If you’ve ever visited an animal shelter, chances are you’ve seen a lot of interesting mixed-breed dogs. Maybe your own furry friend is a unique blend who keeps everyone at the dog park guessing.
What if you could get an answer on your dog’s breed makeup once and for all? Now you can—with doggy DNA testing!
Dog DNA Testing Options
Wisdom Panel is one of the most popular DNA tests. The company says owner guesses about their dog’s lineage are only accurate 25% of the time.
DNA tests have been around for a while, but many pet parents have questioned their accuracy. There are several companies on the market, but Wisdom Panel
WebMD recommends the Canine Heritage Breed Test and DDC Veterinary, and Embark is another popular option in the field.
Tests vary in cost depending on the company; we paid $84.99 for our test, and we will detail the results later in this article.
When Dog DNA Tests are Necessary
Dr. Patrick Mahaney is a holistic house-call veterinarian based in Los Angeles. He’s started using DNA tests more often, but only for certain herding breeds, such as:
- Collies
- Shetland sheepdogs
- Australian shepherds
- Cattle dogs
“Those are breeds that very commonly can have a genetic defect called a multi-drug resistance gene (MDR1) defect, where they can’t process certain medications as well,” Dr. Mahaney explains.
One medication of concern is ivermectin, which is a common anti-parasitic medication but is also included in some oral heartworm preventatives like HeartGard. Some anti-cancer agents and anti-diarrheal medications can also cause problems in dogs with the MDR1 defect.
“So if you have one of these breeds who might be predisposed to problems as a result of having to take these drugs, we would like to know,” Dr. Mahaney says. “You can do the test and figure out their genetics.”
Another issue arises with mange, which Dr. Mahaney says is typically a puppy problem that goes away with maturity and spaying or neutering.
“If you have a dog of unknown breed and it’s a puppy and you’re going to start treating for mange with oral ivermectin, there could be an adverse response if the dog has one of these herding breeds in its genetics,” Dr. Mahaney explains.
Dog DNA Tests to Spur Adoption
Some shelters are even starting to do DNA testing in an effort to help get pets adopted. The SPCA for Monterey County recently tested 10 long-term residents to help give prospective pet parents a better idea who they would be taking home.
This sweet girl waited 171 days for a forever home, and finally found one with the help of DNA testing.
“Daisy” was labeled a Chihuahua mix. Such broad labels usually mean a longer wait for a forever home.
“Chihuahuas are great little dogs with good personalities—just adorable,” Monterey County SPCA Spokesperson Beth Brookhouser says. “But you walk into a shelter like ours and you see so many Chihuahuas—there are sadly too many of them.”
It turns out Daisy is a Manchester Terrier/Miniature Pinscher mix! She waited patiently in the shelter for 171 days but found her forever home after DNA testing.
“Ten days after we shared her DNA results on Facebook, she was finally adopted by a wonderful family,” Brookhouser says.
Brookhouser says DNA may have made the difference for little Daisy.
“We posted her on Facebook before—she didn’t get many likes, shares, or comments,” Brookhouser explains. “But then we posted her again with DNA results and it was a stunning difference. It was the same photo with the DNA results but this time we had thousands of people commenting and sharing her photo. We do believe it made a very big difference and we will definitely do [DNA testing] again.”
All ten DNA-tested dogs have since been adopted.
Our Test Results
We tested one of our mixes, Sundown, with the Mars Wisdom Panel
We suspected dachshund/pit bull terrier.
The DNA kit arrived in a smallish box with a prepaid return. Two swab brushes inside are used to collect DNA from the inside of the dog’s cheek. The company suggests applying pressure from the outside of the dog’s mouth while swabbing inside the cheek to get a good DNA sampling. Wrap up the swabs, ship them off and voila!—a few weeks later you are emailed a PDF of results.
Sundown’s Results: Drum roll please…It turns out Sundown is a dachshund/terrier mix, but mainly wire-haired dachshund and rat terrier.
One of Sundown’s parents is dachshund/terrier, the other is a mixed breed. Wisdom Panel
Wisdom Panel now gives the mixed-breed results as a group, rather than individual breed types. For example, Sundown’s first mixed group is “toy terrier,” which means that breed group appeared most frequently in his DNA sample, 16 times to be exact.
“It is the frequency that those breeds appear in the calculations, not a percentage make-up of the dog,” a Wisdom Panel representative says. “The genetic group is what we’re trying to convey.”
We were a little surprised at the results because Sundown does not have wiry hair and appears to resemble pit bull traits more than the test revealed.
“We always have these preconceived notions of what our pet is,” Dr. Mahaney says. “I’ve had some clients very pleased with the results and other clients want their money back.”
A Wisdom Panel customer service representative says the accuracy of the test is based entirely on the quality of the DNA sample submitted.
“If there is a good sample, it is more than 90% accurate,” she says. “If you get a poor sample, there’s a quality cut-off—it’s like missing puzzle pieces, you can’t get the whole picture.”
The representative assured us our sample was a high-quality sample, and the results are therefore accurate.
The Bottom Line
DNA testing can be useful with certain herding breeds who may carry a genetic mutation that causes adverse reactions to some medications. But mainly, it’s a fun way to learn more about your furry friend and his lineage.
This post contains an affiliate link for the recommended DNA test, which means that if you decide to purchase it through that link, we may receive a small commission.
Top image via Flickr/Aura Beckjhofer-Fialho
Thanks for sharing your experience! We are considering this, too, although for now we consider our hound mix to be a South Louisiana Swayback Otter Hound!
Used canine heritage dna test on my little brown pup that I got from a rescue without any background info except that she came from the back woods of west Va.. Everybody asks what she is…so cute, very smart and has a great nose, sweet but feisty. Guess would be dachshund, Chihuahua, Pomeranian, small terrier…The results were ridiculous. Supposedly what she shares the most dna with is a Vizsla, which is a 60lb Hungarian hunting dog, sight not smell hound. I tried to contact the company but no response. Somewhere there is a Vizsla Mix being told its a Chihuahua. So when people ask me what she is I just say “a little brown dog.” Save your money and buy your dog a treat instead.
This was a good article. I never saw a need for DNA testing but now it might help explain some of Molly’s ideosyncracies. She is part black lab and part border collie but possibly part chow too. She is black with chite chest and 4 white spotted feet, an upturned tail and black mouth. Ears go up but are half flipped over. She is a happy 12 yr old spayed female about 65 lbs and is terrified of thunder.
Thank you for the article. I have a dog who was a stray till she was turned in at the local pound. The pound said she was a Sealyham terrier mix but that just didn’t seem right and a vet disagreed. The vet, however, didn’t have any better suggestion other than yes, she’s a terrier. Reading your article, I saw the Soft-coated Wheaten terrier mentioned, the soft-coated a breed variety of the Wheaten terrier of which I was not aware. I looked the breed up and, sure enough, my Lily looks almost exactly like those dogs except for one distinct characteristic she has, big stand-up ears. Still, it feels good to have a better idea of the breed she is probably related to thanks to your article.
Canine DNA tests are so inaccurate and fraudulent, for the most part. Yes, some breeds have genetic markers very specific to them so it would be easy to find collie mixes and such. However all these companies care about is conning money out of people. A lot of these places require you to send in a photo of the dog. Why? You don’t need a picture for a DNA test. It’s because they’re making wild guesses and pulling these things out of vague hints in a photograph.
I had a client who had a Golden Retriever. Purebred from a reputable breeder. My client decided to get the dog tested for fun. He had it done by a company that doesn’t require a photo. Keep in mind that it was confirmed that there was no mixup or incident of any sort at the lab. The test came back as a Chihuahua cross with only other small breeds. No Golden Retriever at all.
Honestly, if these tests can’t even accurately identify a purebred dog, I wouldn’t trust it as far as I can spit to tell me what is in my mutt.
To anyone considering getting their dog tested, save your money until they actually come out with ACCURATE tests and aren’t, effectively, trying to steal your money for a bogus DNA test.
Don’t waste your money. Test was so far off. When I complained they asked for a picture. I would never trust this company again.
this could be useful in areas where BSL is enforced pit bull “type” dogs are banned in my town. and any short haired medium sized dog is considered 1, even my shar pei/lab.
We did DNA testing for our five dogs. Three of the five are mixed breed so we were interested in their make-up. Two of our dogs are purebred but we did the testing anyway to see how accurate the tests might be. Our Papillion came back as a Dalmation. We did NOT use Wisdom Panel. Our guess is our Papillion’s test was mixed up with someone else. Our other purebred is a Jack Russell Terrier and hers came back accurate. We were also delighted to learn the make up of our three mixed breed pups. We love sharing with friends that our little Papillion is actually a Dalmation. We get a lot of laughs over that one!
I never saw where or how to get DNA test for dog
Hi Becky—The author lists Wisdom Panel, Canine Heritage Breed Test, and DDC Veterinary as three options to consider for testing your dog’s DNA.