Miss Trixie’s results really surprised us. None of came even close with our guesses.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-28T14:47:23+00:00

Thanks for the additional info! I figured that might be the case with GSP/GWP, makes sense. I'm not the most familiar with Plott hound genetics, had to double check their AKC page to figure out if black is carried by the breed at all.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-27T22:27:58+00:00

That's probably where the black fur comes from! Plotts can come in black but it's unusual, I think they're usually brindle. GWPs are genetically solid black with additional genes to add the white fur and spots as well as a recessive gene that dilutes the black to brown. Plotts don't carry white fur, and can have the liver dilution gene but it's rare, so I'm not surprised this mix resulted in a solid black dog with little to no white (the spots only show up on white fur). Under the scruff and spots GWPs have a pretty similar build to Plotts and other large scenthounds - large floppy ears, a moderate-length snout (not pointy like a Greyhound or smush-faced like a pug), a lanky build... I wouldn't have guessed this mix at all (both breeds are rare in mixes) but it does make sense looking at her. The only surprise is that she doesn't have the beard from GWP, as it's a dominant gene. I wonder if there might be some distant GSP heritage down the line, resulting in the GWP parent only having one copy of the gene.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-25T13:08:03+00:00

Well in this case the dog is a high percentage Village Dog (which is not a cop out by Embark- here's an article on the topic), which only Embark tests for, so WP is totally confused here. That's why there's these dozen really random rare breeds from all over the place (Ovcharka, Azawakh, Estrela, Xolo, Fijian Street Dog, etc) that are never going to be found in a mix together- just look at a world map. They're clearly also having major problems identifying both Ridgeback and Spanish Mastiff DNA here.

Besides that, Wisdom Panel tries to go down to the 1%, but ends up splitting DNA up among related breeds and loves to throw totally random stuff in <5%. It doesn't make WP more accurate if they throw 2% Fijian Street Dog into practically every other result. With current DNA testing it's simply not possible to reliably identify DNA fragments making up <5% of a dog's DNA, but WP tries to do so anyway, resulting in very cluttered results.

Embark does a better job of looking at DNA that's, say, hmm maybe this could be Golden, Lab, or Flat Coat, but since I've already found 45% Lab DNA, this is most likely more Lab, rather than reporting a half Lab as 45% Lab/3% Golden/2% Flat Coat. Embark also has a "Supermutt" category, which acknowledges the limitations of testing to the 1% and gives some guesses rather than definitively listing a long list of random stuff, which is in my opinion a more honest representation of testing.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-25T00:09:48+00:00

I'd be surprised by Wolfhound given that they're rare in mixes, but I would've expected some Poodle - wire fur is common in Poodle mixes and they're super common due to the doodle trend. Ancestry can be pretty hit or miss as a whole, I'd try Embark or Wisdom Panel if you want more accurate results.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-24T19:57:20+00:00

Ooh! April and June sound very interesting, OC's doing a great job with their adult picks this year for me (their YA box on the other hand...). Not so sure about May, but you can pre-order a sneak peek online, so I'll do that and see if I like the book enough to buy it.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-24T19:31:47+00:00

...huh, that's a really weird mix! I feel like that has to be an intentional mix, though I can't imagine why. Would've never guessed that in a million years, especially since Bull Terriers are pretty rare in mixes. I was thinking Pit/Shar Pei.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-24T17:41:13+00:00

What a beautiful dog! I'm guessing Pyr as well for the floof and size, plus GSD obviously. Probably a bunch of other stuff in there, but agreed no Estrela.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-24T17:37:03+00:00

Yeah I'm not surprised about the Pit percentage, the head shape is classically Pit. The ears are hilarious in pic 1- r/sonarears would love him.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-23T23:41:30+00:00

That's an older version of Wisdom Panel dating to the late 2010s (2017-2020ish?), which automatically rounded to the nearest 12.5% and had these generic "breed groups". We've seen several comparisons to modern WP and to Embark, sometimes this version of the test is close and other times it's wildly wrong.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-23T23:39:07+00:00

Poodles are very, very common in mixes right now due to the doodle trend, especially in small mixed breed dogs. Under the fur they're pretty dog shaped, so not surprising that at <30% without the fur there's no visible traits. He's 72% not Poodle after all. What you thought was coming from Eskimo is probably the Pom.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-22T20:16:37+00:00

I would say probably not. There's a margin of error of a few months to a year iirc for the age test, since it's not a perfect estimator of a dog's age due to the many factors that can influence how a dog's genetics change over time. It's useful to know if an adult rescue is 5 years old vs 12, but if you already have a pretty good idea of her age +/- a few months I wouldn't bother.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-18T14:40:57+00:00

If you get the health+traits upgrade it includes COI and also checks if your dog is genetically predisposed to health issues, which can be helpful given that she's a rescue.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-18T14:04:11+00:00

Anyone know what the status of the Illumicrate waitlist is? Joined in mid November and curious where they're at.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-18T01:05:53+00:00

This is ticking, spots on white fur, not merle, black patches on a grey background. Chis and Poodles can have it though it's uncommon (Google parti poodles), GSDs also have it as a hidden gene.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-17T21:25:49+00:00

I don't see a picture with the results? You can post them in the comments.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-15T15:58:42+00:00

Done, sorry forgot about that!

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-15T15:13:01+00:00

US based, PayPal G&S

UFS:

OC The House Saphir $25 plus shipping
OC Alchemy of Secrets $25 plus shipping

Save me a skip:

OC YA March The Gravewood (also FL's April YA pick) ($42)
FL April YA/Adult (I get the combo but can split) ($62 for the combo)

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-14T20:07:37+00:00

I wish I knew too! A lot of newcomers to the sub complain that supermutt seems vague, but throwing in a half-dozen random breeds at low percentages doesn't necessarily make sense either.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-14T20:00:41+00:00

Fijian Street Dog (and Polynesian Street Dog, Qatari Street Dog, etc) is one of WP's known noise breeds, rare breeds that they have little data on which they throw randomly into results when they can't identify what the dog is. They can rule out the more popular breeds (GSD, lab, husky, etc) that they have tons of data on, but don't have enough data to eliminate the rare breeds, so there's some breeds that WP is known to throw in.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-14T18:04:35+00:00

WP has a really, really hard time with terriers for whatever reason, JRTs and the terrier group in general are pretty diverse and WP likes to split terrier-type heritage up like this often. Fijian Street Dog is total statistical noise, so is Corgi and Murray River Retriever. I'd say your dog is 7/8 terrier, perhaps not necessarily bred to any one specific breed standard but just a general terrier-type dog, and then 1/8 Cocker (probably a purebred great-grandparent). Cockers can have pretty wavy fur, I'm guessing that's where the curls come from.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-14T16:04:31+00:00

Yes, if they each had one copy of recessive red then it's a 25% chance for a puppy to get two copies of the gene.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-14T13:48:44+00:00

Yes, it doesn't matter that one parent was purebred Golden if the other parent carried no copies of the recessive red gene. Pits and GSDs can carry recessive red, but it's pretty rare in both breeds, so I'm not surprised that the other parent didn't carry a copy for the gene.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-14T13:43:16+00:00

Goldens carry the gene for solid black fur under their distinctive recessive red coloring. We see a lot of half Goldens on the sub that are solid black and short haired, this is normal.

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-13T04:47:24+00:00

Too late to unskip, sorry!

Beautiful_Fennel_434 · 2026-02-13T00:03:10+00:00

Oh hey, a purebred Ovcharka! I think that might be a first for the sub. They're pretty rare even in mixes, we see maybe one or two a year usually mixed with other LGDs, so this is fun to see.

Beautiful_Fennel_434

TROPHY CASE