Can I find out my dog's breed(s)?

June 16, 2007 8:08 AM

I heard that you can send a sample of your dog's DNA out to be tested to determine breed. I have a pound mutt who I would love to know the mix before she passes. Anyone know if such a service exists?
posted by archimago to pets & animals (12 comments total)

What's My Dog.com?
posted by disillusioned at 8:13 AM on June 16, 2007

(BTW, typed "dog dna breed" into Google. :-)
posted by disillusioned at 8:13 AM on June 16, 2007

There's this one. Launches in July, I think - I read about it in the news somewhere.
posted by dilettante at 8:51 AM on June 16, 2007

Erm. Now that I follow the link above, it's the same one.

Nevermind.
posted by dilettante at 8:52 AM on June 16, 2007

You might be interested in this, the first scientific attempt to use genetic information to identify pure-bred dogs.

Mars Veterinary, the company planning to offer these tests, will only provide an estimate of the breed mixture of a non-pure bred dog, according to their website.

(I suspect the reason they are not yet offering pure-bred tests is legal, not scientific.)

Note that dog breeds are a human concept without a perfect analogue in the genome of Canis familiaris. (Well, to be pedantic, C. familiaris is also a human concept, as are species, but that's another debate.) Anyhoo, any attempt to ID a dog breed from a biologic sample is going to be probabilistic, not deterministic.
posted by docgonzo at 10:26 AM on June 16, 2007

these guys are the newest and most well known

http://www.metamorphixinc.com/

(someone tell me how to turn links into words)

anyway, they don't test for pits, just 38 or so common breeds, i've heard they don't test for pits because they're afraid the testing would be used to ID animals to put to sleep
posted by Salvatorparadise at 11:31 AM on June 16, 2007

Salvatorparadise, just replace the parenthesis below with left < or right>:
(a href="full link address")text you want displayed(/a)
posted by miss lynnster at 11:45 AM on June 16, 2007

Or, while composing your comment, use the blue link button below.
posted by intermod at 12:25 PM on June 16, 2007

My employer published a seven-part (yes) series about this very topic: the last part.
posted by Airhen at 2:12 PM on June 16, 2007

Why don't you post a pic of the dog and let us try to hack through it with you? I always like guessing at breed crosses.
posted by monkeymadness at 2:46 PM on June 16, 2007

Seconding monkeymadness. I thought my dog was a mutt, and one day I met a lady who recognized her breed.
posted by happyturtle at 3:39 PM on June 16, 2007

thanks for the info on links

airhen: that was a great series!
posted by Salvatorparadise at 4:16 PM on June 16, 2007