Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Canine Heritage Breed Test

Walk into any animal shelter and you may find various breeds of dogs, including possible purebreds, but you will also find several "hound" mixes, "lab" mixes, "retriever" mixes and "shepherd" mixes. This labeling, while based on the best guess of shelter staff, leaves it up to the imagination to determine whether your new-found furry friend will have the fun-loving spirit of a Golden Retriever, the brilliance of a German Shepherd, or the aloofness of a Chow.

Enter the Canine Heritage Breed Test. This brand new dog-breed DNA test, will allow you to send away a swab of your dog's mouth to a lab in California for analysis and determination of your dog's exact breed(s). Sound interesting? Check out NBC's "Today" show next month when Meredith Vieira has her dog Jasper tested.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can find out what's in your dog, and help homeless dogs in the DC area at the same time! The Prince George's SPCA is selling the Canine Heritage Breed Test. The price is the same as on MMI's site ($71.95), but the organization receives a donation from MMI for each kit sold. The test kits can be ordered through the PGSPCA's website:
https://www.pgspca.org/store/details.php?prod_id=7

MPdesign said...

I had my puppy tested for over $60.
THE RESULTS!!!!

No primary breed info....
No secondary breed info...
One "in the mix" breed... Yorkshire terrier

Most would say my dog is a Lab-shepherd....
She is over 30 pounds at 6 months of age...

This is a crock...
Don't waste your money

Anonymous said...

Anette Sais:

I agree, this test is a waste of money. My 50 lbs Black Lab/German Sheperd mix came up as follows:

Primary Breed: None
Secondary Breed: German Shorthaired Pointer
In the Mix: Italian Greyhoun

My call to the lab did not bring any enlightment as to why anyone would want to use this test.

Anonymous said...

This test is a swing and a miss. The test run on my dog shows no primary breed, Boxer and Mastiff as secondary breeds (which they define as making up the majority of the DNA0, and no in the mix breeds. My dog is just under 40 pounds. Never seen a Boxer or Mastiff that small. They did include a special discounted price coupon for further testing.

Unknown said...

So,I went for the $120 test, that tested over 100 breeds (93% of american breeds). Finally got my results..."UNTESTED BREED". No way is he one of the 7% that is not part of their sampling. His mix is pretty obvious. This is not right. They are refunding 75% of my money. I am not happy, because I really wanted to know. I'm recommending people not waste their money.

Anonymous said...

You should be careful what you pay for when it comes to DNA testing. You can go with the cheapest option like you mentioned, but, you will probably get an inferior product. Why waste your money on something that will probably tell you incorrect results? My suggestion is to make sure you buy a DNA test that detects the most breeds available (the more breeds the more reliable your test results), the strongest science and the most accurate. If you truly want to know what your dog is, these are the most important things to look for. Check out Wisdom Panel MX (www.wisdompanel.com). Only test publishing accuracy, highest quality DNA analyis, detects the most breeds on the market 157 different breeds, and it is backed by peer-reviewed science from the internationally respected Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition.When you compare each test's particulars, you will find that Wisdom Panel MX comes out on top each time.

Anonymous said...

I used Canine Heritage last year (around $60), to determine why my dog looked like a wolf or coyote.
Their test returned very accurate results. No primary breed because he's not a pure-bred (read the meaning of the results!). Mostly Siberian Husky, followed by German Shepherd, Border Collie and Doberman.

I'm not sure why other people aren't having success.

Anonymous said...

I sent my sample in more than 7 weeks ago and they keep saying that it's "in process"...it's supposed to take four weeks. Regardless of the results, I would never recommend this Canine Heritage Breed Test to anyone.

Anonymous said...

I just received the results for my dog after 9 weeks. I would tell anyone to save their money. This is a cheap gimmick test. Unless you know one of the parents was definitely a pure bred, the typical results seem to be at the Third breed info level.
My dog;s results were:
No primary breed info
No secondary breed info
"in the mix" English coonhound, doberman pinscher and german shepherd.

If you saw him, you would laugh. I don't believe this process is advanced enough to determine much of anything unless you have a pure bread dog. Even then I hear the results are questionable.

Save your money

Anonymous said...

I got my dog done...

No primary matches.
No secondary matches.
"In the mix" are Bulldog, Mastiff and Labrador.

My dog is a small 40-pound thing that looks like a beagle and pitbull mix.

I'm not sure what's going on...