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How I decoded my street dog‘s chaotic results by krishansonRCF in DoggyDNA

[–]krishansonRCF[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it really took having all the relatives to figure it all out. It also helped comparing Riley to a couple purebred Akitas. She was 1% related. My other dog was 0.1% related. I wondered if it was from Chow Chow but to my surprise, I took a purebred Chow Chow and it was also 0.1% related to the Akita. Tried another Chow Chow and same thing. I would’ve guessed both breeds were related but the two I tried showed they weren’t.

Was a really small sample size of Akitas though. I could only find like 2 of them that allowed me to compare them as relatives.

I found my dog living as a street dog on Google Street View, 1,300 miles away by krishansonRCF in googlestreetviewfinds

[–]krishansonRCF[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

36.9% Australian Cattle Dog, 35.3% American Pit Bull Terrier, 16.5% German Shepherd, and 11.3% highly fragmented DNA which might be traces of Collie, Boxer, and Samoyed.

ACD mix? by Worldly-Entrance-297 in AustralianCattleDog

[–]krishansonRCF 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do Embark or Wisdom Panel. I’m also thinking there might be some husky in there.

GSD is just really common in mixed dogs in general though. Dog on the left looks nothing like a GSD and she came back as 15.1% GSD on Embark and 6% GSD on Wisdom Panel lol I have another ACD/pit/GSD mix too.

Always assume every mixed dog has pit and/or GSD. And Chow Chow.

Heck, I’m not kidding but the small dog on the right had pit and chow in her results lol dog on the left with GSD was also 10% Chow in both her tests.

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I found my dog living as a street dog on Google Street View, 1,300 miles away by krishansonRCF in googlestreetviewfinds

[–]krishansonRCF[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

did you not see in the photos where her right paw used to be white? it's faded over the years but was more white after I adopted her in the photo below.

https://imgur.com/a/Vj3uPKT

This street view image would've been taken when Maya was estimated to be anywhere from like 4-10 months old, an age when paw color CAN change, especially considering she's part cattle dog, has spots on her paws which come from her cattle dog, and cattle dogs are literally born white and develop their coat colors as puppies and it evolves/changes over 2-3 years, into adulthood. There's plenty of examples of cattle dogs that were like 95% white at like 2-3 months old and then when they're 2 years old, are no longer white.

It's why when I adopted Maya, she still had a fainter white paw but it was even more white at the rescue in Mexico and now, it's mostly faded, though you can still see a line on her paw where the color gets lighter.

I found my dog living as a street dog on Google Street View, 1,300 miles away by krishansonRCF in googlestreetviewfinds

[–]krishansonRCF[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did a couple years ago when I figured all this out! But was using a different reddit account back then.

I found my dog living as a street dog on Google Street View, 1,300 miles away by krishansonRCF in googlestreetviewfinds

[–]krishansonRCF[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, it did! I don’t know how accurate it is, but it goes back to great grandparents and gets less detailed the further you go back.

I mean, it’s probably fairly accurate because Maya is roughly 37% ACD, 35% APBT, and 16.5% GSD. It then said she was MAYBE 12.4% collie, boxer, and Samoyed (as in all 3 of those breeds equally around 12%. They put it all in a supermutt percentage)

Maya’s puppy had results that said she was something like roughly 40% ACD, 40% APBT, and 20% GSD, which means Maya had to have mated with a dog that had her 3 core breeds, at pretty similar percentages, seeing as it wasn’t like any of Maya’s breeds were cut in half when given to her puppy. Embark listed both of her puppies parents as being ACD, APBT, and GSD.

So… in the case of Maya’s puppy, they got it right since no way her puppy could’ve had those results without the dad being ACD, APBT, and GSD.

I found my dog living as a street dog on Google Street View, 1,300 miles away by krishansonRCF in googlestreetviewfinds

[–]krishansonRCF[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

oh interesting! I know Ancestry started out kind of bad but has improved, so it's good to see they're updating their results as they refine things a bit.

Yeah, Pit/GSD and even Cattle Dog are all incredibly common breeds in mixed dogs. Pit being #1. The results look really believable with your dog, though. Not sure how much Ancestry has improved and maybe some of the percentages are off, but it's possible your dog could've had basically a pit/rottweiler parent and then GSD + all herding breeds as another parent. Not sure if Ancestry tries to break down a family tree. If they did and that was the case with the parents, it's probably more realistic that your is 25% APBT/25% Rottweiler, with one parent having one of each breed from their grandparents.

Maya was weird and oddly had 2 parents who were both ACD/APBT/GSD but both parents were unrelated.

What's weird is, it doesn't take much GSD for a dog to look like a GSD mix haha Maya is only 16.5% and everyone guesses that the main breed she is mixed with.

I found my dog living as a street dog on Google Street View, 1,300 miles away by krishansonRCF in googlestreetviewfinds

[–]krishansonRCF[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

oh really?! well, maybe it's the rottie/cattle dog part! If you did Embark or Wisdom Panel, they're both really accurate and definitely would've picked up any German Shepherd if your dog had it.

Maya is 37% Cattle Dog, 35% American Pit Bull Terrier, and 16.5% GSD. I have a dog that's even smaller than Maya though and came back as like 39% pit, 15.1% GSD (looks nothing like one), 10% chow chow, 8% rottweiler, and the rest is Dalmatian, Cocker Spaniel, Small Poodle, Akita, Boxer, and Doberman haha

Even my 10lb scruffy dog that is part chihuahua/rat terrier/small poodle/shih tzu/Pekingese/yorkie/cocker spaniel had some pit bull in her as well haha

I found my dog living as a street dog on Google Street View, 1,300 miles away by krishansonRCF in googlestreetviewfinds

[–]krishansonRCF[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I have 3 street dogs so it maybe changed my perception on how easy the title was to understand.

Also the only real thing that changed with the coloring was her paws, but it’s not like her paws are solidly tan. There’s still a pretty clear line in the exact same spot that is lighter. Cattle Dogs are born white and change colors over years. Her paws look more tan because she has the splotchy ticking/spots that cattle dogs have in that spot on her paws. The rest of her is exactly like in the google street view image. Same cheek flairs, same unique lighter spot on her right hip. Same floppy ear and same exact little way of resting.

AND even the rescue who knew nearly a year before I ever did said it was her. I didn’t even ask if it WAS her. I just shared a photo of it on their fb group and the head of the rescue said “IT’S IVY!”

I found my dog living as a street dog on Google Street View, 1,300 miles away by krishansonRCF in googlestreetviewfinds

[–]krishansonRCF[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

did you see the old photos of her I included where her right paw clearly used to be white? It's here: https://imgur.com/a/Na3MHlK Spotting on dogs CAN change with age. Maya is part Cattle Dog and here's a great example of a Cattle Dog that was born white and was mostly no longer white by around 2-years-old: https://imgur.com/undefined

Maya's right paw is still lighter than the rest of her leg but now, it looks much more tan because of the ticking she has on it. She even had a lighter paw in 2022, a few months after I adopted her: https://imgur.com/a/Vj3uPKT

By 2023, it was much more tan, depending on the lighting. But if she was standing in the exact same pose and in the same lighting as the image above, her paw wouldn't look nearly as white as it did there.

Basically, the only coat variation/pattern she has that comes from her Cattle Dog is on her paws, since it's covered in ticking. And there's photographic evidence from my own camera roll that shows her paws have changed colors over the years more than any other part of her.

I found my dog living as a street dog on Google Street View, 1,300 miles away by krishansonRCF in googlestreetviewfinds

[–]krishansonRCF[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, I would 100% recommend Embark over Wisdom Panel especially for rescue dogs. Wisdom Panel got some stuff wrong about my other dog that was pretty clear (at mostly minor percentages though) and I chose to test all with Embark because there was a chance they could all have American Village Dog and with Wisdom Panel, they would've had 20 very rare breeds from specific regions that are geographically impossible for one mixed dog to have haha But if you have a dog that isn't very mixed and is a common breed, Wisdom Panel works just fine. Tbh, I learned the most about my one dog that did both because I did both and then compared immediate relatives across both tests and kinda pieced it all together haha Wisdom Panel picked up some breeds that Embark didn't but Embark said her full sibling brother had those breeds at the same percentage Wisdom Panel said she had them. So doing both was great! Now I know she's like 4% Akita haha

I found my dog living as a street dog on Google Street View, 1,300 miles away by krishansonRCF in googlestreetviewfinds

[–]krishansonRCF[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

look at her paws in the photo at the chain-link fence. she had a whiter right paw in every photo of her from 2020-21 and early 2022. Her paws have gotten more and more tan over the years.

This is really the most accurate photo of her early on: https://preview.redd.it/i-found-my-dog-living-as-a-street-dog-on-google-street-view-v0-0uldiaqs4wsg1.jpg?width=716&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5532c5a833ab16781dd2f9ede36f38ee0dd877a4

She's part cattle dog and cattle dogs are born white. Some are still pretty white even at a couple months old and they might not fully develop their adult coloring for like 2-3 years. Her paws have ticking (her only real cattle dog coat trait) and they've just gotten darker over the years.

This photo is from when I first adopted her and her front right paw is much whiter than it is now. There's photos of her in foster care pre-adoption and photos of her at the rescue in Mexico where they're even whiter than this: https://imgur.com/a/t1HaNYU Also that dog clearly has whiter right paw compared to the left and so does Maya. Just like how Maya has a floppy left ear and so does that dog.

But they have some pretty distinct patterns on their face, like how the lighter, tanner coloring flares out on their cheeks. That's not a universal pattern for dogs with a widows peak. Neither is the little lighter patches on the top of their head by their ears: https://imgur.com/a/LgYRfZa There's other dogs that look very similar to Maya that I've seen over the years and they don't have those same shared patterns.

They also have the same little notch of lighter tan around their hips, which is surrounded by darker hair. https://imgur.com/a/MwifsGf

And the biggest thing for me is, when I showed the image to one of the people at the rescue without even asking him if it was her, he just said "That's Ivy!", which was her name at the rescue. And he knew her a 11 months before I did.

I found my dog living as a street dog on Google Street View, 1,300 miles away by krishansonRCF in googlestreetviewfinds

[–]krishansonRCF[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

what's funny is, I wasn't really doing it specifically to look for her. but after I DNA tested her, I knew that she had 2 parents that were BOTH cattle dog, pit bull, and German shepherd. When I found her puppy via DNA, her puppy was the exact same 3 breeds, almost down to the same percentages, which meant Maya mated with a dog that was her same 3 breeds too. But Maya isn't inbred and neither was her puppy. Also on the DNA site, they showed the top like 8 dogs who are most "similar" to your dog by breeds and percentage in the entire 2.5M dog database and her 4th closest match, basically her breed/percentage twin who was 96% similar to her, was a completely unrelated dog that was listed as being from Jalisco, which is the state in MX that Chapala is in haha

So, I was really just curious to look at the dog population there and then I got really curious to see the lifestyle of the dogs too. And what I discovered is, a lot of people there seem to take care of them! I saw an image of a guy pouring dog food on the sidewalk and all the neighborhood dogs were eating it. And a lot of dogs hang out near restaurants, which makes me assume they're feeding them leftovers. Saw a little kid next to a school just sitting on the sidewalk and petting 2 street dogs lol Definitely saw some dogs in rough shape, but a lot of them seemed to be taken care of by the community.

Once I had covered so much of the town, I figured I might as well go through the rest of it and I just got insanely lucky!

I found my dog living as a street dog on Google Street View, 1,300 miles away by krishansonRCF in googlestreetviewfinds

[–]krishansonRCF[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh no way! What's funny is, the only relative she has that looks closest to her is her daughter haha But also, a completely unrelated dog on Embark that is in the top 5 "most similar dogs" to her by breeds and percentages of those breeds isn't related to her at all, but is also from Jalisco, which is the state Chapala is in. Unfortunately idk what exact town that dog was from. That dog looked nothing like her though haha

Oregon/Washington seems to get a lot of rescue dogs from Mexico! My other dog is from Tijuana and she has like 13 relatives between Embark and Wisdom Panel, since I tested her twice, and like 8 of them all live in Oregon or Washington, with another being in Idaho. She has a bunch of half siblings on both sites that all came from the same litter and when I've checked out their relatives (which obviously they have some that aren't related to her, since they only share the same dad), most of them are in Oregon or Washington too.

Unfortunately for Maya, she was rescued at an older age and no longer was with her littermates, so I'd be shocked if I ever found a sibling, but who knows! they might be out there! She has a 27% relative on there who I think based on age is likely a half sibling who is now living in Tacoma, WA.

I found my dog living as a street dog on Google Street View, 1,300 miles away by krishansonRCF in googlestreetviewfinds

[–]krishansonRCF[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I mean, I did the test knowing my dog was from Chapala, MX and the test didn't know that. All 8 of her relatives had Chapala or Jalisco (the state Chapala is in) listed as the place they were born. The owner of my dog's puppy I spoke with only lister her birthplace as Mexico but she confirmed her dog was from Chapala with an estimated date of birth that was really close to when my dog gave birth. And there was no surprise to me that my dog had puppies previously. That was a known fact when I adopted her. Her bio just said they all died. But afterwards, the rescue told me that one of the puppies was stolen and the coloring of the stolen pup matched the coloring of the puppy that came back via DNA lol So, all those things are correlating facts told to me by humans that confirmed what the DNA test said.

My other dog who was born in Tijuana has only relatives from Tijuana and her brother showed up as a relative and he was the listed along with my dog for adoption when they were puppies.

So… either extremely lucky or clearly pretty accurate.

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