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Mushroom

Japanese or Korean Village Dog

“He's a rescue from a food plant in Korea”

Place of Birth

Current Location

Sacramento, California, USA

From

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

Coat Color Modifiers

Other Coat Traits

Other Coat Traits

Other Body Features

Other Body Features

Body Size

Body Size

Performance

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Through Mushroom’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

A2

Haplotype

A515

Map

A2

Mushroom’s Haplogroup

A2 is a very ancient maternal line. Most likely it was one of the major female lines that contributed to the very first domesticated dogs in Central Asia about 15,000 years ago. Some of the line stayed in Central Asia to the present day, and frequently appear as Tibetan Mastiffs and Akitas. Those that escaped the mountains of Central Asia sought out other cold spots, and are now found among Alaskan Malamutes and Siberian Huskies. This lineage is also occasionally found in several common Western breeds, such as German Shepherds and Labrador Retrievers. Curiously, all New Guinea Singing Dogs descend from this line. These are an ancient and very interesting breed found in the mountains of Papua New Guinea. Unfortunately, they are now endangered. They are closely related to the Australian dingo, so you could say its cousins are dingos! This line is also common in village dogs in Southeast and East Asia. Unlike many other lineages, A2 did not spread across the whole world, probably because it did not have the opportunity to hitch its wagon to European colonialism - or because these dogs just prefer hanging out in mountains, tundras, islands, and other hard-to-reach places!

A515

Mushroom’s Haplotype

Part of the A2 haplogroup, the A515 haplotype occurs most commonly in East Asian Village Dogs. It's a rare find!

Dingos commonly possess this haplogroup.

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Through Mushroom’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

B

Haplotype

H15.17

Map

B

Mushroom’s Haplogroup

B is a relatively rare paternal line that has only recently started to expand. The dominant lineage among the ancient Shih Tzu breed, it is also found among Tibetan Spaniels. Outside of these two breeds, B seems to be a particularly common paternal line among the village dogs of India and Southeast Asia, though it is found as far afield as Africa and down into Oceania. Considering that it is particularly diverse in northern India, it could be that this lineage hung out mostly in South Asia after the expansion of domestic dogs from Central Asia. Because it is present in Mongolia as well, it may not be surprising that ancient East Asian dog breeds are also part of this lineage. Alternatively, perhaps males representing this lineage headed north out of southern Eurasia, which eventually gave rise to the Shih Tzu and may have inspired stylistic representations of lions in ancient China!

H15.17

Mushroom’s Haplotype

Part of the B haplogroup, the H15.17 haplotype occurs most commonly in mixed-breed dogs.

The B Haplogroup is most commonly found the adorable Shih Tzu breed.

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