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Luna

American Village Dog

“Luna was adopted 9/7/18 from Pet Alliance Orlando. She was 3 months old (birthdate: 5/29/18) and weighed 19lbs. I was told she was a rescue brought in from Puerto Rico, which at the time was recovering from Hurricane Maria. She now weighs 45lbs and is a medium sized dog. She loves fetching squeaky tennis balls, hiking trails, chewing bones, and wearing sweaters. She is mostly black, but has four white paws (with mixed pink and black toe beans), a white chest, and white fur around her black nose.”

Place of Birth

Puerto Rico

Current Location

Denver, Colorado, USA

From

Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando, Conroy Road, Orlando, FL, USA

This dog has been viewed and been given 32 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. Luna 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, American 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 Luna back, you won’t find any ancestral dogs that are part of any of those standardized breeds.

American Village Dog

American village dogs inhabit most areas of Central and South America and the Caribbean, living in both rural village and urban areas. They go by many names, including “satos” (Puerto Rico) and “potcakes” (the Bahamas).

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Changes to this dog’s profile
  • On 5/10/2021 changed handle from "luna4477" to "lunamuise"

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. Luna 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 Luna's DNA to a global panel of thousands of village dogs. This plot highlights regions of the world where Luna'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 Luna’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 Luna’s breed mix.

Breed Reveal Video

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Health Summary

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Good news!

Luna is not at increased risk for the genetic health conditions that Embark tests.

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

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 Luna’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

A5

Haplotype

A204

Map

A5

Luna’s Haplogroup

A5 is a rare maternal lineage. It is most numerous among the village dogs of Vietnam, though it is also present in the Chow Chow breed. Additionally, it is found in the Carolina Dog, and attests to this population’s origins among the indigenous native dog.

A204

Luna’s Haplotype

Part of the A5 haplogroup, this haplotype occurs most commonly in Chow Chows, Bloodhounds, and village dogs in Mexico.

The Chow Chow is a carrier of the rare A5 haplogroup.

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

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