This very interesting post about mixed breed ancestry is sponsored by Wisdom Panel® Canine DNA Test but both Hadley and I assure you our opinions are our own.
When I got married to my husband, I had a mean little dog named Brady that’d had me all to himself for a very long time. He was NOT happy to share me with my new man. In fact, he peed on him in bed one night.
Later, when our first son was around 2, we decided that we needed another pet – one that was more approachable – one that he could, say, touch. And that’s when we found Hadley at a rescue center. We took one look at her face and just knew she was the one for us.
I’ve had dogs my whole life (major dog lover here) so I knew we had to be cautious. We took the whole family, including Brady to meet her. She was perfect. She ran to us like she knew we were the family she was always meant to be with. She rolled right over onto her stomach, submitting to all of us AND to Brady, who was half her size. And a new family member was brought into our home that day.
Photo by Kim at Nostalgia Studio
She’s the cutest thing ever. People stop me on the street as I’m walking constantly asking me what kind of dog she is – and I never had an answer. I mean I could guess and I could tell them what her vet and the rescue center told us but I didn’t really know. After all, we knew nothing about where she came from originally – had never seen her mother or father.
The rescue center had said Skye Terrior (because of her ears) but nothing else about her looked like a Skye Terrior. Her vet said terrior mix, and when I pointed out the black spots on her tongue and asked him if she could have Chow in her, he said something to the effect of There’s probably very little Chow in her. It’s a recessive gene and can show up in animals with just the tiniest bit of Chow in them. Which quite frankly, made NO sense to me. But I’m not a scientist. I’m just kind of a nerd.
My guess has always been Wheaten Terrior (which is what she looks most like to me) with a serving of Chow Chow on the side.
The kids have always wanted to know what kind of dog she really is. We started a question jar last summer where the kids could put any questions they had and each day, we’d pull one out and figure out the answer. One of the first questions put in was, What kind of dog is Hadley? (Incidentally, we never actually pulled out a single question because even with the best of intentions to learn things, we mostly spent the summer at the pool).
When I got the chance to work with Wisdom Panel and actually do DNA testing to find out about her ancestry, I jumped at the chance. It was so simple, really. All I had to do was swab her cheek (no blood is involved) and mail the swabs to their laboratory then wait a couple of weeks. Then BOOM, I got an email with scads of interesting information.
It is AMAZING what Wisdom Panel can tell you from that swab. As soon as the email came in, the kids and I gathered around the computer and studied every page. This was the first page of our report.
Not remotely surprising to learn that she is 50% a sludgey mix of terrier and herding dog (you should see her herd my boys when they get rambunctious) but very surprising that the majority of her “pure” make-up is Chow Chow after all. Most surprising of all is that she’s 12.5% German Shepherd. You would never know that by looking at her but now that I think about it, you can definitely see some German Shepherd personality traits in her. It’s also helpful just because I know that German Shepherds can have hip, knee and spine issues (my childhood pets were German Shepherds) so I can be sure to have her checked out when she visits the vet, or if she starts to show any signs of issues.
We also learned that many of the breeds in her ancestry (the Wisdom Panel test goes back to the great-grandparent level) are very protective dogs and can have some issues with people outside of their family and/or other dogs. And it’s true that Hadley is suspicious in particular of men she doesn’t know and she is definitely not very social with other dogs. Knowing why this might be has helped me think through some possible solutions. I would love for her to get along with other dogs better so understanding where this behavior is coming from makes me realize that perhaps she needs some training or maybe she just needs to go to the doggy daycare once a week and play with other dogs under supervision to help. The point is, before I understood WHY she didn’t like other dogs, I never really thought about solutions to that problem.
We’re 100% happy to have worked with Wisdom Panel and can truly recommend their services to you if you’ve ever wanted more information about your mixed breed dog. You’ll be surprised at how much information you get. We’re STILL studying ours. Well, not exactly studying it, but we still go back and look through the pages of info they sent us just because it’s so fun – and we’re a little obsessed with our girl, and keeping her healthy and happy. Get all the info you need about testing your dog here.
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Wisdom Panel®.
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