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Loopy

Northern East African Village Dog

“I found Loopy (full name: Loopy James Falcon Amigo) outside my house in Khartoum, Sudan when she was about 2 years old. Based on her behaviour, I believe she was an abandoned pet. She's moved with me to Lebanon and Jordan, and spent one summer living a life of luxury in Canada when I was working in Iraq. She has two cat sisters of whom she is quite jealous. She is an incredibly sweet and affectionate dog and retains her love of heat and hatred of water from her life as a desert dog.”

Instagram tag
@loopyjames

Place of Birth

Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan

Current Location

Amman, Amman Governorate, Jordan

From

Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan

This dog has been viewed and been given 2 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. Loopy 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, Northern East African 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 Loopy back, you won’t find any ancestral dogs that are part of any of those standardized breeds.

Northern East African Village Dog

Northern East African village dogs were instrumental in dog evolution. From this region, dogs spread across Africa and Europe, where eventually they were bred to become most of the hundreds of dog breeds we know today.

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Changes to this dog’s profile
  • On 7/18/2019 changed name from "Loopy James Falcon Amigo" to "Loopy"
  • On 7/18/2019 changed name from "Loopy" to "Loopy James Falcon Amigo"

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. Loopy 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 Loopy's DNA to a global panel of thousands of village dogs. This plot highlights regions of the world where Loopy'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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Here’s what Loopy’s family tree may have looked like.
While there may be other possible configurations of her family’s relationships, this is the most likely family tree to explain Loopy’s breed mix.

Breed Reveal Video

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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

Other Coat Traits

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Body Size

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Through Loopy’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

B1

Haplotype

B72

Map

B1

Loopy’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.

B72

Loopy’s Haplotype

Part of the B1 haplogroup, the B72 haplotype occurs most commonly in Middle Eastern Village Dogs. It's a rare find!

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

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

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