Any place where a dog and at least two people are gathered, the question will arise: "What is he?" This question is universally understood as the opening of a conversation in which speculations will be exchanged on what pure bred ingredients the dog in question has.
The "What is he?" game is deeply entrenched in our psyche. Whether by oral traditions, custom, ritual, or old wives tales, the game is based on bedrock inaccurate assumptions and myth: that almost all dogs are either purebred or a mix of purebreds, and it is highly important to assign a breed to your dog.
For example: First visit to the vet with a new dog - game on! The game begins in the reception area with you paging through one of the dog breed bibles that, Gideon like, have been placed in every vet clinic waiting room.
To research or verify which breed your new dog is, simply look in the book at the pictures of the breeds. If your dog resembles a certain picture, then that's what breed it is!
Sometimes, no picture will seem to match, so you probably have a 50/50 purebred mixture. More research is required. Go back and review the pictures, picking out the first two with a feature that resembles your dog. Now you have established which two pure breeds mixed to create your dog!
This game - the quest to identify your dog's breed by appearances - is plain old traditional fun, and luckily the game is somewhat open-ended and so can be played many times. One has to remain flexible and to listen closely as just about everyone who gazes upon your dog seems to be a confident expert in canine breed mixes. The game has a relaxed, eclectic, and democratic nature, thus your dog's breed mix identification may undergo shuffling and readjustments. New information and new perspectives may be offered at any time.
Even as you've just set down the waiting room copy of the dog breed bible, another pet owner or staff person behind the reception counter is ready and enthusiastic to provide input and discussion on this vital matter of breed assignment.
OK, so you are now prepared to spend a lot of time during your dog's first vet exam on soliciting all the important dog breed pronouncements you can from the vet…
Greedy Dog
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Cat Sitting
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Visual breed-mix identification of dogs is approached dutifully in adoption shelters as well. Zealous employees will debate amongst themselves, ponder and compare photos from the ubiquitous breed books, having been placed in shelters too. Adopters will reverently take the shelter staff's breed assignment as gospel, but then again, later they will find themselves earnestly considering other breed ingredients as suggested by a neighbor, brother-in-law, or the FedEx guy.
Dismantling the Myths and Assumptions Behind the Compulsion to Do Visual Dog Breed Identification
The best place to start may be to get the perspective of time in centuries. We need to keep in mind that dogs on their own have been — and even now largely continue with — random-breeding. DNA evidence suggests that it has been as much as 120,000 years of random breeding since our domestic dog branched off as a new subspecies from the common wolf.
Lick?
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Chasing Flying Critters
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120,000 years of random breeding vs. 200 years since artificially controlled pure breeding (as we now recognize it) began in Europe in the 1800's. No question there as to which came first, and who derived from whom.
Any of the implications that mongrels must always be a mix of defined breeds comes from an impressively inverted understanding of the origins of dog breeds.
For the most part, pure breeds have been artificially created from random-bred dog populations – and not vice-versa. Mongrels are not a hash or stew-mix of pure breeds derived from cross-breeding purebreds!
Smile
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Lick
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Give Me That Bone!
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Huh?
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If the term 'mixed-breed' is used for a mongrel with no purebred ancestors, it is technically a misnomer.
Flying Dog
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Dogs that are not purebred are not even likely to be a mix of the defined breeds.
All dogs, pure, mixed or random-bred are all of the same species.
A general physical resemblance of a random-bred or a mixed-breed dog to a purebred dog breed is by no means evidence of any genetic relatedness to that breed of dog.
It is well established and widely known that random-bred dogs are healthier and longer lived than their purebred brethren . . . the concept of hybrid vigor is strongly expressed in random-bred dogs.
Made a New Friend
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The Humane Society of the United States has estimated that nationwide the shelter dog population is 75% random-bred and 25% pure bred.
The American Kennel Club does not recognize any DNA test to determine breed. At this time some popular and available canine DNA tests are fun, interesting, toy information that cannot establish that a dog is purebred or not. Information from another currently available canine DNA test can only prove or disprove a dog's lineage/parentage.
The above and other extensive information show unequivocally that visual breed identification is notoriously inaccurate. We are left with just two or three valid proofs that a dog is indeed a purebred: 1) valid paper work or 2) direct knowledge to assert a dog is pure bred and 3) there are some situations where DNA could prove or disprove the lineage/parentage claimed for a particular dog that lacks valid paper proof.
Next month: Why the breed assignment game and its foundation in myth needs to be dismantled – not just because it causes certain folks a pet peeve – but also more importantly because it is affecting the welfare of the dogs of breeds targeted by BSL (Breed Specific Legislation).
