ID this dog!

[furtech]

A friend of mine has a wonderful dog whose origins (breed-wise) are a total mystery. He looks most like a pariah dog-- like a dingo, but that's unlikely even given the eccentric personalities in Los Angeles.

Here's what he looks like:



His interesting features are his prick ears, boomerang-shaped brush tail, buggy-eyes, small feet and is somewhat lean/high-tuck. He's also got a double-coat, though he looks like a smooth-coated dog. He has an ordinary bark (no singing or baying and little howling). [edit: also fur between his toes!]

We got a canine DNA test kit for Banjo and hopefully the mystery will be solved...but in the meantime, we've got a pool to guess beforehand. If someone nails it, we'll figure out some appropriate prize...

I'm hoping Karena and Tracy (who both have known him) will take a stab at this.
My guess is corgi-collie...Roz has Lab-shepherd (classic mix!)...Steve is Corgi-Chihuahua.

Comments

I think you're right...

[bovil.livejournal.com]

On corgi, at least. That's a very corgi head. Haven't the foggiest what else.

[beetlecat.livejournal.com]

Red Heeler crossed with GSD.

[gen.livejournal.com]

Hah! I never knew they made doggie DNA tests. That's awesome.

(My guess is Corgi something. Corgi collie sounds potentially potential)

[fatkraken.livejournal.com]

he reminds me of the village dog that the research group I once volunteered with adopted in Africa. Of course, the chances of random bred african dogs being in the US are pretty slim.

With the canine DNA kits, what results do you get if the dog has little to no pedigree animals in its past? I know a good chunk of the dog population can be placed to one breed or another, or a mix, but presumably there are a lot that are random bred all the way back. does it just tell you that your dog represents the bit of the random bred population that also gave rise to certain fixed breeds? Are they mitochondrial based or nuclear?

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Not sure what the details are, but here are the links:

This is what we bought:
http://www.k9electronics.com/product/boipet-dnatest/BioPetDogDNABreedIdentificationTestKit.aspx

We went with this brand because it supposedly ID's 58 distinct breeds vs 38 for the other brand.

The company's home:
http://biopetvetlab.com/dnahome.htm

Here's the company's FAQ:
http://biopetvetlab.com/dnafaq.htm

[fatkraken.livejournal.com]

looks like it's picking out multiple markers, since it claims to identify the proportion of different breeds present in your dog. I guess it's something like Microsats (non coding regions in the nucleus consisting of variable numbers of short code repeats). I guess in breeds with a restricted founder population the within breed variability of microsats would be pretty low, so you could characterise a breed entirely by microsat data.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

You're so cool! I keep forgetting that you're a *scientist*!! Doing cool science stuff! This is great information for me to check out. I'm very curious about these tests-- how much is real DNA-science and how much is hokum.

[karisu-sama.livejournal.com]

Ears that big and upright say "Corgi" to me, typically Cardigan Corgi (they have bigger ears, quite wide set, and nice brushy curvy tails too.).... from these pics the dwarfism does not seem to be present, though it often shows up in Corgi-spawn. Corgis also don't sing or bay and rarely howl (the only corgi I have had who howls is Morwyn, and only in response to a siren.)

Could be more than 2 breeds in the mix.

I don't see any Chihuahua in that size of dog at all.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I think he was goofing on the Chihuahua part, but weirder mixes have turned up! I wish someone would start a website with pictures posted of there dogs and the results of the DNA tests.

[karisu-sama.livejournal.com]

Oh and Corgis are double-coated. (All 3 of mine are blowing their coats right now - waaaahhh... dog fur everywhere...)

[furtech.livejournal.com]

He definitely has a Corgi-esque double coat.

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

The ears look sort of Cardigan Welsh corgi but the body looks Labradorish to me.

That test doesn't seem to list either Pembrokes or Cardigans in its breed list though. :/

I'm going to say Lab+something else, though I'm doubtful it's corgi.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

*frown* on the lack of Corgis in the breed list...

[lordgloria.livejournal.com]

Corgi is probably one of the suspects, although I'm seeing Heeler and maybe Kelpie. Kelpies have Dingo blood in them, BTW.

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

He looks a lot like the semi-feral pariah types found in the Caribbean and Mexico. The Save a Sato website has a dog on their front page that looks very similar.

There's a lot of those in this area and most of them look pretty similar.

[karisu-sama.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'd never heard of the Satos....

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

We have a lot here because they came through Save a Sato. Here's mine:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21881149@N06/2293272932/

From starving street dog to spoiled rotten shop dog. She goes to work with me every day.

[karisu-sama.livejournal.com]

What a sweet li'l cutie!! ^^

[be-prepared.livejournal.com]

My friend's dog looks a LOT like that but a bit bigger and lighter in color. The face is the same though, the shelter told him he was supposed to be part dingo... so I dunno.

[animecat.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing Corgi/Shepherd. My Corgi, Bullitt has those ears and I see that expression like on the far left on his face all the time. Plus, I think I see the fuzzy "pants" on the backs of his haunches like Corgis get.

[auryanne.livejournal.com]

Gosh, he looks so young in that lower left photo. Also like he's about to howl for food XD

My own bet is Shepherd/Golden, but that black on his tail is mysterious.

[auryanne.livejournal.com]

Oh you might also want to mention he has hair between his pads, I think that's sort of unusual but I'm not sure :)

[karisu-sama.livejournal.com]

My corgis grow hair between their pads - sometimes it needs trimming, if they don't wear it off walking on concrete sidewalks.

[fishbliss.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Is he a significant wind-breaker?

the dog

[avonly-unicorn.livejournal.com]

to me my guess Australian Shepard, cattle dog mix i have had one so i am almost sure of it