In a viral Reddit post, a dog owner revealed her pup’s shocking DNA test results, leaving internet users confused.
The post, shared in March under the username u/_l_brasi, shows a series of pictures of Smokey, a medium-sized black-and-white rescue pup; the owners always believed the dog to be a mutt. However, this didn’t turn out to be the case.
“We adopted our second pup in January. He was a stray in rough shape. Everywhere we go people love to guess what he is (weenie dog, pointer, beagle, etc). Our vet said he was probably a perfect little mutt.” says the caption.
“We got his DNA test back and apparently he’s full beagle? Our other rescue also got back 100% beagle results … Smokey is shaped completely different and obviously his coloring is very unusual for a beagle. Is there a chance his DNA test is wrong? Or did I actually somehow manage to rescue two full beagles?”
The poster, Leah Brasington, told Newsweek that Smokey is the sweetest dog, and, despite being in really rough shape when they rescued him from the streets, he has now learned how to be a dog and is the happiest little pup.
“We were shocked when we got the results. Our other rescue is also a full beagle, and they are nothing alike! Smokey is smaller and shaped differently than our other pup. He also doesn’t do the classic beagle baying,” Brasington said.
“We were so surprised that we got another sample collected and had them rerun it, just to make sure! Obviously, we got the same results back again.”
To learn more about dog genetics, Newsweek spoke to Dr. Rebecca Greenstein, a veterinary medical adviser for Rover.
“To say that genetics can be complicated is an understatement,” Greenstein said. “The same way that siblings share a large amount of genetic material but can look completely different is a large part of the explanation in a case like this.”
Greenstein added that, depending on an individual’s distant ancestry, particular traits may crop up in certain generations, especially if they are determined by recessive genes or genes that are only partly expressed.
Greenstein said: “The other thing to remember is that DNA testing is only as accurate as the overall breed-specific database that a particular company has to work with. In addition, if a crossbreeding of different breeds took place multiple generations back, it may not be detected on DNA testing, giving a ‘false positive’ purebred result.”
From left: Smokey the dog smiles at the park.
u/_l_brasi
The video quickly went viral on social media and has so far received over 1,300 upvotes and almost 100 comments on the platform.
One user, Aquaticcryptid, posted: “Unusual for sure, but after all, the most famous beagle in all the world is also black and white.”
Financial-Bobcat-612 wrote: “I like how Wisdom says he ‘appears to be 100% beagle’ as if they’re just as confused as you are.”
Marshmallow-owl32 commented: “I would never have guessed purebred beagle!”
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