• Welcome to Avian Avenue! To view our forum with less advertisments please register with us.
    Memberships are free and it will just take a moment. Click here

Pictures Our new puppy - Mouse, the tiny doggo

Sunni Tiel

Rollerblading along the road
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
1/18/21
Messages
1,201
Location
Missouri
Real Name
Rachel
Congrats!! So sweet!!
 

TheMacDadd

Strolling the yard
Joined
2/16/21
Messages
111
Location
Dearborn, Michigan
Real Name
Ahmad
unbelievably impossibly adorable!!!!!:congrats5:
 

DesertBird

Rollerblading along the road
Celebirdy of the Month
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
1/9/21
Messages
1,145
Location
NY, USA
She is so cute and tiny! She makes your cat look huge. :laugh:
 

Destiny

Rollerblading along the road
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
6/6/20
Messages
2,088
Real Name
Destiny
**Update**

Our new pupper, Mouse is doing great. She is a fiesty little one. So small and adorable.

20210303_203144.jpg

She has settled in quite nicely with her larger pack mates. They are gentle when they play with her, even though she is a fierce shark full of spunk and puppy teeth when she gets going.

Here they are exhausted after a rambunctious play session.

20210327_224627.jpg
20210327_224648.jpg

Also, some exciting news - We just got back the results on a doggy DNA panel for Mouse. We figure she is mostly chihuahua, mixed with other small dog breeds, but we wanted to narrow down our guesses. And we were just generally curious to see what the results would be.

I've never done a DNA test on a dog before, and to be perfectly honest, I am rather skeptical about their accuracy. There is no "doberman" gene that is shared by all dobies and never seen in any other dog breed, so a test that says a dog is 10% Jack Russell Terrier sounds pretty fishy to me. Not only do all dog breed stem from a common ancestor, but many breeds were created by mixing together dogs from different breeds that possessed desirable traits. Even today, many "purebred" dogs are far from pure, since most breeds can readily produce mixed offspring. Dog breeds are not distinct species that have been genetically isolated for thousands of years with clean genetic heritage. Genetically, dogs are a lot more alike than they are different, despite the obvious visual differences in size, shape, and color. Even if you looked at dozens of marker genes, odds are very good those same markers would pop up in all kinds of different breeds, resulting in breed misidentifications and flat out wrong results.

Regardless, I was curious and so in the name of science, I decided to test, not just Mouse, but all four of our dogs. So far, we have Mouse and Bear's results back. Still waiting on Luna and Gracie.

So ... here are Mouse's results:

Screenshot (63).png

As expected, lots of Chihuahua in our little girl. And a mix of little dogs, like Shih Tzu, Yorkie, and Shiba Inu. Cocker spaniel is a surprise, but they are on the small side and popular, so it is possible that a cocker spaniel mix could be part of Mouse's heritage. And then we get into the really weird stuff ... I know a decent number of dog breeds, but I have never heard of Lapponian Herder, Brazilian Terrier, or Tibetan Terrier. Continental Toy Spaniel is another name for Papillon, the little dog with butterfly ears.
And 2% Saint Bernard. :lol:Nope. Not buying that one. Pull my other leg please.

After some quick googling, the Lapponian herder is a large dog breed from Finland that is used to herd reindeer. Yeah ... I don't think that is right either. The other rare breeds are at least small enough to be reasonable, but they are also closely related to more common small dog breeds identified by the panel, so I doubt they are true results. Probably false positives.

So ignoring the random rare and/or unlikely dog breeds, Mouse is half chihuahua, mixed with other small dog breeds, just like we expected. I didn't specifically expect shih tzu, but I can believe it. Cockerspaniel is also unexpected, since nothing about Mouse makes me think cockerspaniel. The rest of the breeds are low percentage and frankly pretty questionable, although I could see yorkshire terrier, based on her coat color.

Rather interesting, overall. But there is no way in hell this puppy is even 2% Saint Bernard.

Just look at her.

20210319_151350.jpg

When I get results from the other dogs, I will share those too, so you can judge the accuracy for yourself.

We used Wisdom panel, available on Amazon for $80 to $100. You take a pair of cheek swabs from the dog and send them in for analysis. About 2 or 3 weeks to get results. A bit expensive for an experiment, but I am sufficiently amused by imagining a Lapponian herder seducing a Saint Bernard/Chihuahua mix.
 
Last edited:

AussieBird

Rollerblading along the road
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
7/23/20
Messages
4,651
Real Name
Call me AB
**Update**

Our new pupper, Mouse is doing great. She is a fiesty little one. So small and adorable.

View attachment 378428

She has settled in quite nicely with her larger pack mates. They are gentle when they play with her, even though she is a fierce shark full of spunk and puppy teeth when she gets going.

Here they are exhausted after a rambunctious play session.

View attachment 378429
View attachment 378426

Also, some exciting news - We just got back the results on a doggy DNA panel for Mouse. We figure she is mostly chihuahua, mixed with other small dog breeds, but we wanted to narrow down our guesses. And we were just generally curious to see what the results would be.

I've never done a DNA test on a dog before, and to be perfectly honest, I am rather skeptical about their accuracy. There is no "doberman" gene that is shared by all dobies and never seen in any other dog breed, so a test that says a dog is 10% Jack Russell Terrier sounds pretty fishy to me. Not only do all dog breed stem from a common ancestor, but many breeds were created by mixing together dogs from different breeds that possessed desirable traits. Even today, many "purebred" dogs are far from pure, since most breeds can readily produce mixed offspring. Dog breeds are not distinct species that have been genetically isolated for thousands of years with clean genetic heritage. Genetically, dogs are a lot more alike than they are different, despite the obvious visual differences in size, shape, and color. Even if you looked at dozens of marker genes, odds are very good those same markers would pop up in all kinds of different breeds, resulting in breed misidentifications and flat out wrong results.

Regardless, I was curious and so in the name of science, I decided to test, not just Mouse, but all four of our dogs. So far, we have Mouse and Bear's results back. Still waiting on Luna and Gracie.

So ... here are Mouse's results:

View attachment 378442

As expected, lots of Chihuahua in our little girl. And a mix of little dogs, like Shih Tzu, Yorkie, and Shiba Inu. Cocker spaniel is a surprise, but they are on the small side and popular, so it is possible that a cocker spaniel mix could be part of Mouse's heritage. And then we get into the really weird stuff ... I know a decent number of dog breeds, but I have never heard of Lapponian Herder, Brazilian Terrier, or Tibetan Terrier. Continental Toy Spaniel is another name for Papillon, the little dog with butterfly ears.
And 2% Saint Bernard. :lol:Nope. Not buying that one. Pull my other leg please.

After some quick googling, the Lapponian herder is a large dog breed from Finland that is used to herd reindeer. Yeah ... I don't think that is right either. The other rare breeds are at least small enough to be reasonable, but they are also closely related to more common small dog breeds identified by the panel, so I doubt they are true results. Probably false positives.

So ignoring the random rare and/or unlikely dog breeds, Mouse is half chihuahua, mixed with other small dog breeds, just like we expected. I didn't specifically expect shih tzu, but I can believe it. Cockerspaniel is also unexpected, since nothing about Mouse makes me think cockerspaniel. The rest of the breeds are low percentage and frankly pretty questionable, although I could see yorkshire terrier, based on her coat color.

Rather interesting, overall. But there is no way in hell this puppy is even 2% Saint Bernard.

Just look at her.

View attachment 378444

When I get results from the other dogs, I will share those too, so you can judge the accuracy for yourself.

We used Wisdom panel, available on Amazon for $80 to $100. You take a pair of cheek swabs from the dog and send them in for analysis. About 2 or 3 weeks to get results. A bit expensive for an experiment, but I am sufficiently amused by imagining a Lapponian herder seducing a Saint Bernard/Chihuahua mix.
Uhhh... is that test saying a chihuahua is a terrier??? And what on earth is companion, asian, and mountian dog????
Don't mind me over here... i just feel like whoever made that test doesn't know much about dog breeds...
Whatever Mouse is she's stinking cute.
 

Destiny

Rollerblading along the road
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
6/6/20
Messages
2,088
Real Name
Destiny
I believe the groupings are loosely based on genetic studies that have been done to compare the relationship between different dog breeds. These studies have identified "clades" of related dogs.

You can see one representation of the dog "family tree" in this chart:

gr1.png



There are over 350 different modern dog breeds. The study that produced this cladogram only compared 1,346 dogs representing 161 breeds, so it is not a complete picture, but it gives an idea of how different dog breeds are related to each other.

Breeds that are far apart on the wheel are only distantly related. Each color marks one of these genetic families (clades). Chihuahuas are not that closely related to anything, except for the Chinese Crested and a couple of terriers, but they are sort of close to other small terriers.

However, I don't really think the groupings used by Wisdom panel are actually that good. I have a hard time seeing the Lapponian Herder as a "Companion Dog". The Lapponian Herder is, not surprisingly, classified as a herding dog in terms of function and more closely related to other Norwegian dog breeds, like the Karelian Bear Dog. However, they are not closely related to the majority of other breeds in the herding group, like collies and sheepdogs. Interestingly, the Shih Tzu is in a clade that is adjacent to norwegian dog breeds. They are very closely related to the Tibetan Terrier, and more distantly related to the Shiba Inu. The Papillon (continental toy spaniel) is not particularly closely related to the Shih Tzu, even though they are both small companion dogs, so they shouldn't be grouped together, from a genetic perspective.
 
Last edited:

AussieBird

Rollerblading along the road
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
7/23/20
Messages
4,651
Real Name
Call me AB
What i don't understand is why they are using those random groups when purebred dogs are already devided into seven groups. In australia those groups are Toy (chihuauas are in this group), Terrier, Hounds, gundogs, Utility, Non-sporting, and Working.
The American grouping is Working, Herding, Toy, Hound, Sporting, Non-Sporting, and Terrier.
Maybe genetics wise it makes sense, to me it's unessercary and confusing.
Also that chart isn't complete, it's missing my all time favourite breed. But that just me being picky about the less common breeds :)
 

AussieBird

Rollerblading along the road
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
7/23/20
Messages
4,651
Real Name
Call me AB
Also i am curious as to what would happen if this test was done on a purebred, because as you said all dogs are related to some extent.
 

Destiny

Rollerblading along the road
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
6/6/20
Messages
2,088
Real Name
Destiny
This is our big doggo, Bear, when he was only a few months old and an adorable fluff ball:

20181025_094012.jpg

And here he is today, at two years old:

20201206_142449.jpg

Please pay no attention to the drool. That is perfectly normal. We got Bear from a nice couple on a farm in Washington.

This is Bear's mother:

20181023_144211.jpg

And his father:

20181023_144224.jpg

We were told that Bear was an Anatolian shepherd or at least mostly Anatolian. His parents were working livestock guardian dogs, not pedigreed, so his exact heritage was not really known.

If you have never heard of Anatolian shepherds, here is an article on the breed:


In brief, Anatolians are a rugged livestock guardian dog breed. Large, independent, and even-tempered, which describes Bear perfectly.

We have suspected that he was probably not 100% Anatolian for a couple of reasons. For one thing, he is bigger and heavier than we expected. His parents weighed 126lbs and 78lbs. When we got Bear at 8 weeks old, he weighed 24lbs. At six months old, Bear weighed 106 pounds. At a year, he weighed 132lbs. His current weight is around 150lbs, which is at the top of the weight range for his breed and 25lbs heavier than his sire. Also he is surprisingly wet-mouthed, which is not something that is usually mentioned with respect to this breed.

Here are Bear's Wisdom panel results:

Screenshot (64).png

Anatolian Shepherd is certainly listed, but it is not alone. And it isn't even at the top of the list, percentage-wise! However, once again we have some weird, rare breeds that don't seem very likely. Saluki and Canaan dog are grouped with Anatolian Shepherd, because the breeds originate from the same geographic region and likely share a common ancestor or two. I doubt Bear actually has a Saluki great grandparent, let alone a Canaan dog in his pedigree, so let's just combine those three together and say he is 36% Anatolian Shepherd.

So that means he is roughly a third Anatolian, a third Great Pyrenees, and a third Saint Bernard. I can believe that quite easily. Great pyrenees are a large livestock guardian dog breed and they are relatively common in our area. They are also relatively closely related to Anatolians, genetically. Saint Bernards are not guardian dogs, but they are big and wet mouthed. They are also a pretty good dog to breed with your livestock guardian dog, if you want your puppies to be even bigger and beefier. Like Great Pyrenees, they are kept on farms for guarding purposes, due to their large size and heavy coat, although they lack many of the behavioral features that make for good livestock guardian dogs. They are not closely related to Anatolians or Great Pyrenees.

Also, this is Bear's sister from the same litter:

20190422_114909.jpg

People always think she is a Saint Bernard. I guess they were one third right all along. :laugh:

My only question is ... does this mean that Bear's dad is not a pure Anatolian shepherd ... or is his real dad a pyrenees/St. Bernard cross living on some nearby farm? We may never know ...

20190406_083917.jpg
 

AussieBird

Rollerblading along the road
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
7/23/20
Messages
4,651
Real Name
Call me AB
The great pyrenees doesn't surprise me either. Is Bear a working livestock guardian? I would love to have a livestock guardian or two someday.
 

Destiny

Rollerblading along the road
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
6/6/20
Messages
2,088
Real Name
Destiny
What i don't understand is why they are using those random groups when purebred dogs are already devided into seven groups. In australia those groups are Toy (chihuauas are in this group), Terrier, Hounds, gundogs, Utility, Non-sporting, and Working.
The American grouping is Working, Herding, Toy, Hound, Sporting, Non-Sporting, and Terrier.
Maybe genetics wise it makes sense, to me it's unessercary and confusing.
Also that chart isn't complete, it's missing my all time favourite breed. But that just me being picky about the less common breeds :)
The problem with using normal dog groups is that those groups are based off the functional role of the dog, not the dog's genetic relationship to other breeds. Interestingly, there is a decent amount of overlap between functional role and genetics. For example, most of the herding dogs are found in the same clade and so are most of the terriers and most of the scent hounds. But some dogs are genetically isolated from other groups and end up separate from the norm.

The Norwegian dog breeds are an excellent example of this. In the cladeogram, you can find the Norwegian Elkhound next to the Tibetan Terrier and the Shih Tzu. The Keeshond and Icelandic Sheepdog are right by the Standard Schnauzer and Minatare Schnauzer. I think that's how the Lapponian Herder ended up listed as a "companion" breed, because it is being lumped together with other "similar" dogs, from a genetic perspective. It kind of makes sense when you look at it like that. But it doesn't make me believe that Mouse is from Finnland. It makes me think that they tagged the wrong marker to Lapponian Herder, when it was really pointing to Shih Tzu, at least in Mouse's case. They probably shared a common ancestor at some point in their breed history, so individual dogs in both breeds can have the same genetic marker.

Hey, don't keep me hanging ... what's your favorite dog breed?

Also i am curious as to what would happen if this test was done on a purebred, because as you said all dogs are related to some extent.
Stay tuned, because we shall soon find that out. My other two dogs are a Doberman pincher and Labrador retriever. Theoretically, they are both purebred.

But we shall be putting that to the test shortly. :cool:

The great pyrenees doesn't surprise me either. Is Bear a working livestock guardian? I would love to have a livestock guardian or two someday.
He is either working hard or hardly working, depending on your perspective. LOL. I live on a small hobby farm with a mere four goats for him to protect, so his skills are not really required, if I'm being honest. Most of the time, he is just guarding the couch.

20200606_091701.jpg
(Bear is taking this job more seriously than Luna.)

Bear's sister, Halo, on the other hand, is a real farm dog. She and another Anatolian, named Glory, are in charge of protecting our friend's goat herd and horses from coyotes, cougars and bears. Our friend lives up in the hills, next to BLM land (bureau of land management), so lots of untouched forest behind her property. Halo and Glory patrol during the night and watch over the livestock together. My friend hasn't lost a goat to a cougar since getting the two livestock guardians. They do a good job.

This is Glory, as a puppy, her first day on my friend's goat farm, already out with the goats.

20200524_133603.jpg 20200524_133542.jpg

And here are the dogs, all grown up but still puppies at heart, playing in the goat barn. It is so amazing to see these big dogs around tiny baby goats. The goats are perfectly comfortable with them. They know the dogs are safe.

20210215_085421.jpg

20210215_085505.jpg

I should mention, as much as I love livestock guardian dogs, these are definitely dogs that require the right environment and work to keep them properly engaged.

These are the sort of dogs that will bark all night and dig a hole through your couch if they have nothing better to do. Their large size, combined with an intelligent and independent nature makes them uniquely challenging to train. They are not your average pet dog, for better or worse. Definitely not the best choice if you live in the city or even the suburbs. An average sized backyard is not going to cut it.

But if you have livestock and property, they are literally born to protect them.

20210131_135701.jpg
 

Destiny

Rollerblading along the road
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
6/6/20
Messages
2,088
Real Name
Destiny
If you are curious, the breed groupings used by Wisdom Panel are the following:

Asian
Companion
Guard
Herding
Hound
Middle Eastern and African
Mountain Dogs
Sighthound
Sporting
Terrier
Wild Canids


I am not convinced that this is the best way to group dog breeds for clarity. Despite the misleading group names, it is based on genetic closeness, rather than the purpose of the breed. But I don't think they provided enough groups. There were over twenty different clades on that dog family tree, not just ten, plus wild dogs.

I assume they dumbed it down for the general public, but I can't help feeling vaguely insulted.
 

AussieBird

Rollerblading along the road
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
7/23/20
Messages
4,651
Real Name
Call me AB
Hey, don't keep me hanging ... what's your favorite dog breed?
I am a big terrier person, my favourite being Tenterfield Terriers. Though i am very biased as they are the only dog i've personaly owned.
If you were to look back at the chart you'll probably find they got lumped in with the rat terrier or toy fox terrier :meh:


Stay tuned, because we shall soon find that out. My other two dogs are a Doberman pincher and Labrador retriever. Theoretically, they are both purebred.

But we shall be putting that to the test shortly. :cool:
:popcorn2:
I should mention, as much as I love livestock guardian dogs, these are definitely dogs that require the right environment and work to keep them properly engaged.

These are the sort of dogs that will bark all night and dig a hole through your couch if they have nothing better to do. Their large size, combined with an intelligent and independent nature makes them uniquely challenging to train. They are not your average pet dog, for better or worse. Definitely not the best choice if you live in the city or even the suburbs. An average sized backyard is not going to cut it.

But if you have livestock and property, they are literally born to protect them.
Fully understand, working dogs really should be working. i certainly don't mean anytime soon, and to be honest i was considering livestock guardian with chooks (Though i haven't done any research into this yet)

If you are curious, the breed groupings used by Wisdom Panel are the following:

Asian
Companion
Guard
Herding
Hound
Middle Eastern and African
Mountain Dogs
Sighthound
Sporting
Terrier
Wild Canids


I am not convinced that this is the best way to group dog breeds for clarity. Despite the misleading group names, it is based on genetic closeness, rather than the purpose of the breed. But I don't think they provided enough groups. There were over twenty different clades on that dog family tree, not just ten, plus wild dogs.

I assume they dumbed it down for the general public, but I can't help feeling vaguely insulted.
See i still don't understand. What if there's an African guard breed, where does that get put??
 

Zara

♥❀Livin´ in Lovebird Land❀☼
Super Moderator
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Avenue Concierge
Joined
1/8/18
Messages
31,366
Location
Reino de España
Love Mouse and Bear so much! Literally :coffeescreen: ´ed when I saw Saint Bernard on the results :lol:

Curiosity makes me wanna test my dog too, but not spending that much on a test that seems sketchy..

I´m wondering if you told them the breed the dogs were when sending in the samples? Or where they just numbered / named samples?
 

Destiny

Rollerblading along the road
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
6/6/20
Messages
2,088
Real Name
Destiny
No breed information or pictures were provided with the samples. Just a name and verification number.
We took two cheek swabs from each dog (very careful not to get them mixed up!) and registered each sample on the Wisdom panel website with the sample number.

They did ask for age, gender, and if the animal was spayed/neutered/intact. Not sure why they needed to know that. Seems like it wouldn't make a difference to the results, but who knows? Maybe they use gender as a double-check that they got the right sample. I don't know.

Fully understand, working dogs really should be working. i certainly don't mean anytime soon, and to be honest i was considering livestock guardian with chooks (Though i haven't done any research into this yet)
Livestock guardians are usually protecting larger livestock, lile sheep or goats, but with some extra effort, you can get them to protect smaller animals and chickens too. They have strong protective instincts, so once they know what is "theirs" and what doesn't belong, they will do what comes naturally for them.

In addition to the goats, we have about thirty or forty chickens, some ducks, a few turkeys, and a pair of peacocks, so I started working on getting Bear used to being around the birds from an early age.

20181112_160525.jpg

I should mention that although livestock guardians are renowned for their instinctual guardianship of herd animals, young dogs do require guidance and some training to fit into their role. You don't need to teach them HOW or WHY, but you do need to teach them WHAT to protect ... and what is okay to eat.

Overall, Bear does well with our poultry and right now, at two years old, I feel confident about taking him into our chicken yard. He doesn't bother the laying hens and he ignores the random chickens and ducks that hop over the fence to free range in our yard and orchard.

But ... when he was six months to a year old, Bear killed (and ate!) several chickens and one duck. Eventually, he did figured out that was NOT okay and the killings stopped. But it was a rough breaking-in period. I partially blame my lab because she is a unrepentant chicken chaser who likes to run at the birds for fun when they are outside of the chicken area, despite me repeatedly telling her to knock it off. She knows just how far she can push it, without getting in too much trouble.

I think that Bear must have joined in on her game, but didn't understand that he was supposed to let the chicken escape at the end. He just followed his instincts and did what felt right. Working livestock guardians will hunt down small animals, like raccoons, opossums, rabbits, and even birds, that come into their territory, not just larger threats. Many of their natural hunting instincts are fully intact, so they don't hold back.

20201119_095610.jpg

All of my dogs had to be taught acceptable behavior around the chickens when they were puppies. And unfortunately, all of them managed to kill a free ranging chicken or two when they were outside alone, before they learned that it was not acceptable behavior. My Doberman was the quickest learner. Bear was honestly the slowest. It felt like it took forever before I really could trust him completely. Just when I thought we were passed this puppy phase and he understood that chickens were off-limits, I would catch him with another dead chook. :(

At this point, he shows no interest in the free ranging birds and he has dozens of opportunities each day if he wanted to hurt them, but never does, so I can finally relax.

Long story short, you CAN use a livestock guardian to protect chickens ... but first you will probably need to protect your chickens from the dog!

See i still don't understand. What if there's an African guard breed, where does that get put??
It would go into whichever group is the best fit for the breed from a genetic perspective, so probably the regional group, unless it is a breed that was developed in Africa by crossing out to guard breeds from other regions. The names are general descriptions, but the groupings are based on genetic heritage, not function or even country of origin.

It is a confusing labeling system because they used some of the same functional group names that are familiar to dog owners, but they aren't actually grouping them by function. Rather, it is the opposite. Dogs that share a common function often share a common genetic heritage. However some dogs have been developed in an isolated part of the world, without much mixing with breeds that were developed elsewhere. They might be used for the same purpose, but they don't share much similar genetic history with the majority of breeds in that functional grouping because they come from a different part of the world that developed their own dog breeds in isolation.

But grouping breeds based on geographic region isn't perfect either. Some breeds have spread to multiple regions and influenced the development of breeds in different areas. And some breeds were created by crossing multiple dog breeds from completely different functional and geographic groups.

No system is perfect and the relationship between dog breeds is quite complex. Honestly, I think the best way to do it would involve a dog family tree that explained exactly what dog breeds were included in each sub-group, rather than misleading categories like "asian', "terrier", "companion", "guard", and "herding" that don't really include what you might expect.

Great Pyrenees is not a herding dog anymore than the Lapponian herder is a companion dog. Basenji and Anatolian Shepherds are both in the "Middle Eastern and African" group, but they are nothing alike, genetically, functionally, or anatomically.
 
Last edited:

Destiny

Rollerblading along the road
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
6/6/20
Messages
2,088
Real Name
Destiny
The results are in on my oldest dog, Gracie.

Here is Gracie as a mini barker:

212.JPG

And seven years later, here she is as a mega barker:

20160420_093619.jpg
20150920_162614.jpg

I never saw Gracie's parents, because we got her from a woman who had recently bought Gracie and her sister from an out-of-state breeder. Her life situation suddenly changed and she decided that she couldn't care for two 8 week old puppies and a toddler by herself, so Gracie came home with us.

This is Gracie and her sister:

208.JPG

This is Gracie getting top of her class at Petco's obedience class. She smoked the competition.

20140316_153559.jpg

And this is Gracie taking full advantage of her black coat color to absorb as much solar radiation as she can:

20140513_162221.jpg

When Gracie was a puppy, she could do an amazing bat impression:

IMG_2983.JPG

Now her ears are too big to stand, but they are still quite expressive. She reminds me of Dobby, the house elf from Harry Potter, both in appearance and in her personality. She is always almost desperately eager to please and worried that she might not be working hard enough to make my life easier.

Gracie is a very good girl. She would make an amazing house elf. Which makes sense, because Gracie is a dobbie. :)

20140721_103634.jpg

According to what we were told, Gracie should be a purebred Doberman Pincher, but we got her from a random lady we found on Craigslist, not directly from a reputable breeder. The truth might be more complicated.

Let's see what Wisdom Panel thinks she is ...

**Please don't say Saint Bernard**
**Please don't say Saint Bernard**
**Please don't say Saint Bernard**

Screenshot_20210407-213126_Chrome.jpg


Well would you look at that. We have a winner!

Yep. Gracie looks like a dobbie and acts like a dobbie because Gracie IS a dobbie.

Honestly, I didn't have any doubts. Gracie is so doberman it almost hurts. I would be really shocked if the results indicated any mixed heritage. She a bit too tightly wound and more than a little neurotic, but she is an amazing dog and possesses all the attributes expected in a doberman.

Congratulations, Gracie! You are a purebred. :D

20180704_164621.jpg

Now we just need to wait a little bit longer for Luna's results ...
 

Zara

♥❀Livin´ in Lovebird Land❀☼
Super Moderator
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Avenue Concierge
Joined
1/8/18
Messages
31,366
Location
Reino de España
Love Gracie! What a beauty!

Interesting the test says ¨appears to be¨, but still, at least it was correct :)

I´m really enjoying seeing all these photos of your dogs, they´re all so lovely! :loveshower:
 

Destiny

Rollerblading along the road
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
6/6/20
Messages
2,088
Real Name
Destiny
Yeah, I thought the same thing. They probably want to leave a little wiggle room just in case. I am sure they have a lot of examples of Doberman in their data set, so they can be quite confident of this match, but for a breed that is more rare or mixed with a closely related breed, the results might be less than perfect.

I don't know how many different markers they look for to confirm the breed. More markers are more accurate, but more time and labor-intensive. To keep the testing cost-effective, they have to draw the line somewhere. And if there was an out-crossing to another breed many generations back, that would not necessarily be detectable. The dog could have the right markers in the right places, but not be 100% purebred. On the other side of the coin, if you have a true Heinz57 mutt who's parents and grand parents and great grant parents were all mixed breed going back for generations and generations, the results are going to be a complete mess. Lots of markers, but no clear pattern. I was actually surprised that was not the case for Mouse. Even so, I am highly skeptical of any breed result that is under 5% because that would suggest it has been at least 5 or 6 generations since a purebred dog of that breed could have been part of the dog's heritage. That is a pretty darn small genetic contribution, even if it is real.

Of the three dogs, I am most interested by Bear's result. Getting a three way breed split (I am ignoring Saluki and Caanan dog), is very interesting to me. It suggests that both parents were mixed with at least two breeds. Not only were neither of his parents 100% Anatolian, but they probably both had a decent amount of Great Pyrenees or Saint Bernard. Or perhaps the mom was predominantly Anatolian, mixed with Pyrenees and the dad was mostly Saint Bernard with some Pyrenees. I wasn't surprised to see that Bear was not purebred, but I really did assume he would be 50% or higher.

This has been an interesting experiment and I am glad I spent the extra money to test Bear. By comparison, Gracie's results are kind of boring. Not even a little Black Russian Terrier or other unexpected rare breeds. :D
 

tka

Rollerblading along the road
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
4/4/17
Messages
4,433
Location
London, UK
This is really interesting! Thank you for sharing these insights into your dogs with us - and, of course, all the wonderful photos.

I was in Istanbul a few summers ago and met a couple of street dogs that were almost certainly high percentage Anatolian Shepherd. They were massive and had such presence. THey're huge anyway but I got a real sense of quiet power with them; that they were quite comfortable lazing about in Taksim Square but I would not like to be the one threatening those they protect.
 
Top