[The significance of the symmetry of the ridge pattern of the hard palate in dogs].

In order to find a parameter that could be used to differentiate between a pedigreed dog and a mongrel the symmetry of the hard palate ridge pattern was examined in 239 pedigreed dogs representing 30 breeds and 334 mongrels. A symmetrical pattern was found in 148 pedigreed dogs and in 15 mongrels. This difference according to the Chi-square test is very highly significant. Thus the symmetry of the pattern is a valuable parameter to be used to distinguish between pedigreed dogs and mongrels.