“He’s so cute! What kind of dog is he?” is something that I have been hearing for years. I would always answer “He’s a jackapeekawawa.” Meaning he was part Jack Russel, part Pekingese, part Chihuahua. At least this is what we thought.
Jack came to live with us after a friend found him tied up outside of a vet’s office on a very busy boulevard. Our vet looked him over and since he had the coloring and markings of a Jack Russel, the pushed in face of a Pekingese and the teeth of a Chihuahua, those are the breeds he declared him to be. As the years passed, I always wondered how accurate the guess was. When I saw that there were now tests to check your dog’s DNA, I jumped at the chance. I chose Wisdom Panel because they had Jack Russel listed in the breeds that they were able to detect. Boy, was I surprised at the results!
Jack is now officially a Shih Tzu and Dachshund mix. According to the results, one of Jack’s parents was probably a purebred Shih Tzu and the other parent was a mix but that parent’s parent (Jack’s grandparent) was probably a purebred Dachshund.
Because the results were so shocking, I emailed the company and questioned them. The customer service was amazing. I didn’t have to wait long for a personal email explaining the results in even more detail. They even asked for a picture of Jack! Basically, it came down to the mutts in Jack’s gene pool and very diluted so either a good combination of dogs came together and sort of mimicked the Jack Russel look or the Jack Russel was further than 3 generations back.
Knowing the official combination allows us to see that Jack actually has the face of a Shih Tzu and the hunting characteristics of a Dachshund among other little things like the texture of his fur and personality.
In any case, if you are wondering what breed your dog is, I think $60 or so for a DNA test is a fun way to find out.
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Maybe DNA can help this dog figure out why this random Internet dog has this hair 🙂
Aimee Knows 