12 Animal Shelter Dogs Whose DNA Revealed Their Breed: 50% Beagle, 24 Breeds in One and 10% Lab

Animals
10/27/2026
12 Animal Shelter Dogs Whose DNA Revealed Their Breed: 50% Beagle, 24 Breeds in One and 10% Lab

At the animal shelter where I volunteered in high school, almost every kennel card said “mix” in somebody’s hurried handwriting. We guessed the rest out loud while we cleaned: beagle ears, a shepherd tail, a bark that was definitely part hound. These 12 shelter dogs finally took a DNA test, and their owners share the breed results nobody at home had guessed.

A Rescue Puppy Who Looked Like a Rottweiler and Turned Out to Be Half Beagle

“Meet Bounty. When I rescued him, I thought he might be a Rottie. A littermate did a DNA test. He’s 50% Beagle and 100% hot mess.”

The actual results were: 50% beagle, part lab, part husky, and undetermined guard dog. He’s a nut...100% sure about that. 🤣😂

The stubbornness is off the charts! Initially thought that was the husky bit but just learned it’s beagle. 🙄😂

Amazingly, he doesn’t bay at all.

A Black Dog With a Lab Mom Who Turned Out to Be Only 10% Labrador

“DNA test says 10% Labrador. I’m skeptical”

Kona was from a rescue. Black lab mother and brown lab father(unknown purity from either parent)

She’s now 8 months and around 55lbs

I was just skeptical at first, but I do trust the results. In my head she was all lab up until now, and she still is, but I’ve got to come to terms with the truth 😂

They did match us to another dog that’s from the same city where we rescued her from... so thats somewhat hopeful that it’s somewhat legit

A Fluffy “Great Pyrenees” Who Turned Out to Be 100% German Shepherd

“We were frauded in the best way!”

Rescue said “Great Pyrenees.”

DNA test said “100% German Shepherd.”

So now I have a suspicious, overachieving cloud that follows me everywhere and acts like she’s head of security..

No regrets. 10/10 would adopt this fluffy fraud again 🤍🐾

She does have some GP traits. Most noticeable is the pyr paw! She is such a gentle giant.

From the author:

One dog that summer had a card we never agreed on. Everyone who cleaned his kennel penciled a guess on the back, until the back ran out: shepherd, hound, something with a curly tail, “part bear.” The family who adopted him read the whole list at the kennel door and said they’d keep guessing at home. The breed line on the front still said mix.

A Rescue Mutt From Croatia With 24 Breeds, Including 2% Wolf

“Our rescue mutt from Croatia has 24 different breeds!”

My favourite is the 2% wolf 🐺 our previous dog had 21 breeds, but mostly lots of spaniel and terrier. This is definitely the biggest and widest mix I’ve seen.

Literally when people ask us what breed she is, we just say “all”

A Shelter “Lab and Chesapeake Bay Retriever” Who Turned Out to Be a Purebred Lab

“Surprised by DNA Results”

In 2021 we were looking to adopt a dog. We ended up meeting our boy Mickey at the Humane Society. They told us he was a Labrador retriever and Chesapeake Bay retriever (we lived in Maryland at the time so made sense).

Well I decided to do a DNA test for fun, honestly no other reason. Turns out... he’s a purebred Labrador Retriever!!

But regardless, here’s my handsome 6 yo boy Mickey. He’s the best ever.

He has pretty long fur on his back that curls a bit when wet. He has the big barrel like chest. So I really did believe the Chessie part

How much can a DNA test tell you? A cheek swab goes to a lab, where the dog’s DNA is compared with reference dogs of known breeds. For a purebred like Mickey, most tests get it right. For a mix, the small percentages are the shakiest part: when researchers and journalists sent the same samples to several companies, the results often disagreed. Guessing by looks is harder still. At a San Diego shelter, staff named both of a dog’s main breeds correctly for only about 1 dog in 10. And breed explains less than people think: a 2022 study of more than 18,000 dogs found it accounts for about 9% of the differences in behavior.

A Shelter Lab Mix Whose Short Fur Kept Shedding Like a Husky’s

“We did a DNA test on our lab, and found he has a few other things mixed in! Not a guess I would have made. Just wanted to share:)”

He was adopted from a shelter at 10 weeks old, it said labrador retriever mix.

He sheds terrible even though he has such short fur... guess that’s the husky in him!!

I do take him out back and rub his butt and the hair does fly off... so the birds still get to use it 😂

A Shelter Pup Everyone Took for a Hound Who Turned Out to Be Mostly Lab, With a Brother Out There

“We were surprised by her DNA results but looks like we belong here!”

Everyone meet Susie! She is a 1yr old female rescued from a shelter in northern MS. We recently decided to do a DNA test because we were all convinced she was some type of cur/plott and wanted to make sure we met her breed needs. We were shocked to find out she’s mostly lab!!

We discovered she has a brother!! He is a yellow lab mix with 85.7% lab and 14.3% unresolved (Chow/ACD/GSD in his mix)!! super cool stuff!

A Gentle “Rough Collie Mix” Who Turned Out to Be the Husky Her Owner Didn’t Want

“DNA came back with surprising results”

I adopted my dog because she was labeled as a rough collie mix, and I adore the rough collie temperament. Huskies are so energetic, independent and stubborn, and I wanted no part of that. Rough collies are sweet and biddable, they want to be good dogs.

I’ve had my dog for about four months now, and she was everything I expected from a collie mix. Sweet, so trainable, loves a snuggle on the couch and loves kids.

We often threaten that we will give her to a sled dog outfit when she misbehaves, but seems like she would love that lol.

She is a cuddle monster! Those sled dogs are all so sweeeeeet. It’s funny, because my dad is Inuit and was raised with sled dogs and he was adamant that huskies aren’t pets.

From the author:
The shelter’s feeding cart had one squeaky wheel, and you could tell the dogs by how they met it. The hound mixes howled. The shepherd mixes stood up and watched it come down the row like they were in charge of it. The lab mixes were already sitting, in case sitting helped. None of that went on the cards, though it said more than the breed line did.

A Rescue Who Is Almost 18% Siberian Husky and Still Prefers the Couch

“my rescue his dna results back! I knew he was German shepherd but the other results are interesting”

He’s a couch potato haha so the husky one I was surprised

A Puppy Strangers Called a Rottie Mix, With a Little Basset Hound and Samoyed Hiding in Him

“Got my boy’s DNA test back”

This is Cashew, he’s 6 months old. While he obvious has some German shepherd in him, I was curious what he was mixed with. People on the street and at the dog park have mostly guessed he’s mixed with rottie. I finally got his DNA results . Interesting to see he’s mixed with a whole bunch of stuff!

Supermutt for him meant small amounts of basset hound and Samoyed

A Ukrainian Rescue Who Is 29% Belgian Malinois and Spends Her Days Asleep on Chairs

“Dixies DNA Results”

I posted a while ago looking to get some guesses on the breed of my Ukrainian rescue dog, Dixie.

It turns out that she’s 59% German Shepherd, 29% Belgian Malinois, 6% East Siberian Laika and 5% Dobermann Pinscher!

Dixie’s percentages surprised us, we were expecting a lot less Malinois. It doesn’t reflect in her temperament, shes very relaxed

She’s found several chairs to sleep the day away on.

Two Dogs Adopted 3 Years Apart in Different Cities Who Turned Out to Be Siblings

“These two were adopted 3 years apart from different cities. A DNA test revealed that they are long lost siblings!”

Two dogs adopted three years apart, in two different cities, ended up curled up together before anyone knew they were siblings. A DNA test can tell you who a dog is. The people who love them had already settled whose.

What breed did you think your dog was, and would you want to know for sure? Tell us in the comments.

Preview photo credit Miafishface / Reddit

Comments

Get notifications
Lucky you! This thread is empty,
which means you've got dibs on the first comment.
Go for it!

Related Reads