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Lily CGC CGCA CGCU THD

European Village Dog

“Lily was born in a construction zone in Moscow, Russia. She was rescued at around 4 months old with mother, father and 4 other brothers and sister. I adopted Lily at 6 months old. Lily now travels the world with me and had been to over 7 different countries and 10 different States in the USA! Lily is extremely friendly, loving, playful, thoughtful, graceful and SUPER intelligent! Lily has completed training to become a medical alert and response service dog! She is truly one amazing dog :)”

Instagram tag
@Lilyhundin

Place of Birth

Moscow, Russia

Current Location

California, USA

From

Vienna, Austria

This dog has been viewed and been given 53 wags

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. Lily has short stretches of DNA in common with these breeds:

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, European 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 Lily back, you won’t find any ancestral dogs that are part of any of those standardized breeds.

European Village Dog

Europe is the cradle of many dog breeds which were formed from free-breeding village dogs living in Europe for many millenia. These dogs adapted to the cold winters of Scandanavia and the hot summers of Spain, and they also, over time, found many ways to be useful to the humans they lived near. Some became hunters of everything from boar to squirrels while others became talented sheep herders, guardians, or just companions. Some of these dogs eventually became the founders of many popular dog breeds today, though most village dogs just continued living on as free-breeding village dogs even after the formation of modern breeds. Now they are found mostly in southern and eastern Europe.

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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. Lily 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 Lily's DNA to a global panel of thousands of village dogs. This plot highlights regions of the world where Lily'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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Health Summary

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Lily has one variant that you should let your vet know about.

ALT Activity

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Lily inherited one copy of the variant we tested

Why is this important to your vet?

Lily has one copy of a variant associated with reduced ALT activity as measured on veterinary blood chemistry panels. Please inform your veterinarian that Lily has this genotype, as ALT is often used as an indicator of liver health and Lily is likely to have a lower than average resting ALT activity. As such, an increase in Lily’s ALT activity could be evidence of liver damage, even if it is within normal limits by standard ALT reference ranges.

What is ALT Activity?

Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is a clinical tool that can be used by veterinarians to better monitor liver health. This result is not associated with liver disease. ALT is one of several values veterinarians measure on routine blood work to evaluate the liver. It is a naturally occurring enzyme located in liver cells that helps break down protein. When the liver is damaged or inflamed, ALT is released into the bloodstream.

Breed-Relevant Genetic Conditions

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Additional Genetic Conditions

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Traits

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

Base Coat Color

Base Coat Color

Coat Color Modifiers

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Other Coat Traits

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Body Size

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

Haplogroup

A1b

Haplotype

A18/19/20/21/27/36/94/109/361

Map

A1b

Lily’s Haplogroup

This female lineage was very likely one of the original lineages in the wolves that were first domesticated into dogs in Central Asia about 15,000 years ago. Since then, the lineage has been very successful and travelled the globe! Dogs from this group are found in ancient Bronze Age fossils in the Middle East and southern Europe. By the end of the Bronze Age, it became exceedingly common in Europe. These dogs later became many of the dogs that started some of today's most popular breeds, like German Shepherds, Pugs, Whippets, English Sheepdogs and Miniature Schnauzers. During the period of European colonization, the lineage became even more widespread as European dogs followed their owners to far-flung places like South America and Oceania. It's now found in many popular breeds as well as village dogs across the world!

A18/19/20/21/27/36/94/109/361

Lily’s Haplotype

Part of the large A1b haplogroup, we see this haplotype in village dogs in over 25 countries across the world. We have detected this haplotype in lots of breeds, and it occurs most commonly in German Shepherd Dogs, Maltese, English Springer Spaniels, and English Setters.

A1b is the most common haplogroup found in German Shepherds.

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The Paternal Haplotype reveals a dog’s deep ancestral lineage, stretching back thousands of years to the original domestication of dogs.

Are you looking for information on the breeds that Lily inherited from her mom and dad? Check out her breed breakdown and family tree.

Paternal Haplotype is determined by looking at a dog’s Y-chromosome—but not all dogs have Y-chromosomes!

Why can’t we show Paternal Haplotype results for female dogs?

All dogs have two sex chromosomes. Female dogs have two X-chromosomes (XX) and male dogs have one X-chromosome and one Y-chromosome (XY). When having offspring, female (XX) dogs always pass an X-chromosome to their puppy. Male (XY) dogs can pass either an X or a Y-chromosome—if the puppy receives an X-chromosome from its father then it will be a female (XX) puppy and if it receives a Y-chromosome then it will be a male (XY) puppy. As you can see, Y-chromosomes are passed down from a male dog only to its male offspring.

Since Lily is a female (XX) dog, she has no Y-chromosome for us to analyze and determine a paternal haplotype.

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