How can my shelter dog be a single breed?

Surprising histories

While we tend to assume all shelter dogs and strays must be highly mixed, we do sometimes see rescues return as single-breed dogs.

Surprisingly, single-breed dogs are often surrendered to shelters, especially if they don't match the standard expected look for their breed. 

Single-breed confidence

We are very confident in our assignment of single-breed ancestry. 

The DNA of a dog considered single-breed should almost certainly have at least 95% ancestry from that breed, and likely even 100%. 

Please note that even a 1-5% mixture with another breed (usually undetectable by a DNA test) can yield some surprising looks in a dog with otherwise single-breed ancestry.