DNA Testing for Dogs! What a brilliant idea.

About 6 months ago I took in a lovely dog from Heathlands Animal Sanctuary in Royston. I wasn’t looking to have any more dogs as I was quite happy with my two King Charles Spaniels, but when I went onto the Heathlands website and saw the plight of some of these rescued dogs brought over from an awful existence in Ireland I had to have a look – and there she was! Within two days Ciara was home with us and getting to know Molly and Meka and thankfully all are great friends.

She was quite thin and traumatised. After only 2 days she managed to scale the 5ft garden wall, and was seen by my Grandson weaving in and out of traffic on a busy main road. We now have trellis on top of the wall. She then started to dig her way under the wall, so have now had the garden paved! She was quite a scavenger and opened Christmas presents which were high up on a sideboard – eating a whole box of Tesco Finest Dark Belgium chocolates – quick visit to the vets. Several weeks later she climbed into a cupboard in the conservatory and managed to open a tin of rat poison – another visit to the vets! She was quite destructive when I left her in the house and never knew what to expect on my return. She chases anything that moves, but that is improving slowly having been given some good advice from the dog training class that we now attend.

When my sister told me she was thinking of having her recently rescued dog tested, I couldn’t wait to have mine done and beat her to it! Although both our dogs were rescued 6 months apart and both from different rescue centres, they had both come over from Ireland. They looked so alike (although mine was only 16 months old and my sisters 4 years old) we had convinced ourselves that they were related as my sister’s dog had had puppies at some stage in her life!

But when the results arrived how wrong we were – there was no DNA resemblance at all! My dog Ciara (who we thought was a Beagle cross,) is Border Collie x American Staffordshire Terrier x Dachshund and Millie is Labrador Retriever x Beagle x English Springer Spaniel x Lhapa Apso x Yorkie!

Ciara is one of the nicest dogs I have ever had (and I have had quite a few)!

Sue Charlton

The What Breed is My Dog? DNA test, effective from 3rd May 2010 can now identify whether or not or your cross breed dog has American Staffordshire Terrier in him or her. The breed has been added to our database and means that the test can now identify 63 of the most common breeds in the UK.

Tyson acquired us back in March 2006 after being taken out of the dog pound here in Cork by a family member whom was ultimately unable to look after him due to circumstance. From day one of him owning us I have been stopped in the street by people asking me what breed he is, I’ve even had people stop their cars as they drive past to ask, we always had a sneaking suspicion that he was a Boxer cross Lab (with maybe a touch of Alsatian) so I replied with pride “he’s a Boxadorisation”, but it had also been mentioned he had the look of a Rhodesian Ridgeback and Staffordshire Bull Terrier.

After seeing the advert online for “What Breed is my Dog” and due to the very reasonable price I thought what the heck, contacted the staff to see if they would be OK to perform their service with me as I am based in Cork in Ireland, they said they would at no extra charge. My contact with the company has been extremely pleasant ever since, they send regular update emails to let me know how the process was going, and I was delighted to get back the results of Tyson being a level 1 Boxer with level 3 Labrador Retriever so a Boxador he is.

Bully AKA Bulldozer as at 2 months old he dug under the fence within the space of an hour to the neighbours ;o) Bully appeared to us on the 17^th September 2009 – we had rescued his mother, Roxy, on the 18^th August 2009 from the dog pound here in Cork. We had her checked by the vets that weekend and apart from her being 10lbs underweight we thought all was well – until Thursday 17^th Sept when she delivered 6 pups, one of whom was Bully, luckily all pups and mom survived and are creating havoc to this day, we kept “Bully” and “Penny” ourselves (along with Roxy) and found suitable homes for the other four.

Now of course since they arrived the speculation as to the father raged, initially we where thinking Newfoundland due to the size and colourings (Black and White) then while Bully continued to grow in every way, the rest of the gang didn’t seem to be getting as wide, so the thought turned to “Flat Coated Retriever”. As this breed is apparently prone to cancer and can only live to the age of 10 I had concerns for my two new babies. On seeing the advert online for What Breed is my Dog I thought now’s my chance to find out, not only out of interest as to the father, and answer the question to people who meet us in the street, but also from a health point of view, if I knew what breed they were made up of, it meant I could keep a watchful eye for those issues which increase due to genetic composition.  

As it runs out Bully is level 2 German Shepherd, level 3 English Springer Spaniel and level 5 Pekingese – the German Shepherd we knew because of Roxy, the English Springer Spaniel fills the gap of the colourings and the Pekingese explains why he thinks he is a lap dog – at 4.5 stone at 7.25 months, he is some lap dog!

Paul Buchanan

We got Ben at 8 weeks old from a rescue centre, he is the most gorgeous grey (blue) colour. His siblings were black with white markings and there was one white girl. Because of Ben’s colour the rescue centre staff said Weimeraner cross Labrador but because of his short nose and excessive skin possibly Boxer too.

Wow we thought! He had webbed feet so we thought Labrador was right, but we were constantly asked “what is he”. His unique colour was what made people stop us. The more we looked at Weimeraners and read about them it just did not seem right. So we found What Breed is My Dog? sent off his DNA sample and waited.

The results were great and made a lot of sense regarding his character. Labrador, Bulldog, Mastiff and less than 10% Bull Terrier. Great service and value and we would definitely recommend you.

Tina Stone

Feast is nearly 3 and we adopted him from a Dog’s Trust Home when he was just a year old. He was born at the Dog’s Trust Home so we knew a bit about his background. We were told his mother was a Border Collie and his father was perhaps a Jack Russell. Feast is Collie sized with what I thought was a Jack Russell shaped head and colouring.

Feast’s breed results were;
Level 2: Border Collie
Level 4: Keeshond
Level 5: Yorkshire Terrier
Level 5: American Eskimo Dog

Feast has large erect ears and a curly erect tail and after reading his results these could have come from either the Eskimo Dog or the Keeshond. It was very interesting to find this out as we would never have worked it out ourselves.

The analysis was meant to be a Christmas present for my partner from Feast and I but, when the results arrived we could not wait to open them!

I would have no hesitation in recommending your product, it is reasonably priced and the service is first class.

Audrey McPherson

Annette Connolly-Read owner of Dazzledore Labradoodles shares with us why she wanted to use the What Breed is My Dog? test on one of her dogs Dora;

I knew Dora was a straight Labrador/Poodle cross however I was curious to see if there was anything else further back in her ancestry. I came across What Breed is My Dog? after an internet search and the service was first class.

The results came back within the specified time and to my delight found not only the Poodle and Labrador in her makeup, but traces from way back in her ancestry of Newfoundland and Great Pyrenees Mountain Dog, both I believe relatives of the Labrador.

It was brilliant to know that Dora was predominantly a split between Labrador and Poodle so, from a breeding point of view I was over the moon and to receive a certificate was brilliant.

I would recommend this test to anyone wanting to know what their dog’s ancestry is.

Curiousity finally got the better of me after having my dog Ash for 9 months. If she were to have grown slightly larger, I might have just settled for Border Collie with a ” little bit of something else” thrown in for good measure. However, at almost a year old, she is smaller than the average Border Collie.

I read about a dog DNA testing service in a magazine and What Breed is My Dog? looked promising. I received a swab kit and easy to follow instructions in the post about 2 weeks ago.

I was contacted by the company on various occassions to let me know what stage the test was at. I received an email asking whether I would like the results by email as well as post, as the postal strikes could delay them. Of course, I obliged and these are the results;

Level 2: Border Collie

Level 3: Australian Shepherd Dog

Level 3: Labrador Retriever

The funny thing is, we get a lot of people saying that they think the dogs (Ash and her sister) have got Australian Shepherd in them due to their markings. I have always dismissed that because I know that Border Collies are quite prone to the blue merle gene. However, it seems that she may have inherited the gene from the Aussie Shepherd part of her DNA, rather than the Border Collie!

And, the part Labrador Retriever is great news, because it brings a sense of stability to the mix and also might help explain why she is such a keen swimmer and retriever (most of the time)!

Of course, this service comes at a price. I paid £59.99 but I reckon it’s money well spent and of course now I understand her needs better. I just wanted to give a big thumbs up to What Breed is My Dog? and I would not hesitate to recommend their service.

Paul Wallwin

I just had to write and thank you for solving the mystery of my rescue dogs’ heritage, which had been driving me mad!

I rescued Bo from Battersea Old Windsor, last year when I volunteered there. They were bought in with their spaniel mother when they were 4 days old, one had a tail and the other four didn’t which was a mystery at the time. An eagle eyed friend suggested that mum could be a Brittany spaniel as the litter can be born with or without tails.

I bought Bo home at six weeks old when he was just 2.4 kg’s – thinking that I had a possible Brittany/toy dog cross – but he grew and grew and his legs were very tall and gangly, he wasn’t your normal spaniel and people were constantly stopping me and asking what breed he was.

Finding myself answering Brittany because it was easy, I began to want to know the answer more and more. I saw your advert for “What Breed is My Dog” in a Dog magazine and got straight on to it.

Your prompt service and helpful customer relations team is very impressive. Simple instructions were sent and painless samples were taken and returned – and then the anticipation for 2 and a half weeks.

I thought that the result would be Brittany with maybe some Border collie and Jack Russell thrown in to the equation – I was so wrong………… Brittany x Weimaraner was the result – I think I’m still in shock over that one! I would never have known that ever, but then reading the behavioral traits of a weimaraner that you sent to me – it does explain a lot!

Thank you so much once again and if anyone reading this is in two minds whether to test their dog, I’d say go for it and you may be very suprised!

Jane Lockley