{"id":1046,"date":"2017-02-02T10:38:57","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T16:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medicaldistrictvet.com\/blog\/\/medicaldistrictvet\/?p=1046"},"modified":"2017-02-02T10:38:57","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T16:38:57","slug":"how-to-genetically-identify-your-best-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.medicaldistrictvet.com\/blog\/how-to-genetically-identify-your-best-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Genetically Identify Your Best Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1047\" src=\"https:\/\/www.medicaldistrictvet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/4dogs.jpg\" alt=\"genetic id dogs\" width=\"592\" height=\"422\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Welcome, all recent transplants and Chicagoans with failing memories, to the February dungeon of the Midwest Winter, when the cold and dark\u00a0seem again unparalleled and again\u00a0force us into investigation of television shows that we never otherwise would watch <em>(The Rockford Files<\/em> and <em>Room 222<\/em> seem amazing to me right now). It&#8217;s also the time of\u00a0year when the pounds of fur\u00a0and warm pet bodies we collect on the couch can help cancel out the\u00a0poorly\u00a0insulated Chicago apartment windows we swear we will re-insulate next year.<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It is with this background I\u00a0want to bring up an odd but interesting topic that everyone seemingly has an\u00a0opinion about, based on something that their aunt&#8217;s friend told them at a wedding. The topic is genetic identification of your dog&#8217;s\u00a0breed-specific ancestry. For the sake of ease, this conversation will have to be limited to dogs. My cats forgive me, so you should as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The idea behind the genetic tests\u00a0to identify\u00a0dog breeds is somewhat contingent on the\u00a0idea that science is\u00a0real (it&#8217;s been debated by some) and\u00a0specifically the work of\u00a0superstar\u00a0canine geneticist Elaine Ostrander\u00a0and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)\u00a0Dog Genome Project, which mapped out the entire dog genome about a decade ago.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.biologynews.net\/archives\/2007\/04\/06\/researchers_identify_gene_involved_in_dog_size.html\">See this simplified news briefing from that time.<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/unlockinglifescode.org\/node\/1123\"><span class=\"s1\">There are\u00a0great videos you\u00a0can also watch here.<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">For the sake of this blog, I will not entertain the idea of teaching those who care about genetic biology, but I want to address a few things as it would relate to you and your dog and the benefits of knowing which breeds\u00a0your mutt or &#8220;pure-bred&#8221; descends from.<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>\u00a0Again, this is real.\u00a0<\/strong>There are many who swear this is\u00a0not real. I think the most common statement goes something like, &#8220;I know my dog is a pure-bred Dalmatian. I did the genetic test and it came back as 50% German shepherd. Thus I have concluded that they&#8217;re faking the results\u00a0or they&#8217;re wrong.&#8221; Or more commonly, &#8220;Seriously, look at my dog. There is no\u00a0way\u00a0that she\u00a0could be a dachshund, because she is 50 pounds.&#8221; I totally get it, and I get that we are invested in a mythology about our dogs and who they are and where they came from, but\u00a0the main source of our genetic checking comes from a substantial database of identifiable dog breeds. The Mars DNA Wisdom Panel identifies more than 250 types of breeds. Lots of research has shown that veterinary and animal professionals (including breeders, veterinarians, and the person from whom you buy your dog food at the store), are correct in identifying dogs with mixed ancestry about 25% of the time. This means that we are less than guessing (non-technical). <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wisdompanel.com\/why_test_your_dog\/predicting_inherited_characteristics\/\">There are lots of questions you can read and videos you can watch here.<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>Knowing more about your dog breed can actually be helpful in your dog&#8217;s treatment and prevention.<\/strong>\u00a0If your sweet little dog is genetically more German shepherd or Welsh corgi, maybe we\u00a0are very careful about possible back pain and orthopedic issues\u00a0due to their propensity to acquire degenerative myelopathy (a genetically linked disease that erodes parts of the nervous tissue in their spine). Maybe we are much more aggressive testing your part Dalmatian when he starts to have abnormal urination, due to their propensity to develop less commonly seen types of bladder stones. And of course, we should mention due to our staff&#8217;s specific and freakish love for Boxer dogs, whenever we have a known Boxer with a small skin bump, we always test for mast cell tumors, more so than other breeds. This certainly doesn&#8217;t mean that if we know you dog is part Rottweiler we&#8217;re going to suddenly saddle you with the burden of having to have a slew of tests done;\u00a0it just becomes part of the discussion we have for the overall health of your dog.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><strong>I think it&#8217;s really helpful and, honestly, fun to know things about your dog based on their breed.<\/strong> There are certain predispositions that guide your dogs\u2019 needs and may explain their &#8220;oddities.&#8221; If you don&#8217;t know that your sweet little puppy is mostly a Border collie (despite looking like a Yorkie), you may not understand why she is trying to push your two toddlers into the corner of the room every morning. It also may explain why they nip at your heels every time you&#8217;re trying to leave for work. I&#8217;m not saying it will make it nicer, but it may eliminate\u00a0the need to &#8220;train&#8221; it out of them.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I have a crazy but loveable little mutt named Emerson that we found in Arizona after he was orphaned in a Navajo nation reservation in Flagstaff. We always assumed he was probably some kind of terrier and maybe a whippet, but after swabbing his cheek we\u00a0found out that our nutball pooch had\u00a0one Chihuahua\/miniature poodle parent and a pit bull\/unknown\u00a0mix\u00a0parent. This explained more than I could ever imagine and, truthfully, I felt a lot closer to\u00a0him after knowing this. Emerson has every stereotypically &#8220;loud&#8221; trait about Chihuahua and poodles, along with the absolute best traits of pit bulls (being loving, warm, and happy). <\/span><span class=\"s1\">It&#8217;s important to know that because the one mixed-breed grandparent was so diluted, its breed type was not identifiable. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The test has limitations. Also, the information about your dog is not shared with anyone. If you live in a condo that bans pit bulls, you don&#8217;t have to worry about anyone reporting to your landlord. All the information stays with you.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\">Are You Interested in Learning Your Dog&#8217;s Ancestry?<\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">We have started carrying the panels. You can buy them on your own, but honestly, it&#8217;s a lot harder to swab your dogs\u2019 cheeks than you think. Partly because of the Chihuahua\/mini poodle in my dog, and partly because he is the most stubborn dog in the world, it took five people distracting him and feeding him treats to get it. (I&#8217;m surprised he didn&#8217;t come back as 20% peanut butter.) We offer the panels and sampling here for you. We will collect the sample, and then allow you to log on at home, fill out the information, and send in the sample yourself. If you want us to send in the sample, we can, but we do not need to do this. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">If you&#8217;re interested, you can ask us, or go on their website at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wisdompanel.com\">www.wisdompanel.com<\/a> and read more, watch the billion or so videos they offer, or just think about it. I think it&#8217;s fun and interesting, and on this 14-degree winter morning, that&#8217;s mostly what I&#8217;m looking for.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Brett Grossman, DVM<br \/>\n<\/span><span class=\"s1\">Medical District Veterinary Clinic<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome, all recent transplants and Chicagoans with failing memories, to the February dungeon of the Midwest Winter, when the cold and dark\u00a0seem again unparalleled and again\u00a0force us into investigation of television shows that we never otherwise would watch (The Rockford Files and Room 222 seem amazing to me right now). It&#8217;s also the time of\u00a0year [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pet-tips"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Genetically Identify Your Best Friend | University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn the benefits of genetically identifying your dog&#039;s breed-specific ancestry.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.medicaldistrictvet.com\/blog\/how-to-genetically-identify-your-best-friend\/\" \/>\n<meta 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