DNA testing
Posted on Oct 20, 2009
By Kristen Lainsbury
Cassidy, our Golden Retriever mix, is sweeter than candy corn, great with kids and grownups alike, and, really, she couldn't be any cuter. Aside from a torn ACL, she's never had any health issues. She's the ideal dog.
My husband and I often joke that we'd like to clone her, but frankly, we wouldn't know where to begin. When my husband adopted her, the Humane Society told him she was a hound-terrier mix and that she'd weigh about 35 pounds. Her litter was found abandoned in the woods, and, really, they had no clue.
Today, she weighs closer to 80 pounds, and her appearance suggests neither hound nor terrier is in her lineage. We can tell just by looking at her that she's at least part Golden, but as to the other parts, we have no idea.
But thanks to the
DNA Dog Breed Kit, we might be able to get to the bottom of this mystery.
All we have to do is swab inside Cassidy's cheek, rub the sample on a DNA ID card and send it off to BioPet Lab. After running her DNA through their database, the folks at the lab will send us an ancestry analysis certificate, which lists all of the breeds in Cassidy’s family tree.
While we'll never be able to replicate her - no, cloning isn't an option - we will be able to finally know what breeds were involved in making Cassidy such a wonder dog.
