Doggie DNA Test

Ok, so we promised to give you more information about the doggie DNA test that dogmom is getting for us for our birthdays that are coming up. Lazy dogmom hasn't done our tests yet, but she promises we will do it and send it in this weekend. Something about us not having food just before the test and that we seem to be eating all the time.

Ok... so here's the poop scoop. The official name is the Canine Heritage Breed Test. It's done by a company called MMI Genomics.





Probably, some of the humans that you purebreeds own have already heard of this company, 'cuz they've been doing parentage testing for a long time to prove your purity, per se.

Anyways, this test is just like the one on that show that dogmom watches on the big grey box in the cabinet in the living room. You know, the one where they're always trying to figure out how somebody got dead?

Dogmom says it's really simple and even lowly humans without veterinary degrees can do it. If your human can brush your teeth without you freaking out and biting them, then they can do this test. 'Cuz it's about the same... she's going to stick a little brush in our mouth and rub it on our cheek (instead of our teeth, so I guess it's not exactly the same) for 30 seconds. Then, she scribbles on some paper and puts the brush and the paper in the tube and drops it in the mailbox. Then we wait for results... and that's the hard part.

Anyway, there are some limitations... they've got 38 breeds that are verified that they can test against. If you're not one of those, then you might get a false reading - they might pick up some breed that is way back in your ancestry and the only evidence of that breed in you is the single white hair between your toes on your left front foot or something. No, not really, but they say in the materials that it might happen that your results show some breeds that your human won't think are right. But they also say that they will be adding more breeds in the future... but that they believe the 38 verified breeds will account for the majority of mixed breed dogs.

Here's the link directly to their web site for information: http://www.metamorphixinc.com/products2a.html

And, here's a link to frequently asked questions about the test:
http://www.metamorphixinc.com/faqcanher.html

And, here's a link to a video of how easy it is to do the test yourself:
http://www.metamorphixinc.com/k9sample.mov

Anyways... the test costs $65 per dog, which dogmom says doesn't compare to what she's going to spend in a couple of weeks at the vet office to update our vaccinations and everything.

Oh, yeah, Tosca suggested that we have a contest to guess what breeds are in Opie. So, dogmom's gonna do that!

We'll post some pictures of him tomorrow from different angles and let you enter guesses.
Wuf Ya!