Take the Pup Quiz!

The MuttMix Project survey has come to a close and we received an astounding 34,969 accounts created and 10,204 actual surveys completed for all 31 dogs! This gave us 432,743 questions answered from the participants! In our first pass through these results, we’ve made interesting observations across our 31 mutts and many participants.

The breeds guessed most frequently by participants were Labrador Retriever, German Shepherd Dog, Golden Retriever, Beagle, and Border Collie, respectively. Least frequently guessed were French Bulldog, Bulldog, West Highland Terrier, Pekingese, and Yorkshire Terrier.

Of the breeds detected in the DNA of our mutts, the most common included Chow Chow, German Shepherd Dog, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Golden Retriever, and Labrador Retriever.

We detected a whopping 19+ different breeds in our most mixed-up of mutts: Ramy, Lucy, Esme, and Hershey. The most diluted of our mutts – that is, the mutts with the least sizeable portion of any one breed – were Reilly, Esme, Hershey, Lucy, and Beskow. Although most of these stood among the most difficult mutts to guess, participants didn't find as much challenge in guessing Esme and Hershey. The degree of mixing in a mutt doesn't always trend with ease of guessing.

Beyond casual enthusiasm for guessing dog breeds, 4,804 participants boasted some experience as dog professionals. Overall accuracy of all participants averaged at 25% correct for all guesses made. Dog professionals surpassed that accuracy by only a narrow margin, averaging at 28% correct guesses for all guesses made.

We will continue to analyze these results to better understand what influences how we evaluate and perceive mixed breed dogs. Thank you again for your participation!

To log in and see the answers, your results, and how we did as a community at guessing the breeds, click here and be sure to use the same email you used when you signed up.

Participants will be getting a downloadable Certificate of Participation and their results sent to their registered email as well on June 25th.

BUT IT’S NOT OVER!

Now everyone can test their breed identifying skills, and get the answers as they go. Our new Pup Quiz will allow newcomers to guess each of the dogs, but get their answers as they go. Take the Pup Quiz

About The Project

Darwin’s Dogs, a project of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, and U-Mass Medical School, has been conducting ancestry research on thousands of dogs, analyzing DNA saliva samples to tell us the genetic history of our canine companions.

In conjunction with the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC), the team had launched a “citizen science” survey. The data that was collected told us a lot about how people perceive breeds and mixes, how different breed mixes affect the appearance of a dog, how well people can guess their canine friends’ ancestries from looks alone, and how that might affect our lives with dogs. This information is vital to many future projects throughout the scientific world.

Thank you for your contributions to the citizen science that makes Darwin’s Dogs one of the most important research initiatives today!