DNA Clarified

I wrote to the people who did Ernest T. Bass' DNA test and asked what gives with the results.  And believe it or don't but they actually sent me a nice long reply.  On the same day!  What they said was that the reason there were 3 Intermediate breeds is this:

Each of those breeds showed up with at least a 25% of his DNA, so one grandparent was a purebred American Bulldog, one was a St. Bernard, and one was an American Staffordshire Terrier.  The other one was a mixed breed mutt dog.

Obviously there was no Significant breed to list since nothing was of 50% or greater in his profile.  The testing picks up the purebreed markers and the blank spot is where there is a mixed breed.

That makes it a lot more clear to me.

Except for the St. Bernard part.  I am sorry I just sat on the couch this evening with Ernest T. and watched the Spurs trounce Deron Williams and the rest of the Utah Jazz (Go Spurs Go!!) and kept looking at my mixed breed brown doggie wearing his striped rugby sweater and looking for any trace of St. Bernard. Can you imagine any St. Bernard wearing a sweater?

I hope Ernest T. Bass will never be judged for being 2 parts American, 1 part Swiss and 1 part Mutt Dog. You know how cruel those other snooty dogs can be at obedience school.  Plus he lives with a purebred Siberian Husky and a Miniature Schnauzer that have pedigrees back several generations.  I tell him all the time "It gets better".

Years ago I read about this doggie intelligence test and have tried it with each of the 3 dogs we currently have.  First we got Nikita Babushka the Siberian Princess and then Maxwell Banks II and more recently Ernest T. was dumped here.  So they have each had the test done in their own time of puppyhood.

Here's the test:  you take your dog to the kitchen and make them sit and stay.  Then you show them a treat and lay it on the floor.  Next you get a kitchen tea towel and lay it over the treat.  Then release the dog from stay and see what they do.  A smart dog will know that the treat is still there under the towel and will remove the towel and take the treat.

That is what Nikita did.  And swiftly too, I might add. She's a clever girl.  Then we tried it with Maxwell Banks.  It didn't go so well.  Even with Rachel Pie laying on the floor coaching him on and being a cheerleader for him and trying to show him where to cheat.  Nope, that boy never figured it out.  You could see it in his face, he just said, "Oh well, I thought there was a treat, but it sure seems to be gone now." and walked off.  Sad day for that little brain trust.  Hmmmpphh.

So when it came time for Ernest T. to get tested we sat him down and made him stay, set down the treat, layed the towel down over and let him go.  You want to guess what he did?

Did you guess that that he thought "Hey that towel looks pretty tasty and it smells like a treat, let's just eat the whole damn thing!"?  If so, you would be right.  That boy has eaten more than 12 beds and countless blankets and toys.  He is so orally fixated it is unreal.

Must be that 25% St. Bernard coming through.