Had DNA test done, but curious

[jessm78]

I adopted my dog Abby last March when she was about 5 mos. old. The rescue group thought she was a beagle/treeing walker coonhound mix but weren't sure (the people at the shelter from which they rescued her at 8 wks old just said she was "beagle"). A few friends thought she was a foxhound or that she had foxhound in her.

Not sure how accurate they are, but I had one of those DNA tests done (cheek swab), and they found that one of her parents was a purebred treeing walker coonhound. The other was apparently half beagle, half greyhound (which I found interesting... she really doesn't seem to have many greyhound traits, except maybe the long body). She's got the treeing walker instinct... has a high prey drive and is always treeing squirrels (she nearly made it up our apple tree once actually).

What do you guys think? I def. see the coonhound in her, though she's a little smaller than a typical female walker, about 17 inches tall instead of the 20-25 for a walker. I'm guessing that's due to the beagle? Also her ears might not be as long as a typical walker, but I'm not really sure of that..maybe also due to beagle? I'm just really curious and would love to have some other opinions. Here are some pics of her.

http://i.imgur.com/PACzN.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/C1Rmy.jpg
(just posting links to these 2 since they're pretty big)

[Julee]

I see Coonhound.

[AdrianneIsabel]

I would buy the analysis.

[jessm78]

Thanks for your input guys. I've heard various things about these tests, some have said they weren't accurate at all and others said they were very accurate. Was curious and wondering what others thought.

[Pops2]

Down south she'd be called a deer or fox beagle. Up north she's a hare beagle used for running snowshoe hares. The origin of the lines vary. some are literally pure beagle bred up, others are beagle crossed to running hounds & sometimes tree hounds and then line bred.
Until 1946 or 1947, both treeing & running walkers were lines within the English fox & coon hound breed (blue tick & red tick too). At that time the running walker was separated & added to the American foxhound breed and the blue tick & treeing walker became separate breeds of coonhound and the red tick retained the name of English coonhound.
Both competition runners & wolfers add greyhound from time to time to put more speed in their dogs.
Although anything is possible, it is most likely your dog is from a beagleX bred to another beagleX (probably even related) and both have some kind of running walker based comp or wolfing foxhound in the line.
The dog is too heavy built to be 1/4 grey, especially considering the other breeds that are supposed to be in her. Don't worry about the ears, as field bred hounds rarely have the extra long bloodhound style ears people associate with hounds.

[pendragoncorgis]

Personally I think the DNA test is a waste of money. There is a website somewhere that shows a bunch of different dogs that were DNA tested. Some of them were purebreds that tested as being mixed and at least one mixed breed was a mixture of SEVERAL different breeds. Some of the mixes were pretty ridiculous. I'm still looking for it but when I find it I'll link it here.

[pendragoncorgis]

Well I found it and I misinterpreted what the chart was supposed to show but this guy has posted a good argument against them: http://retrieverman.net/2012/07/17/t...crap/#comments

[RosanaHart]

It would be really cool if those tests were accurate andy maybe they will be in the future. For now, to my mind, the results are just something to consider. That said, if I had your dog and had had the tests done, I *would* go with the treeing walker coonhound idea but not the greyhound.

[jessm78]

Originally Posted by Pops2

Down south she'd be called a deer or fox beagle. Up north she's a hare beagle used for running snowshoe hares. The origin of the lines vary. some are literally pure beagle bred up, others are beagle crossed to running hounds & sometimes tree hounds and then line bred.
Until 1946 or 1947, both treeing & running walkers were lines within the English fox & coon hound breed (blue tick & red tick too). At that time the running walker was separated & added to the American foxhound breed and the blue tick & treeing walker became separate breeds of coonhound and the red tick retained the name of English coonhound.
Both competition runners & wolfers add greyhound from time to time to put more speed in their dogs.
Although anything is possible, it is most likely your dog is from a beagleX bred to another beagleX (probably even related) and both have some kind of running walker based comp or wolfing foxhound in the line.
The dog is too heavy built to be 1/4 grey, especially considering the other breeds that are supposed to be in her. Don't worry about the ears, as field bred hounds rarely have the extra long bloodhound style ears people associate with hounds.

Thanks for the input, Pops2, very interesting. Also, funny you should mention running walker. Someone else told me they thought she could have some july foxhound in her. She is very fast and takes off like a shot after anything that could be prey (she also likes to stalk the neighbors' cat while I'm walking her... luckily they're usually not home and I don't let her get that far, lol). She trees squirrels and possum a lot, are there any running walkers or other foxhounds that do this?

Actually now that I think of it, I have a video of her doing this here:
http://vimeo.com/45252852#
(it's from early last summer so she was only about 8 months old)

That's exactly what I thought as far as the 1/4 grey was concerned. I was pretty surprised and I even googled pics of beagle/grey crosses... most of them had much longer necks, smaller ears and were built lighter.

Interesting to know about the ears, thanks. Someone once told me they thought her ears weren't long/large enough for a coonhound/foxhound and thought it was due to the beagle influence.

[Whitewave]

She looks like a English Coonhound mix to me. Maybe Beagle/Coonhound.

http://imgc.classistatic.com/cps/poc...941735_27.jpeg

http://static.gotpetsonline.com/pict...hound-0002.jpg