It's All About the Breediness

By Jamie Damato Migdal, CEO & Pet Industry Entrepreneur

On this past Saturday I led a group of CanineLink students and alumni on our annual tour of the International Kennel Club Dog Show at McCormick Place. It’s one of my favorite things to do, because I love my smarty-pants students (current and former), and I especially love the opportunity to sniff around (ha) behind the scenes.

One of the great things about walking around this giant space with all of these pure-bred dogs is that you can get a real feel for what I always think of as their “breediness” – not just the way the dogs look, but the way they behave, and the way their breed-driven personalities manifest both inside and outside of the ring. Sturdy basset hounds trot along with noses to the ground, little show-off Pomeranians pirouette for attention, and good-natured Golden Retrievers are always happy to see you (though their groomers would much prefer that you not mess up their hair). We got some fun pictures while we were at the show; check them out on our Facebook page.

I’ve been thinking about breediness a lot in the last few days, not just because of the dog show but because our tiniest office mate, Hobo, has just gotten his Wisdom Panel DNA results back. We’ve all been playing the guessing game with him since Katie adopted him, and the best we’ve been able to come up with is “some sort of small terrier type something or other” – Cairn? Yorkie? Scotty? With maybe a little Chihuahua or Chinese Crested thrown into the mix? Who knows?

So here’s the deal – we’re going to have a contest to see who can guess Hobo’s breed mix. He weighs about 6 pounds, is about 4 years old, and his picture is above. The first person to guess his two predominant breeds correctly (post it in the Facebook comments below) wins a free spot at our Breeds 101 seminar on April 6.