iPhone Identifies Great Pyrenees and Other Dogs — This is my dog, Luke, doing what he does best, guarding my back area from squirrels, rabbits, birds, and the random possum. He is very serious about this work, as you can see.

For the audio version of these blog posts, tune into the USA Dog Behavior Podcast.

My daughter brought something to my attention recently that I was completely unaware of. If you have a fairly recent model of Apple’s iPhone (iOS 15 or later), you have an automatic dog breed identification tool! With 350 identified dog breeds in the world, this can be pretty handy.

I show you how to use this feature below.

Your iPhone is able to look at any picture you’ve taken of any dog and can tell you what breed it is. On top of that, it automatically provides detailed information about that breed as well.

It works great on purebred dogs (see two of the tests I did below on my dogs). I also tested it on a number of mixed-breed dogs and found that it normally indicates the predominant breed. If it gets a little confused about what breed(s) of dog it is, it just indicates “Dog” (not very helpful!).

How to use this feature:

1. Select a dog photo from your Photos library and open it.
2. Swipe up on the photo.
3. If it can identify the breed, the breed name will appear in the middle of the screen. Otherwise it will just indicate “Dog.”
4. You can tap the breed name for detailed information about that breed.

Important Considerations:

Apple does its best to identify the dog breed. However, if the photo quality is not the greatest or the angle is odd, it may not work.

If you’re having trouble using this feature, see How to Deal with Visual Look Up Not Working.

I tried it on both of my dogs. This is Luke.

Great Pyrenees, Apple iPhoto Identification — After Swiping Up

Verdict: It worked perfectly!

And this is Charlie.

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel — Original Photo

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Apple iPhoto Identification — After Swiping Up

Verdict: It worked perfectly!

Final Thoughts

This feature works. In my test it hit virtually 100% of the purebred dogs. Not bad considering it’s having to look through a library of 350 dog breeds. It had mixed results on mixed-breeds (pun not intended) since it usually just indicates the primary breed, which really is still kind of admirable. The photo quality can impact Apple’s ability to identify the breed.

Apple scores a thumbs up on this feature for dog lovers.

For the audio version of these blog posts, tune into the USA Dog Behavior Podcast.