Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Zion




Ever since we got Zion from the NV animal shelter, we have always wondered about her true heritage. The shelter listed her as a 4 month old Rottweiler mix. We thought the coloring looked correct for the breed, so we went with it for 7 months. Fortunately, I found your product and was ecstatic that it would be so affordable to solve her mystery. Zion's results were:
  • Level 1: Boxer
  • Level 4: Bernese Mountain Dog
  • Level 5: Greyhound
We were blown away by the results, yet they were RIGHT on! All of her habits, nuances, and body type now make sense, and her hair color explained. She even has a perfect inverted cross on her chest like the Bernese Mtn Dog should, which we thought was just a cute marking up until then. Never would we have guessed that we got an almost purebred dog from the pound! Zion is an amazing dog and constantly uses her paws to play (like a boxer), yet can be a bit timid at times. Now whether that is the Greyhound in her, or its the side effect of being a pound puppy is still a mystery, but now we are confident when people ask what breed she is due to your test. We have told everyone we know about your test kits and will be ordering more for our other pound puppy Tahoe (tan German Shepherd mix), and our Husky, Hudson. Thank you for the entertainment and we will be back for more!

Ellen - Las Vegas, NV

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Bear



Bear came to us as a foster puppy from a local rescue group. She was found abandoned at a dump so there was no history on her. All we knew about her was that she had blue eyes and was labeled a husky mix. We recently lost both of our purebred huskies to old age and illness, so we jumped at the chance to foster her. But from the moment we picked her up we started to doubt that she was part husky. Aside from the blue eyes, none of her personality traits matched our other dogs. However, her characteristics were so new to us and so uniquely charming that we eagerly adopted her within days.

As we did research we became increasingly convinced that she was predominately a Border Collie. That theory was buoyed when we received her vet records from the rescue group and she was labeled a collie mix. But when I took her out for her daily run, the consensus among random strangers was that she was a husky. In fact, they generally declared that she was a husky without even asking. On her first trip to our local vet they asked her breed for their records and I proudly declared, "Border Collie." They laughed and disagreed saying maybe she was a Malamute, but certainly not a Border Collie.

Given this daily debate, we had to do a DNA test to satisfy everyone's curiosity.

Her results are:

Level 3
  • Siberian Husky
  • Irish Setter
  • Rottweiler
Level 4
  • Pembroke Welsh Corgi
Very surprising results, but they do make sense given her herding traits and her high level of energy. Thanks for clearing up the great mystery!

Holly B.
Eagan, MN

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Zoey



Received Zoey's Ancestry Analysis and we were very surprised at the results. Attached are two pictures of Zoey at about 4 months old. We had been told that she was Norwegian Elkhound/Rat Terrier mix. You confirmed the Elkhound, but the analysis indicated a mix of four Level 3 breeds:
  • Level 3 Beagle
  • Level 3 Boston Terrier
  • Level 3 Chihuahua
  • Level 3 Norwegian Elkhound
I guess the fact that she is related to the Taco Bell Chihuahua explains the ears. Zoey is very sweet and affectionate, loves to be petted, but doesn't like to be left alone. When that happens, she will often leave a "scented package" for us, on the carpet.

Please note, the dog below was not tested:

Wish that your service had been available for our previous dog, whose 2 pictures are also attached. We got Webster when he was 9 weeks old and weighed about 5 pounds. We were told that he was a cocker/shi-tsu mix, but when he matured at 61 pounds, we knew that was not right. Webster was a beautiful animal that our vet thought might be golden retriever/afghan hound mix -- he loved to fetch balls. Unfortunately Webster had a genetic disorder that caused him to produce bladder stones; he was surgically fixed to allow him to pee like a female. But Webster died at age 7 from a liver disease.


Susan H.
Annandale, VA

Friday, April 16, 2010

Sophie


Hi Happy Dog DNA,

I just got the results for my dog Sophie and wanted to share my results/comments for your blog, I’ve also attached a picture of her.

When I bought my dog Sophie I was told she was a Maltichon – a bichon frise mixed with a maltese but she really didn’t look like a maltichon (short, straight hair, long nose) plus she sheds a fair amount and bichon/maltese mixes generally have very minimal to no shedding, so I decided to do the DNA test for my own curiosity. I received my results and she’s:
  • Level 2 Bichon Frise
  • Level 3 Pekingese
  • Level 5 Rottweiler
I find the Pekingese and Rottweiler dna hard to believe as Pekingese are also non-shedding and have very flat faces and long hair and the Rottweiler dna??? She’s 6 lbs and white lol… but I was happy to see she’s mostly Bichon Frise even though she doesn’t have the Bichon hair.

I do want to mention the service I received from Brett at Customer Service was by far one of the best experiences I have had when dealing with an online company. Thanks Brett!

Shauna,
Fisher Branch,
Manitoba, Canada


Thanks for the kind comments, Shauna. The Level 5 (low percentage) result indicating Rottweiler is likely the result of very small traces of a breed that is not in our database. The DNA analysis software will assign unidentified breeds to the next closest DNA match.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Boli



I just wanted to take a minute and tell you about Boli. My family and I were recently stationed in Guam the beginning of this year. My children wanted a puppy really bad prior to coming here, I told them if they could wait until we got settled in down here that we would get them one. Well we got settled in and went to the pound here and started looking for a dog.
We already had a name picked out and (my kids picked it out), then we came across Boli. She was in there with 4 other pups all from the same litter.

Guam has a major overflow of homeless dogs here, called "boonie dogs". It's sad so they had a lot to choose from. When we came across Boli she immediately stood out from the rest of them in her litter. She was only 8 1/2 weeks old but already sat and stayed on command and she loved my children. We didn't know what her name was or even her gender when we made the decision to get her, we then read her chart and found out she was a girl and her name at the pound was Bali, with an A! My kids had picked out the spelling so we changed the one letter to an o and brought her home a few days later. She's a wonderful dog and fits in great with out family. I would never have guess what she was in a million years, we were thinking lab of some sort. Her results came back with:
  • Level 2 Schnauzer
  • Level 3 German Shorthaired Pointer
  • Level 4 Irish Setter
  • Level 4 Saluki
After reading up on the breeds I think she gets most of her personality from the Schnauzer and looks like the Pointer. It was great to find this out. Thank you so much. If I get another dog in the future I will definitely use you guys again!

Jessica
Yigo, Guam

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Maggie May







Well, obviously Maggie May is a pug. We (my boyfriend and I) bought the DNA test kit from HappyDogDNA.com to see if she was mixed with another breed because she doesn't have a full mask and the signature black ears and she is also taller and leaner/longer than most pugs we've seen. Because of this, and some internet searches, we thought she might be part Boston Terrier (Bugg).

Her results came back (fairly quickly, we should add) as Level 1 Pug.

Interestingly enough, we did some research and found out that there are rare white pugs that, though not recognized by the AKC, are purebred. We're not jumping to any conclusions, but the similarities in mask and ear color are interesting.

Bottom photo: Maggie with her best friend, Molly (my mom's pug--note the obvious pug features)

Thanks for everything, Happy Dog DNA!

Chelsea
Brandon, FL

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Tihati



We did receive your 7 breeds and are amused.
  • Poodle, Level 3
  • Siberian Husky, Level 4
  • Pomeranian, Level 4
  • Newfoundland, Level 4
  • Labrador Retriever, Level 4
  • Chinese Shar-Pei, Level 4
  • Australian Shepherd, Level 5
She's a very active 14-yr-old; looks most like the Shepherd but 35 lbs, has the buggy eyes and reddish fur (but shorter) of the Pom. It's as soft as mink. Her personality has many of the characteristics of the Poodle and Shepherd. Her main thrill in life is to hunt/kill rats, chickens, ducks and mongooses (we only let her kill rats), and chase bouncing balls. She loves her 5x weekly 4 to 5 mile uphill/downhill walks. Only goes in the water if she's chasing a duck.
Sweet, gentle, intelligent, easy to train, and anxious to please. Loves to be around us.

Ginger,
Honolulu, HI

Monday, April 5, 2010

Marley and his fundraising birthday party



We appreciate you getting Marley’s test results back to us in time for his birthday party. Our family and friends had a lot of fun with the lottery and we raised $200.00 for our local animal shelter – The Richmond SPCA. My employer matches charitable donations two-for –one so they donated $400.00 for a grand total of $600.00 in honor of Marley (a Richmond SPCA alumni!!!).

I’ve attached a .pdf file of the lottery contest that we sent to our family and friends
[not included]. Also attached is a Word document with the DNA results, the winner of our contest and a pie chart showing all the breeds that everyone guessed (wide range of guesses!). I also attached two pictures of Marley if you’d like to post them on your website!

  • West Highland White Terrier: Level 1
  • Pomeranian: Level 4
Thanks again!

Wendy
Powhatan, VA


(click images below to zoom)