First of all, a HUGE thank you to everybody who participated in our guess-the-breeds contest for our sweet Doodlebug. Regardless of his official genetic makeup, he is one special dog.
Many of you guessed that Doodlebug was part sugar and spice, part ladybug, or 100% sweetness. You are all right. Unfortunately, those breeds don’t show up in the Wisdom Panel test we used. Here is what DID show up!
A huge portion of the 100+ guesses we received included American Staffordshire Terrier — what most folks consider to be a true pit bull breed. You’ve figured that 1/4 of his heritage out — he is indeed 1/4 AmStaff!
Image borrowed from bestnew-pet.com
A smaller but still impressive portion of you guessed that our Dude is also part Staffordshire Bull Terrier. These cute little things are close relatives of the Am Staff, but they are a bit smaller, squatter, and more British. We think this grandparent is who taught Doodlebug his elegant English accent!
photo borrowed from myterrierdog.info
So that’s his pit bull dog half. Moving along . . .
Lots of entries included pointer (for his slim, athletic physique?), Boxer (for his intense eyes?), and Vizsla (for his beautiful red furs?). None of these came up.
Even more of you guessed that Dude is part labrador retriever. Part of us wishes that he were part lab and had inherited more of a desire to play fetch or swim, but unfortunately, he doesn’t have any lab ancestors that we’re aware of, and he definitely doesn’t swim or fetch like one!
His test did reveal a grandparent that is a distant relative of a Lab, so kudos to you who guessed a retriever breed anyway. One of Doodlebug’s grandparents was a Curly Coated Retriever. The Curly is the oldest surviving breed of retrieving dog, dating back to the 1700s, we think. It’s such an old retrieving breed, in fact, that Doodlebug’s retriever instincts must have gotten lost somewhere along the breeding process of the past 300+ years! Don’t feel bad if you didn’t get this one. Nobody else did, either. We had never even heard of this one before Dude’s test results came back!
image borrowed from puppydogweb.com
And finally, a surprising number of you guessed that Doodlebug is part Boston Terrier. Is it his energetic, perky ears? His slightly buggy eyes and inappropriate stare? Or his passion for sleeping with his tongue sticking out? We feel where you’re coming from, we really do. Turns out that Doodlebug’s last grandparent DID give him all of these charming characteristics, but that grandparent was not a Boston, but instead, a French Bulldog! Kudos to those who guessed American or English bulldog. You just got the nationality wrong!
photo borrowed from taildom.com
So there we have it, Doodlebug’s complete geneaology. Interesting? Surprising? Logical?
Now, on to the contest! Eight of our clever participants guessed TWO breeds correctly — seven guessed Staffordshire Bull Terrier AND American Staffordshire Terrier, and one guessed Am Staff and French Bulldog. Since nobody guessed more than two correctly, we had ourselves an eight-way tie. We assigned a number to each of the eight closest guessers and randomly generated a winner using Random.org.
Without further delay, the winner of the 8×8″ custom pet portrait from our pal Kim’s amazing pet shop is Erin H-S, from Austin, TX! Congrats Erin! How are you going to pick one pet to feature out of your collection of four beautiful dogs?
Thanks again to everybody for participating, and don’t forget that it’s not too late to score a generous 15% discount on your own masterpiece by entering code CHICKERDOODLE at checkout in the Pet Shop. The code is only good for the first 20 people who use it — and it has already been well-used — so your time is limited!!
Love and a Six-Foot Leash 
Man, I was nowhere close!
That is so great; I had my dogs DNA profile done by Wisdom Panel not long ago. It’s a very interesting process and the results are sometimes surprising.
I’ve been “lurking” for a little while now, but wanted to finally say “hi”. I love your blog and actually started reading it from the waaay beginning (and I’m almost caught up). I think what you do with your dogs is amazing and I have been trying some of the things you do with them (most recently I started feeding our 2 dogs from their Kongs, they love it!)
Anyway, I have always thought about doing one of these tests with our (what we think is an) Am.Staf. But I’m wondering what you think of the results you get?
Thanks!
~Laura S
Wow… It’s pretty rare that a DNA test comes back so conclusively. I usually see results that include a large percentage of unknown “mixed breed”. (ie: the great-grandparents are also mutts)
i’m proud to be among the eight! there is NO WAY i would have guessed french bulldog! or curly coated retriever since i only ever heard of them when i watched westminster.
no matter what percentage he is of this or that, he is 100% AWESOME!
The discount code doesn’t seem to work for me when I type it in…??
Nikki I am so sorry – the code is CHICKERDOODLE — I messed up in my original post!! If you have already purchased without, I am sure Kim will reimburse the portion that was mis-coded by me. Let me know and I will take care of it if needed!
Thanks!! Tried that and it worked! These paintings are beautiful, I most definately want to get one of our lab, Bella
Yay! I just ordered my custom painting and I can’t wait!! After seeing yours and how amazingly they resemble your babies, I just had to have one!
Thx for the discount code! 🙂
What an interesting mix! I call my “pound specials” when people ask what they are but now you can proudly say Chix is a “French-American, Staffy Terrier-Bulldog, Curly Retriever”….or just plain old “Wonderful”!
So, Dude is a French Am Staff Retriever? Cool! I’m a Bull-Boxie (Boxer/Bull Terrier/Doxie). Heehee!
Lots of peoples guessed French Bulldog and Boston Terrier for me, too. Must be my Most Glorious ears. But I didn’t have ANY in me. Well, none that they could detect anyways.
Congratulations on learning abouts your family tree, Doodle. Even though I still think there’s ladybug in there somewheres.
Wiggles & Wags,
Mayzie
These results are really cool, we have a bona fide mutt in our house and I’ve always wondered what kind of dog he is so we’ve been thinking of doing one of these tests. I think you’ve convinced me to buy one. 🙂
Also, I did not know anything about the breed Staffordshire Bull Terrier, but our pup looks a LOT lik a brindled/wire-haired version of that breed. He is short, stocky, long, and has an ENORMOUS mouth. We were told he was a ‘boxer-dachshund mix’ but since I found out that a lot of places don’t like to put pit bull breeds on descriptions I’ve wondered if he had a little pitty in him.
Super cool though, Doodlebug is such a cutie, really neat to get to know his heritage.
Yeah for frenchies! Gus and Trudy are very proud!
Woooohoooo!!! I’ve never won anything before, so this is awesome! I’m going to have a portrait of my first Boxer, Sissy, who passed away in 2009 and was the inspiration for me to start fostering. I’ve fostered over 100 dogs since she passed. 🙂 Her legacy will live on in a beautiful portrait as well as through our fosters. So excited!!
How fun! Congratulations to the winner!
What a cool idea for a contest! I kind of wish I’d done something like this now instead of just unceremoniously dumping the news. Of course, everyone would have been dead wrong, but it would have been fun anyway.
Congratulations to the winner! Who would have thought Curly Coat would have been in there? Craziness.
That is a cool contest! Love the gene pool flow chart too!
So you are our cousin?
Benny & Lily
I used the code the other night to purchase a custom made image of my dog Sonny to give as a surprise to my boyfriend. He’s going to love it and I can’t wait to see it. Thanks again for sharing!
That’s right! French bulldog in the house!!
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