mouth, sent it off and the response was that he is mostly Doberman and Yorkie...yep, that is what I said....Doberman and Yorkie, wow I would have liked to have seen that liason....perhaps the Yorkie used a ladder.

So let's break this down...now I am not a geneticist, but having bred champions and studied canine genetics for most of my life here is my take on this dog...

The dog's color is red background with black brindle. How many Yorkies do you know who are brindle? None! Yorkies do not carry a brindle gene...they do carry a black and tan gene. As do Papillons.The dog also had a tiny percentage of supposedly Papillon in him.

Now, as I already stated, the Yorkies are silver/blue and tan...this is a dilution of the standard black and tan gene. Yorkie pups are born black and tan, then as they mature the dilution gene fades the black color to steel blue or in some cases silver. (Dilution genes occur in a variety of breeds and produce a lot of different color effects. One you may be more familiar with is a black Poodle who will often times become silver upon maturity.)

Dobermans also carry a black and tan gene. (In red Dobes, the color becomes red and tan, in blue Dobes it is blue tan ( from a dilution gene) and in white (albino) Dobes there is a masking gene,(not a dilution gene) which prevents any color from manifesting, but genetically the dog is still masked color with masked tan markings. So, here we have a brindle dog who genetically is primarily made up of two breeds with highly dominant black and tan genes, and secondarily one who also can carry a black and tan gene (and a parti-color gene but we won't go there ). Doesn't make sense does it? Normally when you combine black and tan genes with brindle genes you get a dog whose tan markings are brindle but the rest of the color pattern is normal... we also have the unlikely liason of a 70 pound Doberman and a 5 pound Yorkie...that doesn't make sense either. And nothing in the supposed background of this dog has a brindle gene yet here is a brindle dog. We do have 3 breeds of dogs that all carry black and tan genes. Remember,two of which, the Dobe and Yorkie breeds, carry them dominantly.

Then there is the dogs conformation. The red arrow points to an arch over the dogs loin. An arched loin is not a conformation feature that you will commonly find in Dobes, Yorkies or even the Papillon. The blue arrow points to the stop, yep, that is the name of the area pointed to on this dogs head, and his stop is extreme, while a Dobes would be only slight. And the muzzle is too long to be influenced by Yorkie or Papillon genes.(Pictured here is a typey Doberman head notice the slight stop...) The brindle dog's head is what we call cheeky. In addition, he has no fill in the front of his chest. The set of the dogs stifle does not reflect any Doberman/Yorkie influence either. These are some of the things that make me think the brindle dog has no Doberman or Yorkie or Papillon in him at all but is a Rhodesian Ridgeback /Whippet mix. A liason much more likely.

I applaud the group who rescued this dog and cared enough to have him DNA tested but if the test is wrong and it certainly appears to be...then this dog's temperment will be highly different from what you would expect from a Dobe or Yorkie and the dog rescue group will have wasted their money. That being said, I have seen a number of dogs tested with the Heritage DNA test and all the dogs exhibited breed characteristics in line with their test results so I don't want it to appear that all at home DNA testing manufacturers are suspect. For obvious reasons I do not divulge the name of the company who made this test. I welcome feedback from breeders and from owners of rescued dogs on this hot button issue as we really need at home DNA tests that we can count on....

(purebred photos from AKC)

http://www.akc.org/index.cfm?nav_area=homepage

..also check out this you tube video, the Am Staff in the video is of the highest quality,and the DNA test she used is NOT the brand used on the brindle dog in this post...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a4CDvK868w

Unsung Dog Rescue Heros

Not having had the best weekend,( I put my Ipod in the washer and fell face first into poison ivy) this morning found me out very early enroute to the store. As I was driving, I noticed over on a grassy knoll, just off of Interstate 65, was a woman sitting in the damp grass, kissing a Brittany Spaniel on the cheek, both arms around him, she began to whisper in his ear.
I wondered if she had a vehicle breakdown and was waiting for assistance, but then I saw her van, with the door up and loaded with dog crates...I did a U-turn as I realized why she was there.
''Hi'', I said,'' is this a rescue dog in transit?
He was indeed. He was called Jake.This lovely red and white purebred was found wandering in Oklahoma. His owner was never located and no one at animal control adopted him. He was pulled from the High Kill facility and arrangements were made to locate a person willing to foster him.Finally a forever foster was found....in Delaware. A show breeder was willing to foster him until a permanent home could be found, if no one wanted him, then he would be at the foster forever, hence the name, forever foster home.
The woman I met had driven Jake all the way from Oklahoma to Nashville and she sat on the grassy knoll waiting for someone who was traveling from Florida to pick him up and transport him to Delaware. Just a month ago I met a woman on the same grassy knoll with a gorgeous Bassett Hound. She was there waiting for another person to pick the Bassett up and transport it to Rhode Island. In all, the Bassett Hound would transfer rides five times to get to her new home.
These women ( and some men) are truly unsung heros in the dog rescue network. They are all over the U.S. networking, through various means, (Craigslist is a big contact )and spending their own money, time,and wear and tear on their vehicles to make sure these dogs get to caring homes.
No one gives them money, the dollars we donate don't get to them.
They do it because it has to be done....
Jake would have been euthanized without this transport network...and so would so many other dogs.These women are the REAL weekend warriors, fighting for the lives of homeless dogs who can't get placed locally. And what was she whispering in Jakes' ear? That he was safe and had a happy life ahead of him.I think he understood....

A Calling to Dog Loving Teachers and HSUS is at it Again

My neighbor Melanie is an Elementary School teacher and home for the summer. Like most teachers, Melanie is very glad to have the summer off and she looks forward to puttering in the garden,doing some home improvements, and catching up on her reading.
But Melanie wanted to do more this summer,something charitable that she could contribute without taking her away from home....and she found the perfect summer charity work in fostering for a local rescue...which got me to thinking,if every teacher across the country who is home for the summer, took in just one foster, what a huge difference it could make for those rescue organizations!
And so I throw out this challenge to teachers across America, take in a foster today!
Just think, you could be fostering an adorable Chin like Kuma pictured above.
There are many dogs like little Kuma who have had to have surgery and need foster care. See more dogs like Kuma and find out how you can help here http://www.japanesechinrescue.org/
Speaking of the Jap Chin folks,a big thank you to Pam, a West Virginia JC Care rep who sent me an article detailing more of HSUS' insane attempts to stop dog ownership...every one knows how I despise Wayne Pacelle and HSUS!
The article can be read in full at americansportingdogalliance.org
I do however want to share some portions of this well written article by John Yates:
AVON LAKE, OH – 'The sky is not falling in this tranquil suburban town on the outskirts of Cleveland, but local animal rights activists are trying to convince the Avon Lake Municipal Council that a tough ordinance is needed to control “vicious dogs.”What’s happening in Avon Lake this week also is happening now in dozens of communities across America. Thus, we urge dog owners everywhere to read this report and be aware that what’s happening in Avon Lake may – and probably will – happen to you someday.In the Avon Lake draft ordinance, all dogs are by definition declared “vicious,” simply for acting like dogs. Normal and even desirable canine behavior would entrap a dog of any breed under this doomsday category. Even chasing a chipmunk or barking at a stranger would cause a dog to be declared vicious, under the terms of the latest draft ordinance.The entrapping language is very deliberate, and reflects one of the current tactics being exploited by radical animal rights groups, such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).HSUS has nothing to do with local humane societies, despite its misleading name. Instead, HSUS is the political arm of animal rights extremist groups. It seeks the gradual elimination of all animal ownership in America, which it sees as exploitation and slavery.Relying on an emotional campaign and the fear of “pit bulls” that has been carefully cultivated in the media, HSUS supporters are advancing so-called dangerous dog ordinances in many towns, cities, counties and states all across America. HSUS has been very successful at painting a picture of dog owners that is associated with criminal dog fighting rings, the drug and gang underworld, barbaric ethnic traditions, and mauled children.Facts are not the friend of HSUS, which relies only on emotion in swaying the media and public. The facts show a 200-percent reduction in reported dog bite incidents over the past 20 years, but HSUS does not want you to know this. The facts show that dog bites do not even rank in the top 20 causes of injury or death to children, and HSUS doesn’t want you to know that, either. Nor to they want you to think too hard about a very simple truth: probably 99-percent of all Americans have never even seen a dog fight or even heard of one where they live, and have never seen a drug gang on its home turf.The HSUS tactic, however, is to exploit emotion and fear to make people feel threatened by a problem that simply doesn’t exist. It’s a canine version of the swine flu pandemic scare, which has millions of people living in terror of a disease that has actually killed fewer people than the average January head cold.
To get around the unconstitutional nature of breed bans, the Avon Lake ordinance attempts to define a vicious dog by behavior. Unfortunately, the definition is so brad that every dog in America falls under its net.The draft ordinance defines a vicious dogs as any dog that has "approached in either a menacing fashion or an apparent attitude of attack, or has attempted to bite or endanger any person, cat, other dog, or animal (domestic or non-domestic)." Under that definition, a dog could be declared vicious if it:· Chases a chipmunk or squirrel.· Points a robin.· Barks at a burglar breaking through a window.· Acts threatened if a stranger approaches its kennel.· Defends its owner from physical attack by a mugger or rapist.· Chases the neighbor’s cat out of the flower garden.· Defends itself when attacked by a stray dog.'

...so folks, tonite as you lay down to go to sleep, think for a moment what the world would be like without dogs,because if we don't stop Peta and her sister HSUS from entrenching their way into the public consciousness, our world will, one day, be dogless.

Saving Soldiers' Dogs

After a week of holiday festivities,Jazz,pictured above, has retired to her bed to recuperate and I thought I would reiterate a message I brought up last holiday season. You may recall I wrote a post about the need to foster dogs owned by our troops who were being deployed. The number of troops having to surrender their pets to shelters is and was heartbreaking. Canine Corps is a charity devoted to temporary housing for military personnel serving overseas. Personally I think the military should house the pets until the troops come home but until that day comes we have the Canine Corps.
In Landesburg Pa. a loving home is provided in a format similar to the best pet hotel. The dogs have acres of land to run and play on. Veterinarians and others, volunteer their time to this worthy cause. The volunteers send the soldiers pictures of their dogs and updates. Recently spotlighted on the Today show the workers said they hope every state will open a facility like Canine Corps. I hope so too....
Kimbers Critters is another rescue that has been housing dogs for the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division for some time,often using funds from their own pockets, Kimberly and her family work hard to take care of soldiers pets and in addition have an enormous amount of pets that they rehome as well. You can find a list of available pets and donation information for Kimbers Critters on PetFinders.com
I hope in 2009 more soldiers will come home and can be re-united with their dogs,but for those that will remain deployed, consider offering one of those soldiers' dogs temporary shelter.