What breed is my dog?

How does the dog breed identifier work?

Every breed has a written standard that describes its size, coat, ears, tail and accepted colors. The tool compares your description with those features for all 162 breeds in our database and scores how well each one fits. Weight and height count the most, because they rule breeds in or out fastest; coat comes next, then ears, tail, colors and build.

The percentage is the share of your answers that the breed matches, so "Not sure" never counts against a breed. Build is worked out from each breed's standard height and weight: a breed that is heavy for its height counts as stocky, and one that is light for its height counts as slim. Ear types come from the breed standards and are mapped for the most common breeds; for breeds we haven't mapped yet, the ear question is skipped rather than guessed.

How to describe your dog for the best match

• Weight: weigh yourself on a bathroom scale, then again holding your dog, and subtract. Use the adult weight; for a puppy, skip it and pick a size instead.
• Height: breed standards measure height at the withers, the top of the shoulder blades, not the head. Stand your dog square on a hard floor and measure straight up to that point.
• Coat: describe the adult coat as it grows naturally, not a fresh clip. A thick, soft undercoat that sheds in clumps means a double coat.
• Tail: if your dog's tail was docked, pick "Not sure" unless you know what it looked like before.
• Colors: tick every color and pattern you can see, including small white markings and tan "points" on the face, chest and legs.

Have a puppy and want to know how big it will get? The puppy weight calculator predicts adult weight, and the mixed breed size calculator works from the parents' breeds.

What do the ear and tail types look like?

The AKC glossary defines the ear types used in breed standards. Here they are with breeds from our data that have each type naturally (in the US, some breeds have their ears cropped to stand up).

To browse every breed with a given tail, eye color or coat, use the dog breeds by trait finder.

Can you tell a dog's breed just by looking at it?

Not reliably. In a 2009 study, researchers compared the breed labels that adoption agencies gave 20 dogs of unknown parentage with the dogs' DNA results. Of the 16 dogs the agencies had labeled with specific breeds, only 4 (25%) had one of those breeds as a main breed in their DNA, and 87.5% did not have all of the named breeds detected at all.

Looks are tricky because a few genes control some of the most visible features. Variants in just three genes explain most of the coat types seen in purebred dogs: whether the coat is long or short, curly or straight, and whether it has the beard and eyebrows of a wire-haired dog. So a mix can carry, say, a poodle-type curly coat while being mostly something else. A 2022 study in Science also found physical traits far more heritable and breed-linked than behavior, which is why a dog can look convincingly like one breed and act like another.

What if my dog is a mix?

Many dogs of unknown origin are mixes, and a mix can take its size from one parent and its coat or ears from another. If several very different breeds score similarly here, that's a strong hint your dog is a blend. Look at what the top matches have in common (a herding-dog build, a terrier coat, hound ears) rather than at a single breed name.

If you need a firm answer, for example to screen for breed-linked health problems or for housing rules, a DNA breed test is the only reliable way. Choose one with a large breed reference database and treat small percentages with some caution.