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Tikki

South Asian Village Dog

“Street dog adopted from Nepal”

Place of Birth

Kathmandu, Central Development Region, Nepal

Current Location

Richmond, Virginia, USA

From

Q988+34 Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre, Budhanilkantha, Nepal

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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. Tikki 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, South Asian 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 Tikki back, you won’t find any ancestral dogs that are part of any of those standardized breeds.

South Asian Village Dog

The 60 million Indian pariah dogs, or village dogs, represent the largest village dog population in the world. These dogs are often independent but can be very playful and loyal companions.

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

Breed Reveal Video

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Through Tikki’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

A6

Haplotype

A92/117

Map

A6

Tikki’s Haplogroup

A6 is a rare maternal lineage. The only breed we have seen it in to date is Tibetan Mastiffs. Otherwise, we only see it in village dogs in Nepal.

A92/117

Tikki’s Haplotype

The lone member of the A6 haplogroup, this rare haplotype occurs in Tibetan Mastiffs and village dogs in Nepal.

Tibetan Mastiffs are the only registered breed to have this rare 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 Tikki 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 Tikki is a female (XX) dog, she has no Y-chromosome for us to analyze and determine a paternal haplotype.

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