A new citizen science project for dog lovers. MuttMix: Can You Guess That Mutt?

Our first question upon hearing that someone has a new baby is usually "Is it a boy or a girl?" But our first question upon hearing that someone has gotten a new puppy is more often "What breed is it?" Breed is at the heart of how we perceive dogs. It affects many of our expectations of them - energy level, intelligence, friendliness - for better or for worse. With mutts, however, our urge to make breed-based assumptions can be stymied by the lack of a known breed to which to attach those assumptions. And so when you have a mutt (as I do), you learn to play the "what is it?" game. Some people guess, some people make up clever names (I have a Golden Collie, or sometimes a Border Retriever) - and some people have their dog genetically tested to determine its ancestry. A new project, MuttMix , ...