Dog lovers are paying up to £140 on DNA tests for their hounds to discover their pets are not actually the trendy breeds they thought.
Anxious owners are turning to the forensic technology to make sure their pooch’s breed is what was promised, with the dog DNA testing market expected to swell to be worth £570million by 2030, according to to Zion Market Research.
The home testing kits are being advertised online from places such as Pets At Home and Amazon and come with bristled swabs that are used to take saliva samples by swiping along a pooch’s gums which are then sent to laboratory.
US-based Wisdom Panel is among the leading names in the industry with its £74.99 kit to find out a dog’s breed and its relatives the cheapest on offer.
But those wanting to take a deep dive into their canine’s genetics are paying £139.99 for a ‘premium’ offering that carries out more than 260 health tests to find out if their beloved mutt is at risk of certain diseases.
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Genealogy company Ancestry launched its £79 ‘Know Your Pet DNA’ kit, with claims it is the ‘most scientifically advanced dog DNA test on the market’.
‘One thing we hear from our customers who are dog owners is that many of them consider their pet to be a part of the family,’ said Brian Donnelly from Ancestry.
‘As a proud dog enthusiast, I was inspired by the love my family has for our dog to create a product that helps us better understand him and meet his needs based on his genetics.’
Dog group The Kennel Club last year introduced a DNA testing service so owners can check their pet’s health conditions.
Dr Joanna Ilska, the Genetics Manager at The Kennel Club, told at the time: ‘For owners, understanding a dog’s genetics and knowing which testable hereditary conditions they may be affected by allows preparation for the future.
‘Some dogs affected by hereditary conditions can go undiagnosed during the early stages of disease, due to clinical symptoms being missed or mistaken for ageing, and missing the early signs of disease can leave a dog in unnecessary pain or discomfort.
‘Knowing early gives owners the information they need to look out for clinical signs and get their dog the treatment they need at the soonest possibility.’
It’s not just dog lovers who are turning to the kits, with police hoping to use the forensic technology to snare hounds who have viciously attacked livestock.
Ten police forces in England Wales are trialling new test kits which could one day be used in the future at crime scenes to comb for evidence so they can track down and prosecute the pooch’s owner.
It is currently illegal to carry out DNA testing on a dog without the owner’s permission.
Dr Nick Dawnay, a forensic science researcher at Liverpool John Moores University, developed the test kits as part of the Canine DNA Recovery Project.
He said: ‘Our rural crime police can’t always attend scenes in a timely manner so quite often no forensic sample is collected from the injured or deceased livestock.
‘The timing of sample collection is important as the DNA of an offending dog will not last long on an animal exposed to the elements or on a dead carcass that has been disturbed or moved.’
According to National Farmers Union Mutual figures, around £360,000 worth of farm animals across the south west were severely injured or killed in 2023 after being mauled by dogs.
PC Julian Fry, of Devon and Cornwall police, told the BBC the numbers were ‘staggeringly high’.
‘Our data shows the numbers are not going down and if anything they’re increasing year on year,’ he said.
‘The NFUM data shows the South West region is the worst hit area in the country in the terms of the frequency of livestock attacks.
‘So we have to do something to bring those numbers down and this initiative and training is part of that.’
The power of DNA analysis could also be harnessed by a Scottish council to collar selfish dog owners who refuse to pick up after their pets.
City of Edinburgh Council announced in November it was looking at creating a ‘dog DNA register’ to deter owners of an estimated 13,000 canines from leaving their pets’ business on the streets of the capital.
Under the scheme, dog mess on a pavement would be collected and tested against the database. One option would be to send guilty owners a fine by post.
Councillors have been spurred into action after it was disclosed that just four fixed penalty fines were issued across the whole of the city in 2021.
The move came after the French town of Béziers attempted a pilot scheme requiring dog owners to carry their pet’s ‘genetic passport’, which could be used to identify miscreants.
Under the Béziers scheme, owners were expected to take their dog to a vet to give a saliva sample. It would be genetically tested and a document would be issued.
Those stopped without their dog’s genetic passport would be fined €38 (£33). In addition, dog mess found on the pavement would be analysed, with the results sent to police.
They would then consult the pet register and match the details to an owner – who would be billed as much as €122 (£106) for street cleaning.
But the scheme ran into trouble after the move to collect DNA from the estimated 1,500 dogs in Béziers was rejected by a court as an attack on personal freedom.
Edinburgh council receives around 1,300 complaints about dog fouling each year, according to data for the past three years.
The Dog Fouling (Scotland) Act 2003 makes it an offence for a person in charge of a dog not to clean up the mess, handing councils the power to issue fixed penalty notices of £80 to offenders.
But Conservative councillor Christopher Cowdy, who tabled a motion for the DNA register, said in November the historically low number of fines showed the council’s strategy to stop dog fouling ‘hasn’t seemed to work’.
Mr Cowdy said: ‘I suppose I thought about a dog DNA test as being the only real way you can make out for definite whose dog did what. There would be an Edinburgh bylaw that would require dog owners to register their dogs with the city council, which would hold a database.’