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Kit

Japanese or Korean Village Dog

“We adopted him from Korea.”

Place of Birth

Donghae, Gangwon-do, South Korea

Current Location

Arlington, Virginia, USA

From

Donghae, Gangwon-do, South Korea

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Genetic Breed Result

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Village dog trace breed analysis

Village dogs often have short stretches of DNA that match purebred dogs, due to a distant common ancestor or a more recent mating between a purebred and a village dog. Kit has short stretches of DNA in common with this breed:

What exactly are village dogs?

Village dogs are the free-breeding, free-roaming “outside” dogs found around the world living in and around human settlements big and small. They are also known as island dogs, pariah dogs, or free-ranging dogs.

Many village dog populations precede the formation of modern breed dogs.

They make up about 3/4s of the billion or so dogs living on Earth today. They serve as trash cleaners, sentinels, and even sometimes companions while still retaining much of their freedom. Embark’s founders have studied village dogs on six continents since 2007 in their efforts to understand the history, traits, and health of the domestic dog. Through this work they have discovered the origins of the dog in Central Asia, and also identified genetic regions involved in domestication and local adaptation, such as the high altitude adaptation in Himalayan dogs. Embark is the only dog DNA test that includes diverse village dogs from around the world in its breed reference panel.

So what breeds are in my dog?

In a very real sense, Japanese or Korean Village Dog is the actual breed of your dog. Village dogs like this descend from separate lines of dogs than the lines that have been bred into standardized breeds like Labradors and Poodles. If you trace the family tree of Kit back, you won’t find any ancestral dogs that are part of any of those standardized breeds.

Japanese or Korean Village Dog

Many years ago, when wolves began scavenging our hunting camps, they became gradually attuned to human life. Genetic changes in those wolves over time led to tameness, small body size and early age of first reproduction that soon after yielded what we see today in the Japanese and Korean village dogs.

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Village dogs have lived just about everywhere across the world for thousands of years. Long before there were any recognized dog breeds, there were village dogs around the fires and trash heaps of early human villages. Kit is part of this ancient heritage, not descended from a specific breed, but continuing the ancient lineage of dogs that were our first, best friends.

Embark's co-founders studied Village Dogs on six continents in their efforts to understand the history, traits, and health of the domestic dog. Through this work, they discovered evidence for the origins of the dog in Central Asia , and they also identified genetic regions involved in domestication and local adaptation. As a result, Embark has the largest Village Dog reference panel of any canine genetics company.

We compared Kit's DNA to a global panel of thousands of village dogs. This plot highlights regions of the world where Kit's DNA is most similar to those village dogs. The areas of darkest red reflect the greatest similarity to our village dog panel.

Village Dog Map
Similarity to village dog groups around the world. Darker red reflects greater similarity.

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Traits

Explore the genetics behind your dog’s appearance and size.

Base Coat Color

Base Coat Color

Coat Color Modifiers

Coat Color Modifiers

Other Coat Traits

Other Coat Traits

Other Body Features

Other Body Features

Body Size

Body Size

Performance

Performance

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Through Kit’s mitochondrial DNA we can trace his mother’s ancestry back to where dogs and people first became friends. This map helps you visualize the routes that his ancestors took to your home. Their story is described below the map.

Haplogroup

B1

Haplotype

B81

Map

B1

Kit’s Haplogroup

B1 is the second most common maternal lineage in breeds of European or American origin. It is the female line of the majority of Golden Retrievers, Basset Hounds, and Shih Tzus, and about half of Beagles, Pekingese and Toy Poodles. This lineage is also somewhat common among village dogs that carry distinct ancestry from these breeds. We know this is a result of B1 dogs being common amongst the European dogs that their conquering owners brought around the world, because nowhere on earth is it a very common lineage in village dogs. It even enables us to trace the path of (human) colonization: Because most Bichons are B1 and Bichons are popular in Spanish culture, B1 is now fairly common among village dogs in Latin America.

B81

Kit’s Haplotype

Part of the large B1 haplogroup, this haplotype occurs most frequently in Shih Tzus, Chihuahuas, and Poodles.

The B1 haplogroup can be found in village dogs like the Peruvian Village Dog, pictured above.

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Through Kit’s Y-chromosome we can trace his father’s ancestry back to where dogs and people first became friends. This map helps you visualize the routes that his ancestors took to your home. Their story is described below the map.

Haplogroup

A1b

Haplotype

H5a.2

Map

A1b

Kit’s Haplogroup

For most of dog history, this haplogroup was probably quite rare. However, a couple hundred years ago it seems to have found its way into a prized male guard dog in Europe who had many offspring, including the ancestors of many European guard breeds such as Doberman Pinchers, St. Bernards, and Great Danes. Despite being rare, many of the most imposing dogs on Earth have it; strangely, so do many Pomeranians! Perhaps this explains why some Poms are so tough, acting like they're ten times their actual size! This lineage is most commonly found in working dogs, in particular guard dogs. With origins in Europe, it spread widely across other regions as Europeans took their dogs across the world.

H5a.2

Kit’s Haplotype

Part of the C haplogroup, we see this haplotype most frequently in East Asian village dogs.

Great Danes and Pomeranians have this in common!

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