Dog Owner Orders DNA Test-Not Prepared for What the Results Reveal
A dog owner has gone viral after sharing their surprise at the results of a DNA test for their scruffy-looking pup, Cappy-after the report suggested the dog was majority American Pit Bull Terrier.
The screenshot of the test results showed Cappy the dog listed as 55.3 percent American Pit Bull Terrier, 39.1 percent "Supermutt," and 5.6 percent Rottweiler, prompting disbelief from viewers who said the dog's appearance didn't match what they expected from a pit bull-type mix.
In a post on Threads last week, owner Jamie Rollins, or @jamiekrollins on Threads, shared the pictures of dog Cappy alongside the DNA results with the caption: "My dogs DNA test results arrived today. How is this guy a Pit Bull????"
Newsweek reached out to Jamie Rollins via Threads for comment.
View on Threads
Dog DNA tests have become a popular way for owners-especially those with rescues or mixed-breed pets-to learn more about ancestry that isn't obvious from looks alone.
Embark, one of the best-known companies in the space, emphasizes that visual guesses can be misleading because mixed-breed dogs may inherit physical traits unevenly across generations, meaning a dog can resemble one "type" while genetically reflecting something different.
In the comments, people rushed to share their own pets' surprising DNA results, while the owner was still questioning how her dog could be a pit bull.
On their website, Embark explains that one reason results can look surprising is the way DNA gets passed down and "recombined" over many generations. The company's website says "Supermutt" appears when a dog has ancestry from multiple breeds, but the inherited DNA segments are so small that they "can no longer be confidently assigned to any one particular breed."
It adds that this happens when dogs descend from "several generations" of mixed-breed ancestors, because the DNA fragments used to identify breeds "get shorter and shorter with every generation of mixing."
Newsweek reached out to Embark via email for comment.
Dog DNA testing is big business. The global pet DNA testing market was valued at about $404 million in 2024 and is projected to grow to around $719 million by 2030, according to Grand View Research. North America accounted for about 42 percent of global revenue, making it the largest regional market.
But as more owners look at DNA testing, Cappy's results are not the first time a dog's DNA result has sparked shock online. Last year another dog owner shared their surprise when they had 3-year-old dog Jake tested, only to find that he was 100 percent American Pit Bull Terrier.
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This story was originally published February 19, 2026 at 5:14 AM.