New Member with a New Rescue and some Hilarious DNA results!

2649 Views 11 Replies 11 Participants Last post by 3Dogfam, Sep 24, 2015

williamlevantovsky

Discussion Starter · Sep 16, 2015

Well, my name is Will, and I adopted a "Shepherd Mix" named Alpha when he was 9 weeks old. Although we knew he was Shepherd (thinking Dutch) we decided to get him a DNA test to be sure, and I'm glad I have a good sense of humor, because if not- I would be pretty mad right now.

Apparently Alpha, my 12 week old, 25 LB rescued Shepherd Mix is part Corgi and part Maltese... LOL

:yernuts:

I understand that Mars does not have Dutch Shepherd in their data-base and that could be why the results are so crazy. Unless I really do have a Shepherd Mix with NO SHEPHERD in his DNA

Slove:

What do you guys think? Has anyone had results like this?

Here is a screenshot of the results:

And here are some pics of Alpha ranging from when I adopted him (mange, malnourished, food aggressive, etc) to the sweet pup he is now.

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Sha

· #2 · Sep 16, 2015

Welcome!

And regardless of the results, he is super-dooper cute! Oh my goodness! Such a sweet face.

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BigBear

· #3 · Sep 16, 2015

Very nice looking dog.

Glad you had a sense of humor about the results.

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amaryllis

· #4 · Sep 16, 2015

He actually IS the alpha!

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Khajiit

· #5 · Sep 16, 2015

HAH! He's quite the mix! He's also extremely adorable ^_^

I wanted our previous family dog tested out of curiosity. She was a "German Shepherd", but had some curious physical traits that told me she wasn't purebred, hehe. Still loved her to bits and miss her.

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jclark343

· #6 · Sep 16, 2015

Wow, I never would have guessed any of those breeds! Lol. He is a handsome boy though!

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Tucker12

· #7 · Sep 16, 2015

I did the same test and just enjoyed the laugh as well. I tested for Malinois in my Tucker them the results came back saying that there was no Malinois at all, but that he also got a positive result for being part Mal in one of the tests. I was confused, but he came back as GSD/Lab/Boxer/S. Husky/sight hound mix. Everyone I talked to disagreed so we continue to call him Mal/GSD mix.
Yours is a Beautiful dog though! It was also funny to see the weight estimates. At 9 months older Tucker was already heavier and taller than all the maxes for the listed breeds.

you really have to have a sense of humor to take those things, but they are fun.

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StormyPeak

· #8 · Sep 17, 2015

What!?

You can't see the chow and corgi in him!? I'm shocked by that. It's sooo obvious if you look at him real close. : )
With those ears,though - I sure he has fennec fox in him as well. I'm totally flummoxed as to how the DNA testing miss it. ???

My niece has a McNab border collie and we tease her a lot about her dog's big ears. I think big ears on a dog are cute

Stormy

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williamlevantovsky

Discussion Starter · #9 · Sep 17, 2015

UPDATE:

I emailed my concern to Mars, and was pleasantly surprised at the response I got. My concern was sent to the Vet/ Scientist and his DNA was reanalyzed "using an expanded panel of 1,877 markers on one of our research algorithms (as compared to the 321 markers used in our commercial testing). "

Turns out the "This algorithm confirmed the presence of the Chow and Labrador as originally reported, though on review, they are more accurately reported at the great-grandparent level. The Keeshond and Maltese appear to be attempts to represent the Ancient ancestral group, making them likely false positives for some additional ancestry from this group. Similarly, the Corgi appears to have been a false positive for the herding family; the German Shepherd is showing to be a better match from this group"

Alpha turned out to be about 45% German Shepherd, 20% Lab, 20% bully (pit, Amstaff) and the rest was too mixed to tell.

This result makes much more sense as I do see all of these breeds.

I have to say, although I am taking the results with a grain of salt, I am pretty happy and can't wait to see how he turns out.

-Will

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Larkspur

· #10 · Sep 20, 2015

These DNA tests are bogus and a waste of money, honestly. Until they can perform actual accurate tests, I wouldn't bother in the future. I've stated many times before, I knew a Golden who was tested for fun and came back as a Chihuahua x other toy breeds mix. Lab confirmed no testing/mixup issues. They can't identify purebreds, and thus cannot properly identify mixes.

Along with their faulty algorithms, most labs require a photo. So a lot of the results come from literal human guesswork. Mars telling you that the results have changed is really them just trying to appease you. It's obvious they don't know what they're doing if they're using percentages... genes don't actually work like that. Stick with making candy and let real scientific professionals handle this stuff...

When I have money to throw in the trash, I'll be conducting an elaborate experiment with our Husky.

Regardless, Alpha is the cutest thing ever.

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akodo1

· #11 · Sep 21, 2015

All the shepherds trace back to a generic spitzen landrace. The chow especially is an ancient spitzen breed, and the keeshond while not so ancient is itself derived from some old breeds. So the test popping them up when encountering an unknown shepherd isn't surprising.

Also, the specific spitzen that is probably the source for the herding breeds is the Icelandic shepherd and the Corgi is probably it's closest well known relative, so again not a real surprise that they'd see a connection there.

of course that doesn't explain the Maltese or lab.

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3Dogfam

· #12 · Sep 24, 2015

Loving those bat wings!

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