Guess My Dog's Breed vs Wisdom Panel Results

[eam]

So, I did a Wisdom Panel test for my dog and I thought it might be fun to see what people think he is and then compare guesses to what he actually is (will reveal it after I reckon enough guesses are in). I was quite surprised by the results, but also had a fair few people say they would have easily guessed, which I suspect is hindsight, but I'm happy to be proven wrong! For a bit of a height/weight gauge, he's around 60cm at the shoulder and weighs 32kg.

This is Raphael:

So, thoughts?

 

[JudyN]

Boxer x lab? He's very handsome

 

[JoanneF]

Nice idea. I am pretty rubbish at this so it's purely a guess but lab, and maybe some great dane in that head profile?

 

[arealhuman]

I'm not good at these either, but uncannily had in mind exactly what @JoanneF posted.

 

[JoanneF]

I'm not good at these either, but uncannily had in mind exactly what @JoanneF posted.

Great minds (although perhaps not correct ones) think alike!

 

[arealhuman]

It was the snout/mouth in the top that looked like a lab for me, then the profile of the head seemed a bit Great Dane!

 

[JudyN]

Great Dane did cross my mind but I ruled it out because of his height (unless crossed with something much smaller). There's something very bully in the face in the first photo, but also something athletic (second photo), and boxer ticked both those boxes. Not that I'm right though! I do love hunting for clues - it's like detective work crossed with a puzzle.

 

[Teddy560]

Lab x boxer?

 

[leashedForLife]

... he's around 60cm at the shoulder and weighs 32kg.

This is Raphael:

So, thoughts?

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Just saw this - handsome boy! :thumbsup:

Looking only at the 4 pix, his face & eye-set remind me of a Rott, but his backskull has been narrowed - also, FYI, the bronze undertone with an apparently-black coat can be seen in Rott-Xs & Newfie-Xs.
His saber tail could also be a Rottie relic.

I'm gonna say Rott, Lab, & GSD - the triangular pinnae aren't from either Rotts or Labs.
- terry

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[Mad Murphy]

First photo I thought Rottie/ lab then the side view had me thinking Dane.. But he also looks very similar to a cross in our park who is a rottie/ ridgeback mix.

 

[leashedForLife]

... he also looks very similar to a [crossbred dog who frequents] our park, ... a Rottie / Ridgeback mix.

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Does the Rott-X have ears that come to a point? -
just wondering, as neither Rotts nor Rhodies have pointed ears; both breeds have ears with rounded edges, whose bases sit at an angle to the skull, & the pinnae face forward at about a 45' angle to the cheek.

- terry

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[eam]

Just want to say some really great guesses and reasoning so far, will leave this up a wee bit longer and see what else comes up!

 

[Mad Murphy]

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Does the Rott-X have ears that come to a point? -
just wondering, as neither Rotts nor Rhodies have pointed ears; both breeds have ears with rounded edges, whose bases sit at an angle to the skull, & the pinnae face forward at about a 45' angle to the cheek.

- terry

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To be honest I cant say Ive paid much attention to his ears...It was pic nr2 the stance and general look that made me think of the dog I know. Im interested to know what the tests say though.

 

[eam]

Doesn't look like more answers are coming in, so here are his results!

Very good call on Boxer x Lab, but as you can see, it's a bit more complex than that! We had originally thought he had some Great Dane, particularly as being tall is recessive, so I could reasonably see one of his parents being a Great Dane cross. That and his facial structure, particularly in profile, is very Dane-like! I really assumed he'd have much more Labrador than anything else and the Akita seemed completely out of the blue, but it does explain his height, since I've only met one Boxer his size (not sure the height I gave is very accurate, I don't have a tape measure to hand, but he is a big lad). I also see a lot of his facial features in Golden Retrievers, I just hadn't considered it before because of the coat length. I was definitely surprised about him having a purebred Boxer parent. In hindsight, I can see photos of him and his Boxer friends and see the similarities, but I guess you tend to focus on the differences. I assumed brachycephaly was a more dominant a trait, since I've met a Boxer x Black Lab who had brachycephaly. We did think they looked very similar at the time, but took that that as confirmation of the Lab parent and that led to us assuming that Boxer wasn't likely.

Overall, it's really amazing to consider how all these breeds combined. The wild card of the Sporting/Herding mix could also explain the things that aren't really clear with the other breeds. More importantly, it gives me a very good idea of what to look out for, health-wise.

 

[JudyN]

That's really interesting - thanks! A friend has a dog whose DNA shows him to be pure saluki x greyhound going back three generations but he's fluffy all over and to me his face isn't quite the right shape for that cross. I'd love to know if the DNA results are wrong or whether the genes have combined in an odd way.

 

[Mad Murphy]

I cant help but wonder. Is there anyone who felt differently about their dog when the results of a dna test came back?

 

[Pritch Art]

I cant help but wonder. Is there anyone who felt differently about their dog when the results of a dna test came back?

I'm thinking the same thing - from my point of view I think it would just be "oh that explains why he/she is like that"... anyone else?

 

[eam]

My partner was really upset, actually! One of our nicknames for Raph is 'Daneface' (a bit of a joke about Beardface in Scrubs there) and he was saying he wouldn't feel right using it anymore. He got quite mopey about it, actually, for the first day. I felt really odd the first two days and really did look at Raph a bit differently. I found myself looking for certain behaviours, whether or not he was displaying this behaviour from this breed or that behaviour from another. I guess I understand a bit better when we get punched shortly after walking in the door, but other than that, he's definitely the same old floppy-jowled hairy kid with twice as many legs as any normal dog ought to have. For the most part, now, I really don't think about it much. We have some new nicknames that include the word 'box', but the Dogs Trust staff called him 'Raphbox', anyway, so that's not actually very new.

I definitely think the DNA results must be pretty accurate, since I didn't have to send a photo with it and Wisdom Panel have you send two swabs. I think it'd be quite a stretch for someone to come up with something that believable without any context other than his weight and gender, so I at least have pretty good confidence about the process. I think a lot of people are very surprised by the results of DNA tests, because most of us really only think of our crossbreed dogs in terms of, "What two dogs could combine to create my dog?" You don't really think, "Oh, his forehead wrinkles could be a Golden Retriever and his height could be an Akita, but then his barrel chest looks a bit like a Boxer and his black fur and tail/leg feathers are a bit like a Labrador." That answer seems a bit overcomplicated when you can simplify it. I still don't know what I'm going to tell the next person who asks what he is. I feel like 'Boxer cross' will need quite a bit of explaining, since he still doesn't look much like a Boxer!

A part of me wants to get him tested again with Embark just for a comparison, but the sensible rest of me is very strictly reminding me how much money it is for casual curiosity.

 

[JudyN]

A friend of mine who likes to think of himself as manly and macho (which he really, really isn't!) was horrified when his lurcher turned out to have poodle in it

 

[eam]

The good news there is that a lurcher is still a lurcher as long as it's part sighthound!

I definitely did feel quite in shock for a couple of days. Three years of people, including Boxer owner friends, comparing my dog to a Great Dane and it turns out he's just not! I have been trying not to overthink his breeding, though. I don't really want to fall into the trap of excusing my inability to train out some of his more negative behaviours by saying, "Oh, well, he is part Akita..." I think that's asking for trouble, really.