Dog Blog

She was on dogster, but now Mattie has her own blog. (Thanks to Jill, our lovely dogwalker.)

Filed under: culture, dog, technology

Canine Gattaca

While walking my dog Mattie (a dog among Gods) last weekend, another hiker and dog-owner commented that she looked like a Southern Black Mouth Cur.

For comparison, here’s a picture of my dog and a picture of the Southern Cur:

There’s some similarity. And apparently, although the yellow cur seems to be more popular, Southern Curs can sometimes have brindle or brown coats like Mattie, and often have their tails docked in the same way. I’d always assumed she lost it in an accident in her former rough life.

I’ve never heard Mattie called a Cur before and, if she is in fact that breed, it’s something of a relief. Mostly, when people look at Mattie, they see scary pit bull. (Although she’s the friendliest dog in the world.) But being a pit bull (or even part pit) is more than just scaring people, the laws in Boston require that pits (all pits) be muzzled when out in the public. Given that I’m a mutt and so is my dog, I’m of the opinion that these breed (race!) specific laws are unfair and inaccurate. Rather than standing up and protesting the law, however, I have been looking into getting my dog genetically tested.

I’m not sure how any of this relates to humans, exactly, but it is very strange for me to think of purchasing a genetic test online, like shopping on ebay or amazon or something.

Filed under: dog, technology