A couple of months ago, Kindra got a Doggy DNA test for Reno.
It confirmed that he was more than half Siberian Husky and a world-class shedder.
So, I thought: I should order tests for Martin and Monroe and see what kind of ancestry they have.
Martin is alleged to be half German Shorthair and half Heeler. He certainly looks and acts the part, with the coat and color of a Shorthair and the personality of a Heeler.
And he is secure enough in that identity to decline the DNA test, which involves swabbing a bristly little thing in the back of the dog’s cheek. He was having no part of it.
Monroe has been in the family for eight years. She is a white, short-coated 92-pounder with a gentle personality and a massive tongue.
She also has a pair of satellite antennae that could come only from having some German Shepherd in her ancestry.
With her coat and color, I thought she was probably a white Lab, but a vet suggested a few years ago that she might be mostly Pyrenees.
That would explain her size, color and gentle nature, so that’s how we’ve been identifying her: mostly Pyrenees with enough German Shepherd to produce her ears.
She’s also smart, we’ve discovered. We have shaker double doors in our bedroom and she has learned how to open them from the inside with her nose. That’s an impressive skill.
She also has demonstrated the ability to conceive and execute plans.
One night when Reno was getting on her nerves, she barked at the back door, which is her signal that she needs to go outside.
Reno is always up for a trip outside, so he bounded out as soon as Kindra opened the door.
Monroe waited until Reno had charged outside, then stepped back into the bedroom and curled up on the rug to enjoy some Reno-free rest.
Another time, Reno was chewing on a rawhide treat and obviously enjoying it.
So Monroe began licking the window sill as if she had discovered the tastiest item of all time.
After some seconds, Reno left his rawhide chew to see what she had found. At which point Monroe grabbed his chew and left Reno contemplating a tasteless window sill.
That showed border collie-like intelligence, I thought. In a battle of wits, I’m down with Monroe every time.
So, with that combination of traits, I was at least mildly curious what would show up in her DNA along with the Pyrenees and German Shepherd.
Her results arrived by email last week and showed, from the top: - 38% German Shepherd. I’d long thought such would be the case. There is no denying those ears.
- 30% Mastiff. Woah! I didn’t see that coming. But it would explain her size, strong build and throaty bark. I’ve never had a Mastiff, so I consulted our friend, Google, which says they are affectionate with their family and good with small children. That’s Monroe to a T. So, ok. I’ll buy that.
But how much Pyrenees is she? And where did she get her white fur?
- 8% German Shorthair. What? More German Shorthair than Pyrenees?
- 7% Pit Bull. - 4% Boxer - 4% White Swiss Shepherd. I hadn’t heard of these before, so I looked them up. Goodsized white dogs descended from white German Shepherds. Maybe that gave her the color and reinforced her ears.
- 3% Chinese Shar-Pei - 2% Belgian Malinois - 2% American Staffordshire Terrier. - 1% Brittany. Not a bit of Pyrenees anywhere in her ancestry.
Add up her breed percentages and it comes to 99%. I know for a fact that she is 100% dog, so I am assuming rounding the percentages up and down accounts for the missing 1%.
So good-natured Monroe is two-thirds German Shepherd and Mastiff. And not a bit of Pyrenees ancestry.
I’m ok with that, and I’m pretty sure she is, too.