Doggy DNA

This month's National Geographic Society magazine has a wonderful article on dog DNA. Included in the published article, but apparently not in the online version is a chart of 85 breeds and the composition of their DNA. This is a nice clean version of a 2005 chart published in Science back in 2005. The Science version is available by Google search, but isn't very clear. It's too much fun to ignore so here's some highlights.

The scientists broke doggy DNA into four categories: wolf-like, hunters, herders, and mastifflike. The dog that is almost all wolf DNA is the Shiba inu. That's the smallest of Japan's six native breed of dog and it looks like a small, slightly less robust Husky. As you might expect the Husky and the Alaskan Malamute are very wolf-like. These dogs have more wolf DNA than the Husky:

 Benny the Basenji and Sushi the Shar-pei

The Belgian Sheepdog has the largest amount of herder DNA, but the Saint Bernard, Greyhound, and Collie have a lot as well. The Samoyed which looks like a Husky or Malamute is a blend of wolf and herder DNA. You might not expect it, but this dog is almost 75% herder:

No indication on exactly what a Pekinese could herd, maybe dust bunnies.

Of the 85 breeds studied the most common of the four groups of DNA was the hunter group. The Basset Hound has the most hunter DNA, but dogs as diverse as the Old English Sheepdog and the Chihuahua have lots of the hunter DNA. Interestingly, the champion herder breed, the Border Collie has almost no herding "blood"-it's almost 80% hunter. The Schnauzer both standard and miniature have a high percentage of hunter blood as well with the miniature almost 80% hunter. This group contains scent hounds, pointers, retrievers, and terriers so there are a lot of skills lumped together without much sorting. If you saw the chart you'd see that all these groups are mixed together-right next to the nosy Bassett are the Pointer, King Charles Cavalier Spaniel, West Highland White Terrier, and Giant Schnauzer.

Mastifflike breeds include the Mastiff, Bullmastiff, Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, Bernese Mountain Dog, Newfoundland, the German Shepherd, and the Rottweiler. The popular Labrador Retriever is an almost even mix of mastiff and hunter with tiny bits of wolf and herder. As noted in this spot before the Pomeranian was designed to be an all purpose farm dog. They have almost equal amounts of mastiff and hunter DNA, a good chunk of herder blood, and more wolf blood than all the breeds in the first sentence of this paragraph. That was probably what Maggie was trying to explain the last time she tried to attack a Rottweiler.

Maggie perched for action.