You may have heard about “doggy DNA tests,” which promise to tell you the breed composition of your mutt when you mail in their cheek cells, collected using a specialized swab. But do these tests really work?

In 2004, our Executive Director Kim adopted Booduh [left], an all-out mutt. To date, Booduh has received three separate doggy DNA tests, the proprietors of which shall remain unnamed.

All of these tests delivered wildly different results.

The first test was the most basic, returning Siberian Husky and Labrador Retriever [right].

The next test returned the most breeds of all, but none of them were shared with the others. The breeds it returned were:

German Pinscher

Black and Tan Coonhound

Boxer

Field Spaniel

Miniature Schnauzer

The third and (for now) final test returned the same two breeds as the first, plus Basset Hound and Dalmatian [right].

Are these services real? Do any of the combinations here add up to Booduh? What do you think?

Image Credits:
Booduh: Copyright © 2009 Sean Gillen [Source], available under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported.
Siberian Husky: Copyright © 2006 re-ality for Flickr [Source], available under CC-BY 2.0 Generic.
Labrador Retriever: Copyright © 2007 Marilyn Peddle for Flickr [Source], available under CC-BY 2.0 Generic.
German Pinscher: Public domain
Black and Tan Coonhound: Copyright © 2003 Scraig for English Wikipedia [Source], available under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported.
Boxer: Copyright © 2008 Moires for Wikimedia Commons [Source], available under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported.
Field Spaniel: Copyright © 2006 Pleple2000 for Wikimedia Commons [Source], available under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported.
Miniature Schnauzer: Copyright © 2006 Tatian Chessa for Wikimedia Commons [Source], available under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported.
Basset Hound: Copyright © 2006 Bonnie van den Born [Source], available under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported.
Dalmatian: Copyright © 2002 Nevilley for English Wikipedia [Source], available under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported.