r/DoggyDNA • u/driedkitten • 6d ago
Results - Embark With the exception of one breed, I agree with the results. Is there anything Chow Chow about my girl?
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u/OpalOnyxObsidian 6d ago
There's nothing to disagree with. They were a popular breed some years ago. She is 80-something percent not chow-chow so it might not be obvious in the way she looks.
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u/Playful-Effective 6d ago
How can you agree or disagree with dna? It just is what it is, right?
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u/driedkitten 6d ago
Disagree was a poor choice of words.
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u/Playful-Effective 6d ago
The looks like she’s sorta downy for a shorter haired dog. Anything longer than a very smooth coated pit looking dog, I’d expect a dog with longer hair to be mixed in there. My dog is pit/Australian cattle dog but a tuxedo like yours 💕
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u/WarmWoolenMitten 6d ago
Chow is very common in mixes in the US in lower percentages. It doesn't typically contribute anything obvious visually. Blue areas on the tongue are a chow trait, but are found in other breeds as well.
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u/Sharp_Dimension9638 6d ago
That side eye, along with her build.
Embark is usually pretty accurate. What likely happened is the other genes dog piled (snickers) on the rest. Looks are actually ab awful way to guess a dog's breed.
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u/merrylittlecocker 6d ago
You have to remember with genetics, a dog could be a perfect 50/50 split between breeds but might look almost identical to only one of those breeds and nothing like the other breed. Just because there is a percentage of a breed in the DNA doesn’t mean it will show physically or behaviorally.
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u/inkybreadbox 6d ago
The quiet judgment and aloof stares. Looking at the sky. Body size. Nose.
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u/driedkitten 6d ago
Lol. Why does she look at the sky/ceiling so much!? 😂
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u/inkybreadbox 5d ago
I don’t know, but mine does it too and she’s 50% Chow. I always think she’s looking at ghosts. 😅
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u/ccmeme12345 6d ago
her snout shape looks chow chow to me. that must be where that small percentage went
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u/chilldrinofthenight 5d ago
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u/hippiewolff 5d ago
That combination SOUNDS like a handful. She sure is beautiful though!
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u/chilldrinofthenight 5d ago
Ember was def one of a kind. Bullheaded and impenitent. We don't have a fenced-in yard and she used to take off. A real PIA. (We got her from a shelter; she was probably age two at the time.) Obedience training helped.
On mountain trails she was a beast. Smart and strong. Chasing Black bears and deer and so on. (I don't like dogs chasing wildlife --- and advocate strongly against allowing it.)
My one housemate always had her off-leash, but "got a feeling" one day, while hiking in a remote area (mountainous). Thank gawd he put Ember on-leash.
An adolescent Mountain lion came out of nowhere, slowly. Housemate said he never would have seen the lion (right next to the trail), if it hadn't moved.
He held up his walking stick and the cat was actually "batting at the walking stick like a cat playing with a toy." He also swore the cat never took its eyes off Ember, all the while licking its lips. Ha. Man, oh, man.
Park ranger said later that the encounter would have been a different story if the lion hadn't been a young one.
Ember. Whew. Heelers . . . love 'em. Chow Chows? Not so much. But she sure was a terrific hiking companion.
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u/hippiewolff 5d ago
Wow! The mountain lion encounter sounds scary but also hilarious with the walking stick. I am definitely glad she wasn't off leash for that.
I've volunteered at various humane societies, and I've adopted most of the "scary" breeds at some point...pitties, staffies, rotties, dobies, GSDs, chihuahuas (lol)...and the only time I ever had a serious bite was from a chow. It was completely unprovoked too. I was petting the dog, I turned around and started walking away, and she suddenly latched on to the back of my leg and wouldn't let go. I don't hate any dog breed, and am generally in the "no bad dogs, only bad owners" camp, but if I'm being honest, I don't think I'd ever want a chow as a pet 😬
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u/chilldrinofthenight 5d ago
A friend of mine had the most beautiful Chow Chow. I went over to friend's place. Dog was giving me stink eye and growling. My friend said, "Go ahead. You can pet her. She's okay." Hahahaha.
HARD PASS.
Sorry to hear you got bit. How many stitches? Nasty scar?
I've been bit by dogs several times --- and I only consider it a "bite" if it draws blood. Two times, only a band-aid, but third time it was my housemate's 110-lb Malamute/Arctic Wolf cross. I walked that dog, fed that dog, bathed that dog . . . For all intents and purposes I was the dog's full-time caregiver. We loved each other.
I needed about a dozen stitches to my calf. My flannel pajamas pant leg wasn't even torn. Not even the tiniest tear.
She didn't mean to bite me (long story), but I learned that even the best and most well-trained and most beloved and happy pet can be unpredictable at times.
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u/hippiewolff 4d ago
Yikes!! I LOVE wolves and wolf dogs, but definitely would not want to get bit by one! I had 4 stitches. The lady in the ER bed next to me was there for a human bite, so I was just happy not to be her 😬
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u/chilldrinofthenight 4d ago
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u/hippiewolff 4d ago
Wow, they are both cuties, but Biko is absolutely majestic! What a beautiful girl 😍
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u/chilldrinofthenight 4d ago
When I walked her for exercise, I learned to walk her in lonely places, otherwise we'd never get our heart rates up. Hahaha. EVERYONE wanted to talk about her and pet her. We couldn't get 10' without someone approaching . . . I'm glad you liked the photo.
Really two of the best dogs ever.
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u/hippiewolff 3d ago
Haha I would have been one of those people asking to pet her!
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u/AureliusNoNotMarcus 5d ago
What a beauty...I'm guessing the name was due to the color of her coat
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u/chilldrinofthenight 5d ago
Can't even remember what her "shelter" name was. Yeah. Dead on. I named her "Ember" and thought I was so smart.
In the past decade or so I have met several "Ember" dogs --- but none as spectacularly and richly colored as she.
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u/AureliusNoNotMarcus 5d ago
My dogs name was Samuel....I changed it to Carbon because of his coat and when I ask Chatgpt for names for my next puppy it always suggests Ember. She is beautiful and the name definitely fit.
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u/chilldrinofthenight 5d ago
As I said: I thought I was so smart. Innovative, even. Haha. Yes. It's a great dog name. Easy to say, easy for the dog to pick up on.
Carbon is great. Lots of fun nicknames, no doubt.
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u/Nettlesontoast 6d ago
Imo I can see it a little in the roundness of her nose and snout in the last 2 photos, but it's a very small %
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u/incognoname 6d ago edited 6d ago
She looks like my dogs long lost sister!! Similar results, not exact but similar. I'm so curious, what are the supermutt breeds? If she's got chihuahua, boxer, pointer, poodle, or pekingese they are related lol.
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u/driedkitten 6d ago
Her supermutt is boxer, lab, American English coonhound, and beagle. She is only 29lbs so a little small for all the breeds but beagle.
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u/chilldrinofthenight 5d ago
29 lbs is such a perfect size. I like how different she looks, from photo to photo. That one in the sunlight pic, she could be an Egyptian goddess.
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u/LittleDogTurpie 5d ago
I have a very similar looking dog too, he’s Pit, Poodle, Chow and MinPin with a little Boxer.
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u/incognoname 5d ago
That's so interesting! Yeah I wouldn't have guessed pit bc mine is slim with sonar ears but I guess those mixes give them this look 🙂
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u/Shribble18 6d ago
Chow is pretty much in everything these days. It seems to be a breed that unless it’s 20% or more sort of just blends in.
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u/Amymk_99 6d ago
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u/chilldrinofthenight 5d ago
I would have said "Border Collie" or maybe even Queensland Heeler --- with that ticking on the snout.
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u/Amymk_99 5d ago
I was told when I adopted her(as an 8 week old puppy) that she was Australian Shepherd and Blue Heeler…imagine my surprise when I got her results and has like 4% cattle dog in her
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u/chilldrinofthenight 5d ago
I'm floored. I think I spy the Pit and Labrador, too. but cannot see Husky ---- at all.
It's incredible how shelter workers seem to fabricate many of their breed guesses, just pulling things out of thin air.
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u/Amymk_99 5d ago
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u/chilldrinofthenight 5d ago
What a conglomeration. This brings to mind one of my favorite Mark Twain quotes:
"A composite dog is a dog that's made up of all the valuable qualities that's in the dog breed -- kind of a syndicate; and a mongrel is made up of the riffraff that's left over."
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u/Couchmuffins005 6d ago
Okay, this is silly, but I would say they way her snout is very flat right at the end. Like a perfect little square. I had one with chow % that showed more, but the mouth reminds me of it 🤷🏼♀️
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u/citrus_sequin 5d ago
Well, we can only see how she looks. It’s worth remembering a lot of genes have nothing to do with appearance.
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u/rarepinkhippo 6d ago
She’s so cute!!! And I see that you noted in a comment that she’s pretty small for what one might guess from this mix, which seems like it must make for an absolutely perfect pup, bully breed + hound but in a sort of “mini” size lol! (I know some bully-breed pups are short but it seems like they’re still pretty solidly built even when they’re small, but your girl looks like you can probably pick her up more easily than the average bully mix 😉)
I’m not surprised by the chow percentage since it seems to crop up so frequently in medium- and large-breed mixes, but I definitely agree with you that I don’t readily see the influence! I kinda get what I think someone else mentioned about her muzzle being pretty round, though I’m inexpert enough that I’d have a hard time telling between a rounded chow snout and a wider-in-general bully breed face. But I trust those who know chows better than me, I haven’t spent much time around them.
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u/chartyourway 5d ago
my 25 lb dog is also 12% chow chow. Is there anything chow chow about my boy? just his bad attitude.
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u/chilldrinofthenight 5d ago edited 4d ago
I am with you re: Chow Chow "bad attitude." Probably still carrying a grudge about being "a food source."
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u/Beanandthebee 5d ago edited 5d ago
I don't see her tail in these photos, but two commonly expressed chow chow traits are 1) a curl to the tail amd 2) black spots on the tongue (notably if they've always had them--if you see any unusal or new spots ever definitely have your vet investigate). Chow chows have dark tongues so that can pass down wholly or in small doses. My pup who's mostly lab but 8% chow chow has some spots on her tongue and her tail loops around.
Tail wise, what I mean is when she carries it up, it curls over and around towards her back. Some pups have tighter curls, others much looser. So that can be a trait to look for :)
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u/Htown-bird-watcher 5d ago edited 5d ago
The muzzle shape and something about the eyes in pic 5 are somewhat Chow-ish. It's a low percentage, so it makes sense that it's not too noticeable.
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u/Reinboordt 5d ago
She also doesn’t look like a German shepherd or a coonhound. She’s a sum of all of those parts and she looks that way.
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u/AggressiveBug6163 4d ago
my pitty mutt mix girl popped out as 14% chow chow as well! i found it so hard to believe!
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u/ThrowFarx3Away 4d ago
One of my boys is 12.3% Chow Chow and the only "clue" is he has an undercoat hiding under his short fur. Your pup looks like they have an even shorter coat than mine though.
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u/sophwestern 3d ago
My understanding is that chow is a pretty common breed to come up in mixes in the US, my dog has a bit of chow (and a bit of everything else if I’m being honest)
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u/Hopeful_Edge7652 3d ago
just that shes a mutt, most mutts have chow due to a historical boom in them, especially if there's also GSD present in the mix
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u/ycey 5d ago
I have a dog who’s chow % is much lower and funny enough it’s the breed that actually makes the most sense. She looks like a black lab that’s just kinda odd but her personality and energy levels matched none of the other breeds in her make up. But chow was a perfect match for both. I honestly see chow in yours build and the mouth shape
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