IAABC's The MuttMix Project, where what you get might not be what you see!
We rely on our knowledge of breed features to assess “what a dog is,” and therefore what he might be like.
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 is launching a “citizen science” survey. The data collected will tell 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.
How To Participate
The survey will introduce you to 31 mutts. You’ll be asked to guess the 3 breeds contributing the largest percentage of DNA for each dog.
- Only the answers to the “practice survey” will be given at this time. This is real science, and we need to be sure everyone’s giving their best guesses without influence or hints from others.
- At the end of the research period of 60 days, each participant will be sent a certificate of participation and the answers to what makes up each of these wonderful mutts.