Farm Fresh Blog

     As you may recall a few weeks ago my vet asked if he could draw blood on Briar to send it off for a DNA test to determine what combination of dogs went into the soup that made Briar. 

     We had several theories. Briar came from a big sheep operation in North Texas and was reportedly the product of a Great Pyrenees male and a Komondor female.  As she grew, I kept expecting the Komondor coat (dreadlocks) to emerge.  Nope.  No dreads.  It did not appear that Briar was destined to look like a Jamaican Polar Bear.

     And thus began the questions - what IS Briar? Clearly she is a Great Pyrenees crossed with SOMETHING, but what?

     She looks like a Pyr with the face of an Irish Wolfhound, or an Otterhound, or something fuzzy.

Her behavior is textbook Great Pyrenees. She is friendly and nurturing and can climb a fence like a white ape. Her coat appears to have longer guard hairs and less fluff than a Pyr.

     So we all waited with bated breath to discover what Briar's Who's Ya Daddy test would reveal. Last night I received an email that the results are in!  They'll send me a pretty family tree in the mail later, but I was able to go online and see the results.

And they are . . .

Drum roll please . . .

(You aren't gonna believe this.  I didn't.)

Briar is the product of . . .

. . . . . a Great Pyrenees/Belgian Malinois cross mated with a Great Pyrenees mix!

(crickets chirping)

Do what?

(more crickets chirping)

Okay, I certainly buy the Great Pyrenees on both sides part, but the Malinois?

For those of you who don't know what a Belgian Malinois looks like, it's this . . .

 Current Police Dog

Now here's the even odder part. The test was pretty certain about the Belgian Malinois, but it couldn't tell with certainty what was mated with the Great Pyrenees/Belgian Malinois cross other than it was a Great Pyrenees Mix. They gave a list of possible candidates with a percentage of accuracy.  Here is that list:

Norwich Terrier - a 6.37% chance
Pug - a 4.98% chance (PUG!!!!)
Samoyed - a 2.24% chance 
Belgian Tervuren - a 1.74% chance (YES!  A Belgian Tervuren!)
Chesapeake Bay Retriever - a 1.32% chance

So what does this mean?  Well I'll be honest. As a crime scene investigator, my first thought was CROSS CONTAMINATION!

If these were just wild-ass breeds on some AKC chart, I'd doubt the test itself, but the fact that the test shows that Briar is a Great Pyrenees/Malinois cross and I just HAPPEN to have a Belgian Malinois living in my home makes me wonder if "somehow" Oli's DNA ended up in that vial with Briar's blood.  While Oli doesn't play with Briar, they have scuffled and so it's possible that some of Oli's DNA "could" be on Briar's arms. Perhaps the arm that we drew blood from . . . . Possibly.  I'm just throwing it out there. (as a defense attorney) 

I don't know how they run that particular test, but I do know that I've had Belgian Shepherds since 1990 and I can tell you, if Briar has any Belgian Shepherd blood in her at all, it's minute. I'm not ruling it out, particularly the Belgian Lakinois which has a more wiry curly coat, but she displays NO Belgian Shepherd (particularly Belgian Malinois) behaviors. 

So what do y'all think?

"I'm related to OLI!  I feel sick!"