Worked examples

Each chart below shows one dog’s eight great-grandparents, inferred from the breed percentages in that dog’s DNA report. Each great-grandparent stands for an eighth of the dog.

Make a chart for your own dog

The ancestry of Benniethe ancestry of BennieCockerCockerHuskyHusky, mostlyunknownGSDPit Bull mixSamoyed mixGSD / Cocker /AmStaff mixCockerHusky mixGSD / Pit Bull mixSamoyed / GSD /Cocker mixCocker / Husky mixGSD / Pit Bull / SamoyedmixBennieCocker 28.1% / Husky 18.1% / GSD 17.1% / Pit Bull 12% / Samoyed 9% / AmStaff 2.8% / unresolved 12.9%add a photo of Bennie.an inferred breed ancestry tree from this dog’s DNA report, not a literal known pedigree
The ancestry of Benniethe ancestry of BennieCockerCockerHuskyHusky,mostlyunknownGSDPit BullmixSamoyedmixGSD /Cocker /AmStaffmixCockerHusky mixGSD / PitBull mixSamoyed / GSD/ Cocker mixCocker / HuskymixGSD / Pit Bull /Samoyed mixBennieCocker 28.1% / Husky 18.1% / GSD 17.1% / Pit Bull12% / Samoyed 9% / AmStaff 2.8% / unresolved12.9%add a photo of Bennie.an inferred breed ancestry tree from this dog’s DNA report, not a literal known pedigree

7 of 8 great-grandparents have a portrait.

A great-grandparent shown in italic is a partial or a blend — one we do not yet have a single portrait for.

The ancestry of Clarencethe ancestry of ClarencePit BullPit Bull mixLabLab, mostlyunknownGoldenShar-PeiGSD, mostlyunknownMixedPit Bull mixLab mixShar-Pei / GoldenmixGSD, mostly unknownPit Bull / Lab mixGolden / Shar-Pei / GSDmixClarencePit Bull 24.5% / Lab 18.1% / Golden 15% / Shar-Pei 13.9% / GSD 5.9% / unresolved 22.6%add a photo of Clarence.an inferred breed ancestry tree from this dog’s DNA report, not a literal known pedigree
The ancestry of Clarencethe ancestry of ClarencePit BullPit BullmixLabLab,mostlyunknownGoldenShar-PeiGSD,mostlyunknownMixedPit Bull mixLab mixShar-Pei /Golden mixGSD, mostlyunknownPit Bull / LabmixGolden / Shar-Pei/ GSD mixClarencePit Bull 24.5% / Lab 18.1% / Golden 15% /Shar-Pei 13.9% / GSD 5.9% / unresolved 22.6%add a photo of Clarence.an inferred breed ancestry tree from this dog’s DNA report, not a literal known pedigree

5 of 8 great-grandparents have a portrait.

A great-grandparent shown in italic is a partial or a blend — one we do not yet have a single portrait for.

How the eight are chosen, and why some circles are empty

Each eighth goes to the closest breed. A breed earns as many of the eight great-grandparents as its reported percentage covers whole, and any position left over goes to whichever breed came closest to earning one more.

Every generation is a combination. Every generation above the dog is the pair above it combined.

A ring needs a match. A ring holds a picture only where we have a painting that matches its name. Where we do not, it holds an empty plate: the ring is drawn, the name is printed, and the picture is the part we do not have.

Unpainted mixes stay empty. An ancestor whose name says a mix gets an empty plate too, while that mix goes unpainted — the alternative would be a purebred portrait of its strongest breed, and that is a picture of a different dog.

Two plates, one reason. Two more ancestors get an empty plate for the same reason: their names give the library no breed to draw — an ancestor labelled Mixed names no breed at all, and a breed holding less than a tenth of an ancestor is too little of it to draw.

Their percentages still print. Their percentages can still list those breeds: the name is our estimate of the ancestor, and the percentages are the arithmetic behind it.

One picture stands in. An ancestor that is more than half one breed, with the rest unresolved, shows that breed’s own portrait, set a little inside its ring so you can see it is standing in for an ancestor who was only mostly that breed. At half or less, even that is too much to claim, and the plate stays empty.

You may choose the picture yourself. A person may fill any circle with a painting they chose from the library or with a photograph they supplied. That picture is their choice, not an answer the library found for the ancestor, and a photograph shows the known dog in that circle rather than an inferred likeness.

Your dog’s own plate is different. The dog’s own plate at the foot of the chart is not one of those library-filled rings. Unless you put a picture there, it carries the name instead: nobody has painted your dog, the library only draws kinds of dog, and a portrait of the breed you are mostly would be a picture of a different animal under your dog’s name. Nothing in that circle is chosen for you; the chart supplies the full estimate, and the picture is yours to supply.