I swabbed their cheeks, packed up the samples and sent them off right away. Piper's results came back on Memorial Day.
I was surprised - but also not - to learn that she was one hundred percent American Eskimo. When we adopted her in April, her coat was extremely fine and wispy. Since then, however, she's really started to fluff up. I bet in a year's time, no one would guess she's anything but Eskie.
My first purebred. I never thought it would happen.
According to Embark's website, the more breeds in a dog's ancestry, the longer it takes to get results. In this case, it took almost a week longer. Darcy's results came first.
As I've always suspected, she is a mix of herding breeds and spitz breeds. These are not the percentages I was expecting, though!
Darcy is the smartest dog I've ever met, so all these smart herding breeds make sense. I thought there'd be a lot more spitz, but still, this result is completely believable.
About an hour after receiving Darcy's results, I got another email from Embark. Of all my dogs, Emma is the one I had the least guesses about regarding her ancestry. I always assumed there'd be some Sheltie, but other that, I had no idea.
I certainly wasn't expecting this.
I wasn't expecting any of this.
In small doses, I suppose the Shiba Inu, German Shepherd, Chow and Border Collie are all plausible, but Pit Bull? I just can't see it. And it's not just a looks thing. Her personality is really not any of this.
I'm tempted to have her DNA run a second time by another lab, but in the meantime, I'm calling Emma a Pit Bull. She is the fluffiest, pointiest, least pitty Pit Bull in the history of Pit Bulls, but whatever. She's my Pit Bull.
So that's the scoop. My girls are purebred, partbred and Pit Bull. Who'd have thunk?
That's how I felt when Pascale came back as mostly Great Pyr! However, her behavior and personality really matched the top breeds, so I believed it.
ReplyDeleteWhen describing Emma's personality, I always have to start with the disclaimer that she was a feral rescue. She's come a long way, but some things can't be fixed, and I think she would have been a different dog with a better start in life. That said, I think her personality and behavior are even less Pit Bull than her looks!
DeleteI would email Embark, they often let you reswab for free in cases like this. It seems awfully unlikely that a 50% APBT would have no obvious pitty features, I wonder if the swabs got mislabeled in the lab.
ReplyDeleteI thought piper was a full Eskimo 😊
ReplyDeleteOur last Eskie, when we adopted her, had had puppies and was running around in southeast Texas heat, so she had zero undercoat. We were told she was a mix.
ReplyDeleteWhen I got home from college five months later, her coat had grown back and she was not just fluffy but *massively* fluffy. Like, "looked three times her actual size" fluffy. So . . . not a mix.
I would also be tempted to get Emma retested. Not that it matters, but, yeah, I am not seeing pit, either.