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Friday, December 09 2011

     As you may recall a few weeks ago my vet asked if he could draw blood on Briar to send it off for a DNA test to determine what combination of dogs went into the soup that made Briar. 

     We had several theories. Briar came from a big sheep operation in North Texas and was reportedly the product of a Great Pyrenees male and a Komondor female.  As she grew, I kept expecting the Komondor coat (dreadlocks) to emerge.  Nope.  No dreads.  It did not appear that Briar was destined to look like a Jamaican Polar Bear.

     And thus began the questions - what IS Briar? Clearly she is a Great Pyrenees crossed with SOMETHING, but what?

     She looks like a Pyr with the face of an Irish Wolfhound, or an Otterhound, or something fuzzy.

Her behavior is textbook Great Pyrenees. She is friendly and nurturing and can climb a fence like a white ape. Her coat appears to have longer guard hairs and less fluff than a Pyr.

     So we all waited with bated breath to discover what Briar's Who's Ya Daddy test would reveal. Last night I received an email that the results are in!  They'll send me a pretty family tree in the mail later, but I was able to go online and see the results.


And they are . . .


Drum roll please . . .

 

(You aren't gonna believe this.  I didn't.)

Briar is the product of . . .

. . . . . a Great Pyrenees/Belgian Malinois cross mated with a Great Pyrenees mix!


(crickets chirping)

Do what?

(more crickets chirping)

Okay, I certainly buy the Great Pyrenees on both sides part, but the Malinois?

For those of you who don't know what a Belgian Malinois looks like, it's this . . .

 Current Police Dog

Now here's the even odder part. The test was pretty certain about the Belgian Malinois, but it couldn't tell with certainty what was mated with the Great Pyrenees/Belgian Malinois cross other than it was a Great Pyrenees Mix. They gave a list of possible candidates with a percentage of accuracy.  Here is that list:

Norwich Terrier - a 6.37% chance
Pug - a 4.98% chance (PUG!!!!)
Samoyed - a 2.24% chance 
Belgian Tervuren - a 1.74% chance (YES!  A Belgian Tervuren!)
Chesapeake Bay Retriever - a 1.32% chance

So what does this mean?  Well I'll be honest. As a crime scene investigator, my first thought was CROSS CONTAMINATION!

If these were just wild-ass breeds on some AKC chart, I'd doubt the test itself, but the fact that the test shows that Briar is a Great Pyrenees/Malinois cross and I just HAPPEN to have a Belgian Malinois living in my home makes me wonder if "somehow" Oli's DNA ended up in that vial with Briar's blood.  While Oli doesn't play with Briar, they have scuffled and so it's possible that some of Oli's DNA "could" be on Briar's arms. Perhaps the arm that we drew blood from . . . . Possibly.  I'm just throwing it out there. (as a defense attorney) 

I don't know how they run that particular test, but I do know that I've had Belgian Shepherds since 1990 and I can tell you, if Briar has any Belgian Shepherd blood in her at all, it's minute. I'm not ruling it out, particularly the Belgian Lakinois which has a more wiry curly coat, but she displays NO Belgian Shepherd (particularly Belgian Malinois) behaviors. 

So what do y'all think?

"I'm related to OLI!  I feel sick!"
 

Posted by: forensicfarmgirl AT 09:41 am   |  Permalink   |  6 Comments  |  Email
Comments:
One of our friends has a Pyr/Kom cross for an LGD, he is named Fuzzy for a good reason. NO dreadlocks and he looks a lot like Briar, just a little thicker coat up here in Wisconsin. Will your vet send in samples from Ice, Stone and Oli as tests? Also try the Border collies, see what comes back. You know they are all purebred. How can the testing company differentiate between Malinois and Terv anyway?
Posted by Peg H. on 12/09/2011 - 10:23 AM
I don't buy the Malinois either.. When she looks you full face, Briar does have an Anatolian/Akbash look to her. I really don't think those breed tests are too good.... interesting, but I have seen a lot of people get back very strange results!!! Susan
Posted by Susan on 12/09/2011 - 12:07 PM
Given the rareity of a couple of the breeds do you think they would have had them on texas ranch?? I vote for contaminated sample. She is still my favourite front screen pinup tho.
Posted by Liz (Vic Aust) on 12/09/2011 - 03:11 PM
The company sent my vet one free test and since everyone else was a purebred, and Briar was such a mystery, we tested Briar. That used up our free test. Now we would have to pay $$$$ for the test!
Posted by forensicfarmgirl on 12/09/2011 - 06:28 PM
Weird - very weird that they didn't detect Komondor if that was the dam's breed. -- ***** -- I stopped at my mailbox across the street from my front yard on the way home from shopping (groceries and library). Looked in and saw a box nestled between envelopes and advertising papers. "Aha!", I thought, "Somebody is marketing cereal and they've delivered a sample box." I was so delighted to discover I was wrong. It was the box from Failte Gate Farm :-) Ahh - the lovely scents of the varied goat milk soaps! Thank you Sheri!
Posted by Terri's Pal on 12/10/2011 - 03:54 PM
No Way!! The only people that own Mals are law enforcement types or folks that have some compelling reason to make their lives miserable for 10-15 years (raising hand on both accounts here). No one would ever make that cross - and Mals are fairly rare. Thanks you saved me some $$ - was going to get our two mutts DNA tested, not going to do it now.
Posted by Jennifer on 12/14/2011 - 10:29 AM

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