What Kind of Dog is This?

Lately there have been lots of discussion about the mixes in our doodles and then trying to guess what kind of puppy it is that Linda (Linda and Murphy) found themselves caring for.

I was watching a recent episode of the Dog Whisperer and they had this cute little fellow, who just happened to have his DNA tested. I thought it might be fun for you to guess what his pedigree is. There are 4 breeds in the mix, one of which is really unexpected. Take your best guess and see how close you can come. Sorry, there is no prize for being the winner, just the satisfaction of knowing you are right. If anyone can get three of the four you are a genius. The pics were taken from the TV so not the greatest quality.

I will post the answer in a couple of days. Get your thinking caps on!

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Permalink Reply by Ginny Nightingale on June 26, 2011 at 4:14pm

Not sure these DNA tests are accurate--as a person who taught genetics for years, I happen to know that dogs all have almost 100% identical DNA with the exception of the parts of their DNA that do not code for anything. Those sections are what make us unique and are the reason that DNA fingerprinting works in legal cases to pinpoint a criminal, etc. I can see no reason why these sections of DNA that are "nonsense" sections would be the same within a whole breed. It is true that you could track down the relatives of a dog that way, but there would be no reason to think that the WHOLE breed would share those nonsense sections. For example, all collies would have to share the same "nonsense" DNA (which is what differs between two dogs) in order to show the same pattern when DNA tested and therefore, be a collie!. And they would only have that same DNA if they were very closely related--and not all collies come from the same parents-- There must be something I am missing.

So, the question is: do breeds of dogs all have specific profiles that can be extracted by doing DNA tests? I am just not convinced that this isn't a hoax that people are buying in to. Any other opinions out there? Does anyone know if this is for real? Or have you all dozed off by now??

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Permalink Reply by Donna K & Quincy on June 26, 2011 at 4:59pm

I don't see any of the breeds attributed to this dog by looking at him and as for accuracy of doggy DNA I will admit to be totally ignorant. Just posted this for fun.

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Permalink Reply by Jacquie Yorke (DRC) on June 26, 2011 at 5:18pm

I think we (humans) share (and don't quote me because I'm still getting stats) something close to 98 percent of our DNA with Great Apes such as Gorillas and Orangutans .....But I think we share close to that amount of DNA with every other species of mammal on earth as well!..It's that little 2 percent that differentiates species..... We need F (Parker) to weigh in on that one...lol...So I don't know how they can possibly DNA dogs to breed classification based on those stats if they are indeed real....Certainly not without a vast library of canine DNA samples for comparison and certainly not for $150 bucks!.....lol..

Speaking of dogs....I have to go post a few and force poor Frannie to get some sleep..........: )

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Permalink Reply by Ginny Nightingale on June 26, 2011 at 5:55pm

We are even closer to chimps and bonobos--I love bonobos because the females RULE the roost! Maybe we are just less evolved than they are--but we will get there!

I think it may be 98-99% of our GENES that are the same--again, lots of our DNA is Nonsense that act as "spacers" between genes and mean nothing. The nonsense is not counted in that percentage of similarity--I THINK--not sure. We are much closer to chimps and bonobos than other species, but you are right in that we share a huge amount of our genes with fruit flies, earthworms and other mammals. But they are now realizing that it is the combination of certain genes that causes a trait. So you can have 9 genes that are exactly the same, but if only humans have the tenth gene in the set, that will make us different from the others. Each combination results in a different set of traits--and there are an infinite number of combinations--very complicated!!

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Permalink Reply by Jacquie Yorke (DRC) on June 26, 2011 at 8:57pm

The Bonobos are sex-a-holics!....LMAO......They make love not war which is probably why they are the most peaceful and evolved group of the simian species...........: )

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Permalink Reply by Linda and Murphy on June 28, 2011 at 9:32am

Ginny, as a person who does molecular work and who just sent off for DNA testing on a puppy, I am trying to find an answer to that. I think they do SNP testing (breaking down the DNA or PCR product with certain enzymes) and compare patterns.
Part of what I do is to identify specific mutations in a virus. ( the virus in the liver may be different from the virus in the lymph node) These are generally base pair deletions or insertions in a specific highly variable region. I assume with the dogs that they know what that highly variable region is