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Samson

Japanese or Korean Village Dog

“Samson was rescued from the Korean Dog Meat Trade when he was 1yr old. He spent his first year living in a dingy cage, then a year in a shelter in Korea before finding his forever home in Oregon with Hannah, Brian and his sister Eevee. Samson went from never wanting to be touched and trying to bite in self defense, to going on hikes with his pack, asking for pets from his humans, and embracing the harness for walks. He has made a true 180° and we love him and his funny BIG personality so much.”

Place of Birth

Gimpo-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

Current Location

Eugene, Oregon, USA

From

Gimpo, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

This dog has been viewed and been given 8 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. Samson 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 Samson 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. Samson 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 Samson's DNA to a global panel of thousands of village dogs. This plot highlights regions of the world where Samson'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 Samson’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 Samson’s breed mix.
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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 Samson’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

B2

Haplotype

B33

Map

B2

Samson’s Haplogroup

B2 is a very rare maternal line. It is present in the ancient Canaan Dog, Akita, and Indian village dog. The distribution between two ancient dog breeds suggests that this may have been a more common lineage in the past, and has been declined more recently.

B33

Samson’s Haplotype

Part of the small B2 haplogroup, this haplotype occurs most commonly in Akitas. It’s a rare find!

This Canaan Dog descends from this rare maternal line.

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Through Samson’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

C

Haplotype

H5a.2

Map

C

Samson’s Haplogroup

C is a relatively rare paternal lineage. The dog populations which bear C are a disparate bunch. The Akita and Shiba Inu are Japanese breeds, the former of which seems to have roots in the Jomon population of hunter-gatherers which were present in the islands of Japan before the ancestors of the modern Japanese arrived. The New Guinea Singing Dog, Samoyed, and Alaska Malamute are all disparate breeds that also represent the C lineage. One village dog from Peru also bore this lineage. This wide distribution and diversity suggest C is not a recently expanded lineage. It likely represents a canid lineage which diversified sometime around the Last Glacial Maximum, when the dogs of Siberia and Oceania split off and went their separate ways.

H5a.2

Samson’s Haplotype

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

The Shiba Inu descends from this relativey rare haplogroup.

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