This is a continuation of our previous article about dog DNA testing. In this section we will provide a dog DNA test review of one of our staff member’s pups. Daisy was adopted from a shelter in New Jersey. They only knew her birthdate, that she was originally from Mississippi, & labeled her as a “terrier mix”. Her family is constantly asked what kind of dog she is & they always respond with an “I don’t know” then a list of things she MIGHT be. Her family got the Wisdom Panel DNA Test for Christmas & wasted no time swabbing Daisy’s cheeks… which she did NOT enjoy & in hindsight they should have waited for help instead of chasing Daisy around my apartment trying to hold her still enough to swab the inside of her mouth… TWICE. But all well worth it to finally have an answer to “what kind of dog is that?” The DNA test was not provided by Wisdom Panel and we paid for it ourselves to ensure an unbiased summary of our experience.
About Daisy
Daisy is super smart, quick to learn and amazingly patient with her tiny human sister. She’s also incredibly fast, so her family thought that there was maybe some Greyhound in her. Most people assume that she’s a “pit bull” and that there could be some Staffy in her. Fun fact: Daisy prefers to sleep between her human’s legs than on her $140 orthopedic dog bed. With so many unique characteristics, it was clear that Daisy was the perfect candidate for dog DNA testing!
Wisdom Panel DNA Test Review
Wisdom Panel is the world’s leading canine DNA test and their standard test (Wisdom Panel 4.0) includes information that the other DNA kits charge extra for. Gathering the sample is simple, a quick swab of cheek/gum cells. Once the sample is captured, you mail it to Wisdom Panel in their postage prepaid envelope and wait a couple weeks for their lab to analyze the sample.
Breed Identification
Breed traits can be extremely difficult to differentiate, even for experts! As we discussed in our previous blog, DNA testing is really the only way to go. We wanted to quickly prove this point by doing a social media contest (Facebook / Instagram) to see what YOU could guess. The results were great. We had some good guesses of Jack Russell (the most popular guess), Pitbull, Dalmation, Labrador Retriever, American Bulldog, etc. Many of you were able to identify breed traits of one or two breeds in her family tree. In the end, our winner was @maverickmalummaximus who correctly guessed over 50% of Daisy’s diverse family tree.
On to the DNA Results!
So this is Daisy: a Pit Bull, Chow Chow, Beagle, Labrador Retriever guarding/terrier/herding dog. No one guessed Chow Chow or Beagle, though Coon Hound was pretty close to that! Certainly an interesting mix that few would have guessed. This is really the extent of what her pawrents expected to see with the dog DNA test however they went on to show the entire family tree and genetic health markers.
At the end of the day, her family now has DNA proof that Daisy is a full fledged mutt! They love her even more despite (or perhaps because of) her crazy pedigree. Truly surprising that all of this information can be gotten from just a simple swab of the cheek.
Conclusion
Daisy’s family highly recommends the Wisdom Panel dog DNA test. They selected the Wisdom Panel 4.0 test and learned quite a bit about their pup that will help them with training her and learning about her needs. For a special offer from Wisdom Panel, click here or the image below. For additional information about the benefits of Dog DNA Testing read our previous article on The ABC’s of Dog DNA Testing. The results that we received from Wisdom Panel were really quite interesting. If you’ve got the time, take a few minutes to read the full DNA test results (pdf).
Have you done a DNA test on your dog? Did you get surprising results? Share your information with us on our contact us page. We would love to create another article about your dog! This stuff is really interesting to us.
Thanks for reading and we would love to have you follow us on Instagram and/or Facebook so you can be part of any future contests like this.
