My dog, Reggie, is extraordinarily cute. I know this because the ultimate arbiters of asthetics – teenagers girls – in my neighborhood 'ooed' and 'awwed' over her the other night. During the admiring session, one of the girls asked me about Reggie's breed.

I could have more easily answered a question about an effective exit strategy from Iraq. Reggie's kind of a, well, half this and half that, with another quarter of something thrown in for good measure.

So it was with some interest I noted a piece in the journal Science about a group of Seattle geneticists using DNA to "uncover the roots of dogs' family trees." The Oregonian reports that the researchers found such large genetic differences among breeds that "DNA markers alone correctly identified the breed of 409 of the dogs." They also discovered four distinct breeding groups.

The first group to emerge from that project is a set of dogs of Asian and African origin ... The mastiff and related dogs fill the second grouping [including German shepards for some reason] ... The third genetically similar group includes many herding dogs, such as the Belgian sheepdog and collie, as well as Irish wolfhounds, greyhounds, borzois and Saint Bernards. The final group included dogs that have been bred relatively recently in Europe, mostly for hunting – scent hounds, terriers, spaniels, pointers and retrievers.

Not only will this info help dog breeders sort out the real bluebloods from those Johnny-come-lately breeds, but the article claims that this research will also help scientists find genes that they say cause certain ailments that affect "both dogs and humans." And it could also illuminate how DNA affects behavior and personality. (Hmmm. So maybe that's why when my wife says 'fetch' I have this uncontrollable urge to, well, go the store and get a half gallon of milk.)

This study comes on the heels of a study earlier this month that reported "on an average basis, it's possible to match dogs with their owners, based on criteria of owner selections and purebred characteristics."

So not only do we act like our dogs, we look like them too.