I get the question alot… What breed is your dog? Well, I don't really know to tell you the truth! We fostered and adopted Ginger over a year ago from the SPCA of Texas and she was categorized in their files as a "Chocolate Lab Mix". That is just an educated guess given by the vet. While I don't care whether my dog is a purebred or a mutt made up of a million different breeds, I am beginning to wonder what her background is. People stop us all the time with their suggestions of what type of dog she is and the most popular has been Chesapeake Bay Retriever. I Googled the breed and sure enough she looks a whole lot like those dogs, but she is missing the "retrieving" chip in her. If you threw a ball or toy for her to fetch, she'd honestly expect you to go get it and bring it back.
I don't see a huge importance in knowing what breeds make up your mutt, other than potential health conditions that are specific to a particular breed. But again, it's not likely to be as much of a concern in a mixed-breed dog. If anything, testing your dog's DNA just fulfills your curiosity of what types of dogs make up your pet.
If you are interested in testing your dog's DNA, there are a ton of websites out there that provide the service. The most well-known and used testing is the Canine Heritage Breed Test. You order a DNA test, and they mail it to you within a few days. You swab your dog's cheek and send off the sample to be tested. It takes like 4-6 weeks to get the results, but they do test for over 100 breeds, so the results are usually pretty accurate. There are three levels of of analysis: primary, secondary, and in the mix. It's not likely a true mutt will show any results in the primary category unless one of its parents was a purebred though. The cost is usually around $80-$150 depending on how extensive you want the test to be (i.e. how many breeds to test for).
I'm thinking about doing the test with Ginger just so I have the knowledge, but I'm in no hurry. She's a pretty girl even if we don't know where she came from!
Here she is playing at the park!
