The dog family tree from Ice Age wolves to 29 breed families. See how breeds are related by DNA and how families differ from kennel club groups.
Family storyEuropean MastiffRead the family's story: origins, members, DNAThe dog family tree is a map of how dog breeds descend from one another, built from DNA. It starts with an Ice Age wolf population that no longer exists, runs through the first dogs, splits into two big lineages (East Eurasian and West Eurasian), and ends in 29 breed families in this atlas. Breeds in the same family share long stretches of DNA from recent common ancestors, even when they look and work very differently. The tree is a work in progress: 23 of the families come straight from one large 2017 study, and 6 were added by this project from other evidence.
Family storyTerrierRead the family's story: origins, members, DNADogs descend from an extinct Late Pleistocene wolf population, not from today's grey wolf. Early dogs split into East and West Eurasian branches, and modern breeds grew out of those branches, mostly in the last few centuries. Scientists group them into families, called clades. This atlas counts 29.
| Quick fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Breed families (clades) in the atlas | 29 (23 from Parker et al. 2017, 6 inferred by this project) |
| Deeper lineages above the families | 6 (East Eurasian, Arctic, Ancient American, West Eurasian, European, Levantine and African) |
| Breeds and types in the atlas | 654, of which 80 are extinct |
| Breeds with DNA tested in the 2017 study | 160 in the atlas data (the paper reports 161) |
| Root of the tree | Late Pleistocene wolf, then Domestic dog |
| Biggest family | Scent Hound, 113 breeds |
| Smallest families | Ancient Basal, 1 breed; Schnauzer, American Toy, 2 breeds each |
See alsoBulldog1835 to 1875 · United KingdomIn this atlas, family means a genetic , which is a branch of the tree where all members descend from one shared ancestor. Group is used only for kennel club groups, such as the groups of the American Kennel Club (AKC) or the FCI, the international federation of kennel clubs. Clubs sort breeds by the job they were made for. DNA sorts them by who their relatives are.
The two systems often disagree. The Greyhound and the Border Collie sit in the same DNA family, UK Rural. A kennel club puts the Greyhound with the sighthounds (FCI Group 10) and the Border Collie with the sheepdogs (FCI Group 1). The Boston Terrier has terrier in its name, yet its DNA places it in the European Mastiff family, next to the Bulldog and the Boxer. When you see "family" on this site, think relatives. When you see "group", think job.
A third word, lineage, means the deeper branches above the families. East Eurasian dogs and West Eurasian dogs are lineages. Families grow out of them.
Family storyUK RuralRead the family's story: origins, members, DNAThey compare DNA from many dogs and measure how alike each pair of breeds is. The main source for this atlas is Parker and colleagues (Cell Reports, 2017), who studied 1,346 dogs from 161 breeds and found 23 well supported clades. Three ideas sit behind the method.
First, genetic distance. Two breeds that share many of the same DNA variants are close on the tree. Breeds that share few are far apart.
Second, haplotype sharing. A haplotype is a long stretch of DNA that travels together from parent to puppy. When two breeds carry the same long stretches, they probably share a recent ancestor, or one breed was crossed into the other. Long matches point to recent history, short ones to older history.
Third, , which means mixing between populations. The 2017 study found that dog breeds were often built by crossing existing breeds, and it reported more than 150 such mixing events. It also found that some traits, such as a short muzzle or a herding style, appeared more than once in separate parts of the tree.
This is why the tree and the kennel clubs do not match. Clubs group breeds by looks and work. Because the same job and the same look can be reached from different ancestors, breeds that look alike are not always relatives.
Family storyEuropean MastiffRead the family's story: origins, members, DNADogs and grey wolves both come from a Late Pleistocene wolf population that is now extinct. Skoglund and colleagues (Current Biology, 2015) used the genome of a wolf from the Taimyr Peninsula in Siberia, about 35,000 years old, and placed the split between dog ancestors and modern wolves at roughly 27,000 to 40,000 years ago. That is a wide range, and scientists still argue about it.
Where the first dogs lived is also unsettled. Thalmann and colleagues (Science, 2013) read ancient mitochondrial DNA, which passes down the mother line, as pointing to Europe. Perri and colleagues (PNAS, 2021) argued for Siberia by about 23,000 years ago. Bergström and colleagues (Nature, 2022) found that dogs are closer to ancient wolves from eastern Eurasia, but that dogs in the Near East and Africa carry up to half of their ancestry from a second population linked to southwest Eurasian wolves. None of the ancient wolf genomes they studied was a direct match for either source.
The oldest dog that most researchers accept is the Bonn-Oberkassel dog from Germany, buried about 14,200 years ago (Janssens and colleagues, Journal of Archaeological Science, 2018). Bergström and colleagues (Science, 2020) call about 14,500 years a conservative date for the first dogs. By 11,000 years ago, the same study found at least five dog lineages that had already separated. Dogs and wolves have also mixed since: Skoglund's team found Taimyr wolf ancestry in high-latitude breeds such as the Siberian Husky and the Greenland Dog.
So the path runs like this: Late Pleistocene wolf, then a population of domestic dogs, then deeper lineages, then breed families. The Prehistory era in the atlas covers all of that.
Family storyTerrierRead the family's story: origins, members, DNAThe two big lineages are East Eurasian dogs and West Eurasian dogs. Modern breeds sit on one side or the other, with a few that mix.
East Eurasian dogs hold the spitz-type breeds of Asia and the Arctic, the small Asian companion dogs, and the dingo group. Inside them, the Arctic dogs lineage covers sled and spitz dogs from high latitudes. Ancient American dogs, a branch of the Arctic lineage, were the dogs that came into the Americas with the first people. Ní Leathlobhair and colleagues (Science, 2018) found that they were almost completely replaced after Europeans arrived, so modern American breeds carry little of their ancestry.
West Eurasian dogs hold nearly all European and Mediterranean breeds. Two branches sit inside: European dogs, the home of most Western breeds, and Levantine and African dogs, a branch from Bergström's 2020 finding that African dogs carry Levant-related ancestry. The Mediterranean family hangs directly on the West Eurasian lineage.
Two families hang outside both big lineages in the project's tree, because no study has placed them: Pariah and Village Dog, and the Wolfdog Hybrid family.
Family storyUK RuralRead the family's story: origins, members, DNACounts in brackets are breeds in the atlas, then DNA-tested, then extinct. Families marked * were inferred by this project.
Late Pleistocene wolf (extinct) +- Grey wolf | +- Wolfdog Hybrid* (5, 0, 0) [second parent: Domestic dog] +- Domestic dog +- East Eurasian dogs | +- Arctic dogs | | +- Asian Spitz (39, 10, 1) [second parent: East Eurasian dogs] | | +- Ancient American dogs | | (minor second parent of New World) | +- Asian Toy (7, 6, 1) | +- Dingo & Pacific* (7, 0, 5) +- West Eurasian dogs | +- Mediterranean (71, 13, 2) | +- Levantine and African dogs | | +- Ancient Basal* (1, 1, 0) | +- European dogs | +- Nordic Spitz (19, 6, 1) | +- Small Spitz (10, 3, 0) | +- Toy Spitz (6, 4, 2) | +- Schnauzer (2, 2, 0) | +- Pinscher (14, 2, 0) | +- Drover (4, 4, 0) | +- Alpine (6, 3, 1) | +- Hungarian (3, 2, 0) | +- Poodle (20, 6, 5) | +- Terrier (49, 18, 6) | +- American Terrier (4, 3, 0) | +- American Toy (2, 2, 0) | +- New World (15, 6, 6) [minor second parent: Ancient American dogs] | +- Scent Hound (113, 8, 20) | +- Spaniel (27, 5, 5) | +- Retriever (10, 7, 1) | +- Pointer Setter (36, 12, 2) | +- Continental Herder (39, 5, 0) | +- UK Rural (44, 16, 9) | +- European Mastiff (54, 16, 12) | +- American Cur & Feist* (12, 0, 0) | +- Modern Crossbreed* (10, 0, 0) +- Pariah & Village Dog* (25, 0, 1)
See alsoBasenji3000 BCE to 1937 · Democratic Republic of the CongoTwenty-three families are the clades named in Parker and colleagues (2017): Asian Spitz, Asian Toy, Nordic Spitz, Small Spitz, Toy Spitz, Schnauzer, Pinscher, Drover, Alpine, Hungarian, Poodle, Terrier, American Terrier, American Toy, New World, Scent Hound, Spaniel, Retriever, Pointer Setter, Continental Herder, UK Rural, European Mastiff and Mediterranean.
Six families are inferred. The study did not name them. This project made them so every breed in the atlas has a home, and it marks them as inferred in the data.
Treat the placement of these six as the project's best reading, not a published result.
See alsoAkita1600 to 1931 · Japan
Spitz-type dogs from Asia and the Arctic with thick coats, curled tails and prick ears, from sled dogs to Japanese breeds. Two parents in the tree, East Eurasian dogs and Arctic dogs.
Full family: Asian Spitz
The dingo and its relatives, including island dogs that people carried across the Pacific. Most of the family is extinct. This is an inferred family, placed in the East Eurasian lineage because dingoes reached Australia from island Southeast Asia, carried by people.
Full family: Dingo & Pacific
See alsoAfghan Hound1000 to 1800 · Afghanistan
Sighthounds, mountain dogs and livestock guardians from southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It holds both slim runners and heavy guard dogs, so kennel clubs split it over several groups.
Full family: Mediterranean
One breed, kept apart by the project because it does not sit with any other clade. Inferred family, hung on the Levantine and African branch.
Full family: Ancient Basal
See alsoIcelandic Sheepdog874 CE to 1969 · IcelandThis is the biggest branch. Most breeds that kennel clubs recognise today sit here. Many took their present shape in the Victorian breed boom, when dog shows and stud books began.
Hunting and herding spitz from Northern Europe, such as dogs that track elk or flush birds.
Full family: Nordic Spitz
Compact, fluffy spitz of Central Europe, kept mostly as companions and watchdogs.
Full family: Small Spitz
Only two breeds sit here. The Giant Schnauzer does not: it lives in the Drover family.
Full family: Schnauzer
Terriers developed in the United States. Three of four were tested.
Full family: American Terrier
Two tiny breeds in one clade. The 2017 study reported hints of New World dog ancestry in some modern breeds.
Full family: American Toy
The largest family: dogs that follow a trail by nose. It includes packs of foxhounds, coonhounds, basset-type dogs and many regional French hounds. One in six is extinct.
Full family: Scent Hound
Bird dogs that find game and point or crouch. One surprise member: the Dalmatian.
Full family: Pointer Setter
Herding and driving dogs from continental Europe, especially Belgium, France and the Netherlands.
Full family: Continental Herder
Heavy, broad-headed dogs: mastiffs, bulldogs and bull breeds. Twelve of its 54 breeds are extinct, many of them old fighting and baiting types.
Full family: European Mastiff
American hunting and farm dogs of the cur and feist type. Inferred family: none of its breeds was in the study.
Full family: American Cur & Feist
Planned crosses between established breeds, placed under European dogs because most parents come from there. Inferred family.
Full family: Modern Crossbreed
See alsoAfricanis300 CE to 1000 · South AfricaFree-breeding local dogs, shaped mostly by the places they live and not by breeders. They hang straight off Domestic dog in the tree because no study in the data has placed them in a lineage. Inferred family.
Full family: Pariah & Village Dog
Dogs crossed with wolves in recent times. They are the one family with a wild parent. Inferred family.
Full family: Wolfdog Hybrid
Family storyEuropean MastiffRead the family's story: origins, members, DNADog families are not always clean branches. When a family grew from two sources, the tree shows both parents. Three families have two.
A tree with only one parent per family would hide these crosses. Two parents show that mixing is part of dog history, not an exception.
Family storyTerrierRead the family's story: origins, members, DNAOnly roughly. The table shows the main kennel club group for each family, taken from the atlas data. Many breeds are not recognised by any large club, and some families spread over several groups.
| DNA family | Main FCI group | Main AKC group |
|---|---|---|
| Terrier | 3, Terriers | Terrier |
| Scent Hound | 6, Scent hounds | Hound |
| Retriever | 8, Retrievers, flushing dogs and water dogs | Sporting |
| Spaniel | 8 and 7 | Sporting |
| Pointer Setter | 7, Pointing dogs | Sporting |
| Continental Herder | 1, Sheepdogs and cattledogs | Herding |
| UK Rural | 1 and 10, Sighthounds | Herding and Hound |
| Mediterranean | 2, 1 and 10, among others | Hound and Working |
| European Mastiff | 2, Pinscher, Schnauzer and Molossoid breeds | Working |
| Asian Spitz and Nordic Spitz | 5, Spitz and primitive types | Working and Non-Sporting |
| Asian Toy, American Toy, Toy Spitz | 9, Companion and toy dogs | Toy |
| Poodle | 9 and 8 | Non-Sporting, Sporting and Toy |
No group matches one family exactly. FCI Group 2 holds the European Mastiff, Drover, Alpine and Pinscher families, and the Mediterranean family holds breeds from Groups 1, 2, 5 and 10. The Dachshund is another case: the FCI gives dachshunds their own Group 4, while DNA puts the Dachshund in the Scent Hound family.
Family storyUK RuralRead the family's story: origins, members, DNAFamily storyEuropean MastiffRead the family's story: origins, members, DNAIt depends on what "oldest" means. Dogs themselves are at least 14,000 years old, and the lineages behind modern breeds are older still. Breeds as kennel clubs define them, with written standards and closed stud books, are mostly young. Sighthounds and livestock guards of the Mediterranean family, spitz dogs of the Asian Spitz and Nordic Spitz families, and some Pariah and Village Dog types are the ones most often called ancient. For most of these the dates are estimates from art, writing and village history, not DNA-dated finds. The Basenji, often called ancient, sits alone in an inferred family, so the DNA data used here does not settle its age.
A diagram of how dog breeds are related, built from DNA. It starts at an extinct Ice Age wolf and ends at modern breed families. Breeds on the same branch share recent ancestors.
This atlas shows 29. Twenty-three come from the 2017 Parker study, and 6 were added by the project. Other researchers might count a different number, because the answer depends on which breeds are tested and how branches are cut.
Not from living ones. Dogs and today's grey wolves share an extinct wolf ancestor. Dogs and wolves have mixed since then, and some northern breeds carry traces of ancient wolf ancestry.
Through shared ancestors and through crossing. Breeds that share long stretches of DNA sit in the same family. Many breeds were made by crossing older ones, so a breed can belong to one family and still carry a link to another.
No. A family is a DNA branch. A group is a kennel club category based on the dog's job. The Greyhound and the Border Collie share a family but sit in different kennel groups.
The atlas places them in Modern Crossbreed, next to European dogs. That family is a project grouping, not a genetic clade from a study.
Each family has a card in this guide and will get its own full article.
