dna breed testing?

[NiceNeverNaughty]

im hearing more and more of people having tests done on their ‘breeding unknown’ dogs to determine the breeds. I wondered if anyone has heard of this being done with horses??

 

[twiggy2]

Yes and my understanding is, if you know the parentage you can use tests to confirm it but you cannot test to find out for sure unknown breeding

 

[only_me]

Can you do it if you are 99.9% sure of what the breeding is?

Only asking as We have recently acquired a rescue Shetland but he has no passport/Reg breeding to speak of, but he looks like a Shetland, acts like a Shetland and has good conformation that is also typical of a Shetland - plus he is 38" high lol.
We quite want to get him registered as it could be fun to show him, but don't know if the Dna for testing would confirm his breeding.

 

[Maesfen]

DNA parentage testing only works if the parents have been DNA tested themselves so that they're already in the database.

Only-me; have you contacted the Shetland Pony Society to see if they can help with registration of your boy?

 

[Equi]

As said, if the parents are known and DNA tested (or owners are willing to dna test them) it can be done, but you can not DNA test a horse and have the results come back as "shetland"

 

[wench]

I don't see how the dog DNA tests can work, I think it's just a con to get money out of people

 

[Leo Walker]

I don't see how the dog DNA tests can work, I think it's just a con to get money out of people

It is! There was a lady with a tiny chihuahua looking dog that had it DNA tested and was told it was half whippet. No way was it any part whippet :lol: I'm yet to see one that makes any sense at all! The just look for markers that are generally found in certain breeds. I saw a lot of UK dogs with American dog breed parentage apparently :lol:

 

[Equi]

I have a friend who got their staffy done cause it is a bit out of the standard in height. It was like lurcher/labrador and bull dog hahahaa

 

[CinnamonChristmasCookie]

The dog DNA testing is apparently hopeless, so I imagine the horse one is too if you don't already have a fair idea. Dunno if it would be accepted by breed societies, either.

 

[varkie]

Can you do it if you are 99.9% sure of what the breeding is?

Only asking as We have recently acquired a rescue Shetland but he has no passport/Reg breeding to speak of, but he looks like a Shetland, acts like a Shetland and has good conformation that is also typical of a Shetland - plus he is 38" high lol.
We quite want to get him registered as it could be fun to show him, but don't know if the Dna for testing would confirm his breeding.

To get him registered with the society, you would need to know his (registered) parents, and get DNA samples from them to compare to his to prove parentage. The society will not register him on the basis of a test that says they think he is a shetland.

I too think these breed tests are rubbish - there is no one gene for a breed, you only have genes for certain traits within a breed. So a test could only show that a dog/horse has certain breed traits, but cannot prove a breed. It's all just taking money from people, in my opinion.