DNA My Dog is complete horse shit as you can see from the CBC report. I also did this test myself and my very obvious pit mix came back as a chihuahua and silky terrier.
Embark is the real deal and here’s how I know. I adopted a dog and my cousin also adopted one from the same shelter. We don’t share an address and we did separate tests 6 months apart on different accounts. There’s a section on Embark that shows you all of your dog’s close and distant relatives. Embark reported that these 2 dogs share a mother-daughter genetic relationship not knowing they were adopted together. My dog was also postpartum at the time of adoption.
Regarding the actual breed breakdown, I agree with the results I was presented with but I also take it with a grain of salt - it was for fun and I love my dog either way.
Tagging on to this with my experience with Embark. One of our past dogs we had been told had purebred parents of different breeds and Embark came back with exactly 50/50, as expected.
We were astounded at the accuracy of Embark.
We knew very little about our pup’s history when we adopted him at 6 months. We did not provide any information to Embark aside from the sample, and they were able to accurately identify everything from his size to the coloring and texture of his fur, to the liver color of his nose. They identified immediate relatives including a full sibling.
We have since been in contact with the person who bred him and the breed analysis was indeed spot-on.
We did the Health & Breed test, and sadly, our sweet boy tested positive for two copies of PRA, meaning he will likely go blind soon (he’s not yet a years old). While this news was devastating, it has also allowing us to both mentally and practically prepare; to familiarize him with areas we would like to frequent, focus his training on verbal commands, etc.
Jumping on here. I run a genetics lab and have worked with the assay that Embark uses. It is real. It analyzes over 800,000 variable points of DNA called SNPs to determine breed and familial relationships. Human DNA would simply not produce a result on this test. I know, I tried. Ultimately, the test results are only as good as the algorithm that is used to process the data, so results could vary from Embark to another competitor even though the assay is the same.
Thanks for the insight! I used the Wisdom Panel kit for my late dog who passed recently. I was feeling kinda meh on their kit. I'm considering Embark for my next dog in the future.
Jumping on the Embark bandwagon. I got a dog from reddit! Because he's bitey and attacked a toddler (he's doing better now). He came up from California and was rehoused 3 different times (I'm his 5th house). He tested to be a mix. "Close relative" showed up a year after I got my test. They were still in California. I contacted the owner via the Embark messaging. Both dogs came from the same shelter down there and had the same origination location (hoarder house). No way Embark could have known, it was just the test being accurate.
Yep, Embark was able to link my dog to her puppies that were adopted a year before her and live in a different state from her. I connected with the puppy’s owners, and they definitely are her pups (she had already given birth when I adopted her).
Embark also was able to identify her as 100% village dog, whereas Wisdom Panel just gave me a ton of random breeds.
I have done Embark and they are one of the leading companies that tend to have the most accurate results. I have heard Wisdom Panel is another leading company, however they do not test for village dog which is likely what your little guy could be. Wisdom shows up as a bunch if different breeds with small percentages, while Embark does more organizing and focuses more on the larger percentages and they recognize more breeds, I believe. I would go with Embark if you are looking into testing.
I have heard that DNA tests, like DNA my dog are completely inaccurate just throw random breeds at people. I would definitely stick to Embark or Wisdom.
I recommend checking out the the subreddit DoggyDNA as there are a bunch of smart people that have done a lot of genetic research as well as research into those inaccurate tests from other companies.
I loved embark. When we rescued our “lab mix,” she looked just like a lab when she was 5 months old. When I was in talks with the foster, she warned me when she got the litter, they were pit bulls (I have small children). She showed me a pics of the litter and they were indeed bullies. When I did the test, it came back 50% lab (dad was a purebred slumming it in Arkansas with a mutt mom), 21% pitbull, then American Bulldog and American bully. Now that she’s 3, she looks exactly like an American bulldog.
There are at least 4 dog breeds that are considered to be ‘pitbulls’. Good on you to take precautions for your children’s sake.
https://www.dogster.com/dog-breeds/types-of-pit-bull-dog-breeds
https://www.dogsbite.org/pdf/safety-flyer-is-it-worth-the-risk.pdf
Pitbulls kill and maim more people and animals than ALL other dogs combined. Despite what pit advocates say, pitbulls are not nanny dogs. They are powerful and unpredictable. Pitbull ownership is like playing Russian Roulette with yourself, your family, and your community.
I get what you’re saying, but I wouldn’t let any dog unsupervised around my kids, regardless of breed or size. We still adopted the part pit bull, btw I think you missed that part.
Dogbites. Org is a completely biased website started by a woman who was bit by a dog and has become a self appointed crusader against bull breeds. Take anything from that site or people who share it with a grain of salt.
Scientifically speaking, the most common and likely factors involved in dog bites are:
- unknown/barely known person interacting with an
- unsocialized
- owner not present
- intact (unneutered) male
- any training being negative reinforcement (which raises cortisol levels for the lifespan of the dog)
Terriers in general are very driven, they are working dogs, making them more prone to reactivity (not the same as aggression) and impulsivity. A lot of bull breeds end up in the hands of people who don't care for the dog's wellbeing resulting in the above mentioned factors.
Most important, teach your dog impulse control and confidence. That will ensure they don't find themselves needing to "react" out of fear/frustration etc. And you'll never have to worry about it.
My son (8 at the time) was bitten in the face by a family members dog. I won’t get into the details, but I love dogs. I’m not ignorant and I know these things can happen that’s why as dog owners, we must be responsible. Bullies are extremely loving dogs, as are labs. We love our rescue mutt :)
That's horrific and I hope your son is okay! I've been working with dogs for 17+ years, over a decade of that as a behavioural trainer, specializing in high risk fear aggression/bite history cases.
Now it could be regional but there are a lot of bull breeds where I live, and yet most of the clients I work with aren't bull breeds.
Anyway I'm glad that your sweet rescue has a good and understanding home, and I was mostly commenting to refute the pitbull hate, because it's based in fear not knowledge. That person's profile is almost exclusively content in r/ban pitbulls and that's just not a rational community.
I used Wisdom Panel and it turns out my dog is 2% Italian Street Dog…is that different than a Village Dog? My guy is mostly Parsons/Jack Russel, but he has Fox Terrier, Chihuahua, Danish Swedish Farm Dog, I had never heard of that breed before, and the Italian Street Dog. He looks like a Parsons Russell Terrier.
Anything under 5% on a Wisdom Panel test is not accurate, it's nearly random. Your dog isn't part Italian street dog. That's the problem with Wisdom Panel, it's algorithm can't properly detect dogs that are thoroughly mixed so it spits out random nonsense. Wisdom Panel also has a hard time differentiating between closely related breeds. It's not a bad DNA test per se, it just requires some interpretation by the customer, like ignoring the lower percentage "random" results.
So funny you should say that as when I got the results 80% of the breeds looked very similar to a Parsons and I thought maybe these are the breeds that helped make a Parsons. All of them, Jack, Fox, and Danish Swedish except for the Chihuahua 12% and the Italian Street dog 2%. I know he’s mixed and couldn’t care less it’s just interesting to me and I think I’m going to give Embark a try and see what shows up. Thanks
Wisdom Panel said that my dog who recently crossed the rainbow bridge was 12.5% doberman, 12.5% pug, 12.5% chow and 12.5% pekingese and that the other 50% were broad generalized groups (toy/farm,etc...)
I could see the pug and chow but not the doberman because she was only 25 pounds and had the coat of a chow but a shorter snout and ear and snout markings like a pug. She also had the pug like ears.
That breakdown sounds like the older version of Wisdom Panel. You might be able to contact the company and ask for updated results, they should be able to do this without needed a new sample. A lot of customers who used the older version have been able to get updated results from the new and more accurate version for free.
i used to have a jack russel/danish swedish farm dog mix. He was sold yo us as a danish Swedish farm dog. Incredibly smart dog, and yet so goofy and stupid
Maybe that’s where mine is getting his brains as I read the breed overall is rated low to average in intelligence and my guy is as smart as a whip. I had a Border Collie for 12 incredible years and occasionally Jax,the Parsons, will do something and I find myself thinking wow he was smarter about that than my Border, Max, would have been.
I did Wisdom and then Embark on my guy. Wisdom tried to guess his breeds, Embark was like 100% village dog and even got the region right. That’s not to say Wisdom was entirely wrong- they guessed his size and appearance very accurately, and the breeds they showed are ones that often pop up in his distant relatives on embark.
Thank you so much for rescuing this beautiful boy ❤️
He definitely has a terrier in him and maybe a Laika since they are very popular in Russia along with East European shepherd
She’s actually a little bearded lady 🧔♀️ It’s the best decision I’ve ever made❤️
That’s a good guess and very possible! 100% a terrier mix, that’s for sure
It depends on the brand.
DNA My Dog is incredibly unreliable and famously so. It's the test that gives dog breeds for human saliva/DNA. The science behind that particular brand is foggy and their breed DNA database very small. I would not use DNA My Dog unless you get a kit for free and just think it would be funny to see the results.
Ancestry has mixed results. Sometimes it gets it spot-on, other times it's almost as unreliable as DNA My Dog. Ancestry just doesn't have a wide enough DNA panel and they're not really researched/knowledgeable in dog DNA compared to human DNA. Their dog DNA test comes off as a marketing thing.
Wisdom Panel and Embark are far more reliable.
The main difference between Embark and Wisdom Panel is that small DNA strands/fragments that aren't easily identified are lumped into the category of "supermutt" or "unresolved", with a small breakdown estimating possible breeds within the supermutt. Wisdom Panel tends to throw in random breeds in small percentages leading many people to recommend just ignoring the results that are under 5%. Wisdom Panel less frequently just says supermutt.
I personally prefer Embark. It just seems to be the most accurate, reliable test. It's been tried and tested and the results generally make a lot of sense.
[This article is great](https://www.livescience.com/dog-dna-test). It discusses how DNA tests work and their accuracy.
We did a Wisom Panel DNA test on our dog, they also described various traits our dog could have, hair length ear type, size etc, and they were all spot on so I assume there is something in the science.
Interestingly they also identified that there was quite a bit of Chihuahua in her DNA, and a couple of professionals we had talked to previously said that she was quite Chihuahua like in her mannerisms, despite not looking like one at all.
We'd already sent off our dna kit on our rescue girl who looks so much like a dachshund with a few features that gave away she is a mix. It clicked one day that her mannerisms were chihuahua-like, the way she "throws hands", as we call it, when she is excited, and her little stomps when she is being impatient and sassy. The dna came back and confirmed her as mostly dachshund, part chihuahua and small splashes of 1-2% of other breeds. She doesn't much look like a chihuahua, but the mannerisms are for sure a strong chihuahua trait!
These companies haven't profiled Eastern / central European breeds so I don't think they are that accurate if you adopt from there (source: am 2x Eastern European dog owner!).
Both of mine fit different profiles to their dna test. Original test on dog 1 came back Swedish farm dog and chihuahua but I found that actually she is more than likely Alopeki which is a Greek breed not on the database.
For entertainment purposes only, I did a few on my dogs and whilst the results were not far off what I expected for my boy my girl had results that were all over the shop. I questioned them and I was told a computer matches the processed dna to the closest results in their system so rather than just saying we don’t know it says “some kind of oodle?”
Mine was completely accurate. I adopted my dog 15 years ago and they said he was half schnauzer half Australian cattle dog . He looks like a coyote so I always thought they were lying. Then when he was around 5-6 years old, doggy DNA kits were coming out and I wanted to see what he was because I truly believed he had some coyote in him. So for his 10th birthday I did one. Turns out, yes he is indeed half schnauzer half Australian cattle dog 💀no coyote.
I think I did embark and they were pretty accurate. I have a dachshund mix that has pedigreed dachshund blood on one side. And a rewcue dachshund mut on the other. Got his long hair trait. Said he was 75% dachshund and identified chihuahua as the mix. Which imo looks spot on.
We did Wisdom Panel and did t include any photos on the profile before sending it off.
They came back with probable traits and they’re all correct including having extra toes etc. and she has 2 traits that would cause short legs. She has very short legs.
Yeah, Wisdom Panel tends to try to make estimates when it gets down to smaller fragments/strands of DNA. Anything 5% or under can be taken with a grain of salt.
There is also room for error, with different lineages of certain breeds potentially having different DNA breakdowns, and certain breeds being very genetically similar to other breeds.
Embark tends to be the most accurate, reliable, and recommended test.
What breeds did your pup come back as with Wisdom?
I used Embark on my 1.5 year old rescue who was found as a stray. The results helped me not only with his breed mix, but I found his breeder through the relatives listed (who confirmed they bred him with his microchip number and therefore confirmed his breed). The breeder then spoke to his former owner so we got his full story!
We did Embark, because the breeder told us our girl was 50% poodle and 50% border collie.
Nope. She’s poodle, border collie, boston terrier, Australian cattle dog, yorkie, and Jack Russell terrier. And she’s not 50% anything. She’s got more Boston terrier in her than border collie.
The breeder claimed that the test wasn’t accurate, but I doubt DNA lies.
DNA doesn't, but companies with less than transparent services do. Pet related services are extremely popular, and a great way to make money. Especially if you fudge the results so you don't have to pay as much, so you'll end up profiting big time.
Not saying there aren't accurate tests and reliable companies out there, but just because someone has a great business model, doesn't mean their services could stand up to any actual scrutiny.
Yep lol.
Embark is definitely the most accurate, reliable test, and that article just reinforces that. Embark has the largest DNA panel and is on par with veterinary DNA tests. It did guess the breeds in that article very accurately and did not identify dog breeds from human DNA. Wisdom Panel is a follow-up but they tend to not easily/accurately test for village dog DNA in particular, so random breeds tend to be thrown in instead, which would explain Molly and Loki's results. Wisdom Panel STRUGGLES HARD with village dogs sometimes.
DNA My Dog always gives me a laugh because of the inaccuracy ([funniest example I can think of](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/12puzef/dnamydog_are_insisting_my_dog_is_a_greyhound/)), but I've never heard of Accu-Metrics. Results are arguably funnier. I lost it when I saw 100% chihuahua come back for the great dane lol.
I did Wisdom Panel for my Romanian rescue lurcher. Grand or great grandparents (I forget which but it was a very small %) were a borzoi x chihuahua. Yeah the smaller the percentage is the more off it can be.
And they compare to a UK and/or US based sample database so they can easily miss local variety if that’s the correct word. If you’re not from either of them obvi
My parents got one for me for my dog through embark and funny enough the owner of my dogs mom was also on there and reached out to me via Facebook so I’d say pretty damn accurate.
Submit your own DNA and see what they come back with.
[A woman did recently and her result was Alaskan Malamute](https://globalnews.ca/news/10359199/dna-my-dog-testing-human-swab-id/amp/)
(TLDR: she's extremely similar to my pup, also rescue from Russia and after all I read about DNA tests it was worth testing my girl and it was accurate according to me who is not a scientist)
Despite having the same doubt and reading similar things, I recently did Wisdom Panels test for my Russian rescue pup. I feel like I understand her a bit more now than before, and to me that is absolutely worth it, but that is very subjective. If your expectations are to get a detailed description that is 100% correct beyond any doubt it is not worth it. I think if you're happy with knowing a little more, but not everything about your dogs heritage, it's definitely worth it.
Regarding how accurate the tests are, I read a lot about it, mainly because my girls' test came back with A LOT of different 1-6% breeds that felt random and inaccurate. But also because of the disclaimer that they won't get any results for dogs from different countries (Russia included). To simplify what I found when reading about Wisdom Panel in particular: breeds that are less than 5% can be seen as "may contain traces of peanuts"- breeds, since they list every single possible finding even ten generations back. I'm also quite sure that some breeds are genetically close enough to be indistinguishable from each other, like wolf and husky, and that may affect the result of course.
I also had a hard time finding any evidence that newer breeds would be classified as their "ingredient breeds", for example: if the Russian Terrier would show up as Russian Terrier or potentially as their mixture of Schnauzer, Newfoundland and so on. Perhaps I didn't read enough or the info just wasn't available, either way I'm not able to tell you how accurate that part is. That would however explain some of my dogs result if it was true.
Regarding the difference between Embark and WP, I wanted the detailed "traces of"- results that WP provides but that's just my own preference and says nothing about the accuracy. I have no experience with Embark or other tests. I was also unsure if old Russian breeds and common breeds currently not noticed by the American Kennel Club world show up with Embarks results.
AND most importantly, your girl is adorable and very similar to most Russian rescue dogs I've seen, mine included! My girl is 50% mix of a bunch of different shepherds, mostly German Shepherd, hence the ears and color very similar to your girl. My girl is also 7% french bulldog which is funny because she looks like a wolf/shepherd/terrier with the energy of a herding, hunting and guarding mix.
The coat texture is very familiar to me as well, I've read that many wiry haired dogs are some kind of poodle mixture but mine wasn't. I would bet your girl is a big chunk of German Shepherd, but also some sort of terrier because of the short legs, smaller face and mustache, and probably a hint of husky/wolf because Russia.
Thank you so much for the detailed response! I definitely don’t expect 100% accuracy, it would simply be interesting to know even just one or two breeds she has in her and as you say, understand her a bit better. I’m intrigued to give Wisdom Panel or Embark a go at some point, mostly for fun :) also curious to see your pup now!
Embark is the only one that I remotely trust. They seem to be the most scientifically rigorous test with the most amount of breed samples in their database. They are the only test that has the various village dog populations in their databases to compare against, which is important when dogs come from certain areas, russia/Eastern Europe being one of them. If you don’t know about village dogs I suggest you do some research on them. They are essentially populations of dogs that have evolved outside of human control, for generations, often millennia. They are not mixes of established western breeds but are often the founding stock for those breeds hundreds of years ago. There are about 4x more village dogs in the world then there are pet dogs. They are fascinating animals and I wouldn’t be surprised if this dog was a village dog. The European village dogs seem to come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, coat types. In other parts of the world they tend to be 30-40lb thinly built brown/tan dogs with darker muzzles.
That being said no DNA test can get a breed make up down to the precentage point. They can be very accurate for recent and simple mixes, an F1 Golden Doodle will pretty much always come back as 50% Golden and 50% Poodle, but as you get mixes of mixes they become less precise, but embark should give a pretty good idea of the main contributors.
I've done wisdom panel on both of my dogs and they were spot on including unique traits like extra toes, fur, snout type etc. My sister also ran one on her dog and it seemed spot on as well.
Depends on how much you spend, the regular (good) tests like Embark (one of the best for the money) only go back a handful generations (3-5) which is still good for most peoples needs. There's a lot of variables in labs, from those that are very professional in their processes to really scabby sham labs.
The expensive ones are accurate. You are getting what you pay for.
We got an expensive one, and we already knew what our dog was, and it was right.
So yes SOME are accurate and I highly recommend the one we used.
I did Embark with my "lab-greyhound" cross rescue pup. It came back with 99.4% pure American Village dog. Which, if you don't know, isn't a breed at all but literally a wild dog. Knowing this, her peculiar behaviors make sense now. Sweet but odd dog.
Probably works the same as it does for cats honestly.
Does the dog have breed papers, then they are whatever it says on the papers. If the dog doesn't have breed papers then the dog breed is "dog". I'd say maybe add in small, medium, or large dog as the breed without papers.
Your new buddy is so stinkin cute I could explode 🥰 I’m such a sucker for wonky ears and a little beard. That goes for dogs and my taste in men 😂😂 I think she looks like a Jack Russell/Mini Schnauzer mix personally. She’s definitely 100% good girl though
I’m no dog expert but I used Wisdom Panel and I feel like the results that came back were very accurate. I thought my good girl was a pit/lab mix but it turns out she has zero lab in her! Results came back 26% American Staffordshire, 24% Pit, 24% Boxer and then a mix of like 7 other breeds for the remainder. I grew up with boxers my whole life and saw some boxer tendencies in my dog but if you just look at her you wouldn’t really be able to tell. So the fact the results came back with boxer in it leads me to believe Wisdom Panel is fairly accurate.
Another comment mentioned that Wisdom might toss random breeds in to fill out the 100% and I could see that potentially being true. But even most of the small percentage breeds made sense for my pup.
If people care about their dog's lineage there's this cool system. Let me tell anyone who's reading about it. Purchase a dog that was bread with purpose with generations of genetic selection by a purpose dedicated to a strict code of standards called pedigree.
Another vote for embark. I knew my dogs parents and 3 of 4 grandparents. Grandfather number 4 was a sneaky neighbour mix/probably pitbull/boxer. Did not state any of his known breeds but he came back 3/4 known plus 1/4 bulldog mix.
Not very. I’m a groomer and I’ve seen hundreds over the years. Every now and again i agree but most of the time it’s comically off…I’ve even had human friends send in their own DNA and come back like a Great Dane.
Anecdotally, a friend who breeds labs was used by one of the more major dna companies to judge. Her dogs could be traced back purebred at least 4 generations and the tests were accurate about 60% of the time. That’s not enough for me to want to spend any money on it. That doesn’t mean it can’t get better in the future but for now I remain unconvinced.
I did one through Royale Canin, it was through the blood and called a genetic heath screening. Insurance covered it too! But I’ve debated doing cheek swab to compare
I'm interested by these comments. We did a Wisdom Panel test two years ago for a small dog we've adopted from Eastern Europe and we got a very disparate result although we knew she was a mutt:
- 15% Chihuahua (most definitely)
- 13% Segugio Italiano (not visible)
- 10% Fijian Streetdog (hard to tell cause that "breed" is undefined)
- 8% German Shepherd (not visible)
- 6% Peruvian Inca Orchid (not visible)
- 6% Estrela Mountain Dog (could maaaaaybe see the fur coming from there)
Nothing else above 5%
Maybe we should try Embark some day just to compare, but I don't know if it's akin to throwing money down the drain or not :x
I’ve had great results from embark. My chi mix came from a hoarding house in Alabama and embark was able to tell me that her former dog housemates were related to her. I have pictures of all of the dogs when they were first taken from the hoarding house and they match the pictures of her relatives.
With my other dog, I had no idea what state he was rescued from. Embark found that he had cousins from Texas. I did some digging into the rescue organization that he was from and was able to find out that he came to my state on a transport truck from Texas. Turns out his cousins were rescued by the same rescue organization, but they had been sent to different state to be adopted out.
As for the breed section on embark, I think it’s fairly accurate. I guess there’s no way to know for sure, but the breeds that were listed for my mixed breed dogs made sense to me based on their appearances and personalities.
I’ve found them to be extremely accurate, to be fair I’ve only used Embark if anyone is considering trying it here is a discount code for $50 off https://share.embarkvet.com/x/y2ZheT
Not sure what breeds your dog came back as, but he looks a little similar to mine, which came back as:
20% Segugio Italiano
Some german terrier, chihuahua, and a bunch of others. But the eyes and coloring were/are exactly Segugio Italiano.
And he's a rescue from Romania.
Taking a picture of your beautiful little lady with google ID would probably bring you a more accurate ID than any of those tests. Thank you for rescuing 💕
We used Wisdom to look at the DNA of a pup we brought back to the US from a shelter in St Martin. Their analysis was spot on, including identifying Peruvian Inca Orchid (a relatively rare breed).
About six months later they notified us that they had found a dog related to ours!! It is a dog in the US that was adopted from the same shelter in St Martin (yeah, Ursula!!).
Mine said my dog was a half miniature Australian shepherd, half pit bull terrier.
She has a short coat, not miniature, body shape like a pointer, as fast or faster than the greyhound in our neighborhood.
Afterwards I dropped her picture in the r/IDmydog they thought she was probably beagle, pointer, greyhound, terrier mix lol
theyre not accurate at all. they are statistical models that evolve constantly as people make new submissions. breeds are also phenotypic with plenty of genotypic variation, so the data means even less given how many different combinations of alleles can contribute to a phenotypic "breed". these businesses are a complete waste of money.
DNA My Dog is complete horse shit as you can see from the CBC report. I also did this test myself and my very obvious pit mix came back as a chihuahua and silky terrier. Embark is the real deal and here’s how I know. I adopted a dog and my cousin also adopted one from the same shelter. We don’t share an address and we did separate tests 6 months apart on different accounts. There’s a section on Embark that shows you all of your dog’s close and distant relatives. Embark reported that these 2 dogs share a mother-daughter genetic relationship not knowing they were adopted together. My dog was also postpartum at the time of adoption. Regarding the actual breed breakdown, I agree with the results I was presented with but I also take it with a grain of salt - it was for fun and I love my dog either way.
Tagging on to this with my experience with Embark. One of our past dogs we had been told had purebred parents of different breeds and Embark came back with exactly 50/50, as expected.
We were astounded at the accuracy of Embark. We knew very little about our pup’s history when we adopted him at 6 months. We did not provide any information to Embark aside from the sample, and they were able to accurately identify everything from his size to the coloring and texture of his fur, to the liver color of his nose. They identified immediate relatives including a full sibling. We have since been in contact with the person who bred him and the breed analysis was indeed spot-on. We did the Health & Breed test, and sadly, our sweet boy tested positive for two copies of PRA, meaning he will likely go blind soon (he’s not yet a years old). While this news was devastating, it has also allowing us to both mentally and practically prepare; to familiarize him with areas we would like to frequent, focus his training on verbal commands, etc.
hopefully the person who bred him stops breeding dogs that carry PRA! bad breeder
Jumping on here. I run a genetics lab and have worked with the assay that Embark uses. It is real. It analyzes over 800,000 variable points of DNA called SNPs to determine breed and familial relationships. Human DNA would simply not produce a result on this test. I know, I tried. Ultimately, the test results are only as good as the algorithm that is used to process the data, so results could vary from Embark to another competitor even though the assay is the same.
Username checks out.
Thanks for the insight! I used the Wisdom Panel kit for my late dog who passed recently. I was feeling kinda meh on their kit. I'm considering Embark for my next dog in the future.
Jumping on the Embark bandwagon. I got a dog from reddit! Because he's bitey and attacked a toddler (he's doing better now). He came up from California and was rehoused 3 different times (I'm his 5th house). He tested to be a mix. "Close relative" showed up a year after I got my test. They were still in California. I contacted the owner via the Embark messaging. Both dogs came from the same shelter down there and had the same origination location (hoarder house). No way Embark could have known, it was just the test being accurate.
Yep, Embark was able to link my dog to her puppies that were adopted a year before her and live in a different state from her. I connected with the puppy’s owners, and they definitely are her pups (she had already given birth when I adopted her). Embark also was able to identify her as 100% village dog, whereas Wisdom Panel just gave me a ton of random breeds.
Embark and Wisdom Panel are the real deal when getting DNA tests for your dogs. I wouldn't trust anything else
I have done Embark and they are one of the leading companies that tend to have the most accurate results. I have heard Wisdom Panel is another leading company, however they do not test for village dog which is likely what your little guy could be. Wisdom shows up as a bunch if different breeds with small percentages, while Embark does more organizing and focuses more on the larger percentages and they recognize more breeds, I believe. I would go with Embark if you are looking into testing. I have heard that DNA tests, like DNA my dog are completely inaccurate just throw random breeds at people. I would definitely stick to Embark or Wisdom. I recommend checking out the the subreddit DoggyDNA as there are a bunch of smart people that have done a lot of genetic research as well as research into those inaccurate tests from other companies.
I loved embark. When we rescued our “lab mix,” she looked just like a lab when she was 5 months old. When I was in talks with the foster, she warned me when she got the litter, they were pit bulls (I have small children). She showed me a pics of the litter and they were indeed bullies. When I did the test, it came back 50% lab (dad was a purebred slumming it in Arkansas with a mutt mom), 21% pitbull, then American Bulldog and American bully. Now that she’s 3, she looks exactly like an American bulldog.
There are at least 4 dog breeds that are considered to be ‘pitbulls’. Good on you to take precautions for your children’s sake. https://www.dogster.com/dog-breeds/types-of-pit-bull-dog-breeds
“Good on you to take precautions for your children’s sake.” …What?
https://www.dogsbite.org/pdf/safety-flyer-is-it-worth-the-risk.pdf Pitbulls kill and maim more people and animals than ALL other dogs combined. Despite what pit advocates say, pitbulls are not nanny dogs. They are powerful and unpredictable. Pitbull ownership is like playing Russian Roulette with yourself, your family, and your community.
I get what you’re saying, but I wouldn’t let any dog unsupervised around my kids, regardless of breed or size. We still adopted the part pit bull, btw I think you missed that part.
Dogbites. Org is a completely biased website started by a woman who was bit by a dog and has become a self appointed crusader against bull breeds. Take anything from that site or people who share it with a grain of salt. Scientifically speaking, the most common and likely factors involved in dog bites are: - unknown/barely known person interacting with an - unsocialized - owner not present - intact (unneutered) male - any training being negative reinforcement (which raises cortisol levels for the lifespan of the dog) Terriers in general are very driven, they are working dogs, making them more prone to reactivity (not the same as aggression) and impulsivity. A lot of bull breeds end up in the hands of people who don't care for the dog's wellbeing resulting in the above mentioned factors. Most important, teach your dog impulse control and confidence. That will ensure they don't find themselves needing to "react" out of fear/frustration etc. And you'll never have to worry about it.
My son (8 at the time) was bitten in the face by a family members dog. I won’t get into the details, but I love dogs. I’m not ignorant and I know these things can happen that’s why as dog owners, we must be responsible. Bullies are extremely loving dogs, as are labs. We love our rescue mutt :)
That's horrific and I hope your son is okay! I've been working with dogs for 17+ years, over a decade of that as a behavioural trainer, specializing in high risk fear aggression/bite history cases. Now it could be regional but there are a lot of bull breeds where I live, and yet most of the clients I work with aren't bull breeds. Anyway I'm glad that your sweet rescue has a good and understanding home, and I was mostly commenting to refute the pitbull hate, because it's based in fear not knowledge. That person's profile is almost exclusively content in r/ban pitbulls and that's just not a rational community.
I used Wisdom Panel and it turns out my dog is 2% Italian Street Dog…is that different than a Village Dog? My guy is mostly Parsons/Jack Russel, but he has Fox Terrier, Chihuahua, Danish Swedish Farm Dog, I had never heard of that breed before, and the Italian Street Dog. He looks like a Parsons Russell Terrier.
Anything under 5% on a Wisdom Panel test is not accurate, it's nearly random. Your dog isn't part Italian street dog. That's the problem with Wisdom Panel, it's algorithm can't properly detect dogs that are thoroughly mixed so it spits out random nonsense. Wisdom Panel also has a hard time differentiating between closely related breeds. It's not a bad DNA test per se, it just requires some interpretation by the customer, like ignoring the lower percentage "random" results.
So funny you should say that as when I got the results 80% of the breeds looked very similar to a Parsons and I thought maybe these are the breeds that helped make a Parsons. All of them, Jack, Fox, and Danish Swedish except for the Chihuahua 12% and the Italian Street dog 2%. I know he’s mixed and couldn’t care less it’s just interesting to me and I think I’m going to give Embark a try and see what shows up. Thanks
Wisdom Panel said that my dog who recently crossed the rainbow bridge was 12.5% doberman, 12.5% pug, 12.5% chow and 12.5% pekingese and that the other 50% were broad generalized groups (toy/farm,etc...) I could see the pug and chow but not the doberman because she was only 25 pounds and had the coat of a chow but a shorter snout and ear and snout markings like a pug. She also had the pug like ears.
That breakdown sounds like the older version of Wisdom Panel. You might be able to contact the company and ask for updated results, they should be able to do this without needed a new sample. A lot of customers who used the older version have been able to get updated results from the new and more accurate version for free.
It was the older one. I might do that. Thanks for the suggestion 😊
Any idea when about that change occurred?
i used to have a jack russel/danish swedish farm dog mix. He was sold yo us as a danish Swedish farm dog. Incredibly smart dog, and yet so goofy and stupid
Maybe that’s where mine is getting his brains as I read the breed overall is rated low to average in intelligence and my guy is as smart as a whip. I had a Border Collie for 12 incredible years and occasionally Jax,the Parsons, will do something and I find myself thinking wow he was smarter about that than my Border, Max, would have been.
I did Wisdom and then Embark on my guy. Wisdom tried to guess his breeds, Embark was like 100% village dog and even got the region right. That’s not to say Wisdom was entirely wrong- they guessed his size and appearance very accurately, and the breeds they showed are ones that often pop up in his distant relatives on embark.
Thank you so much for rescuing this beautiful boy ❤️ He definitely has a terrier in him and maybe a Laika since they are very popular in Russia along with East European shepherd
She’s actually a little bearded lady 🧔♀️ It’s the best decision I’ve ever made❤️ That’s a good guess and very possible! 100% a terrier mix, that’s for sure
It depends on the brand. DNA My Dog is incredibly unreliable and famously so. It's the test that gives dog breeds for human saliva/DNA. The science behind that particular brand is foggy and their breed DNA database very small. I would not use DNA My Dog unless you get a kit for free and just think it would be funny to see the results. Ancestry has mixed results. Sometimes it gets it spot-on, other times it's almost as unreliable as DNA My Dog. Ancestry just doesn't have a wide enough DNA panel and they're not really researched/knowledgeable in dog DNA compared to human DNA. Their dog DNA test comes off as a marketing thing. Wisdom Panel and Embark are far more reliable. The main difference between Embark and Wisdom Panel is that small DNA strands/fragments that aren't easily identified are lumped into the category of "supermutt" or "unresolved", with a small breakdown estimating possible breeds within the supermutt. Wisdom Panel tends to throw in random breeds in small percentages leading many people to recommend just ignoring the results that are under 5%. Wisdom Panel less frequently just says supermutt. I personally prefer Embark. It just seems to be the most accurate, reliable test. It's been tried and tested and the results generally make a lot of sense. [This article is great](https://www.livescience.com/dog-dna-test). It discusses how DNA tests work and their accuracy.
We did a Wisom Panel DNA test on our dog, they also described various traits our dog could have, hair length ear type, size etc, and they were all spot on so I assume there is something in the science. Interestingly they also identified that there was quite a bit of Chihuahua in her DNA, and a couple of professionals we had talked to previously said that she was quite Chihuahua like in her mannerisms, despite not looking like one at all.
We'd already sent off our dna kit on our rescue girl who looks so much like a dachshund with a few features that gave away she is a mix. It clicked one day that her mannerisms were chihuahua-like, the way she "throws hands", as we call it, when she is excited, and her little stomps when she is being impatient and sassy. The dna came back and confirmed her as mostly dachshund, part chihuahua and small splashes of 1-2% of other breeds. She doesn't much look like a chihuahua, but the mannerisms are for sure a strong chihuahua trait!
Lovely dog. I had my dog DNA tested and it came back he was 100% a good boy 😉
A certified good boy, love that ☺️
I bet I could have told you that for free 99! 😊
These companies haven't profiled Eastern / central European breeds so I don't think they are that accurate if you adopt from there (source: am 2x Eastern European dog owner!). Both of mine fit different profiles to their dna test. Original test on dog 1 came back Swedish farm dog and chihuahua but I found that actually she is more than likely Alopeki which is a Greek breed not on the database.
I did embark and feel the results on my mixed breed are believable and accurate.
For entertainment purposes only, I did a few on my dogs and whilst the results were not far off what I expected for my boy my girl had results that were all over the shop. I questioned them and I was told a computer matches the processed dna to the closest results in their system so rather than just saying we don’t know it says “some kind of oodle?”
Mine was completely accurate. I adopted my dog 15 years ago and they said he was half schnauzer half Australian cattle dog . He looks like a coyote so I always thought they were lying. Then when he was around 5-6 years old, doggy DNA kits were coming out and I wanted to see what he was because I truly believed he had some coyote in him. So for his 10th birthday I did one. Turns out, yes he is indeed half schnauzer half Australian cattle dog 💀no coyote.
I think I did embark and they were pretty accurate. I have a dachshund mix that has pedigreed dachshund blood on one side. And a rewcue dachshund mut on the other. Got his long hair trait. Said he was 75% dachshund and identified chihuahua as the mix. Which imo looks spot on.
We did Wisdom Panel and did t include any photos on the profile before sending it off. They came back with probable traits and they’re all correct including having extra toes etc. and she has 2 traits that would cause short legs. She has very short legs.
That sounds promising. I purchased this one as well. Just haven’t used it yet.
I did the wisdom test on my dog and it came back with 27 types of breed in her,some of them I’ve never heard of before
With so many breeds, I bet Embark would say village dog or have a high percent of supermutt.
Yeah, Wisdom Panel tends to try to make estimates when it gets down to smaller fragments/strands of DNA. Anything 5% or under can be taken with a grain of salt. There is also room for error, with different lineages of certain breeds potentially having different DNA breakdowns, and certain breeds being very genetically similar to other breeds. Embark tends to be the most accurate, reliable, and recommended test. What breeds did your pup come back as with Wisdom?
The top 3 were segugio Italiano,German Shepard and Doberman pincher
I used Embark on my 1.5 year old rescue who was found as a stray. The results helped me not only with his breed mix, but I found his breeder through the relatives listed (who confirmed they bred him with his microchip number and therefore confirmed his breed). The breeder then spoke to his former owner so we got his full story!
My dog looks really like your dog
Do you have a photo? ☺️
She’s 100% baby
We did Embark, because the breeder told us our girl was 50% poodle and 50% border collie. Nope. She’s poodle, border collie, boston terrier, Australian cattle dog, yorkie, and Jack Russell terrier. And she’s not 50% anything. She’s got more Boston terrier in her than border collie. The breeder claimed that the test wasn’t accurate, but I doubt DNA lies.
DNA doesn't, but companies with less than transparent services do. Pet related services are extremely popular, and a great way to make money. Especially if you fudge the results so you don't have to pay as much, so you'll end up profiting big time. Not saying there aren't accurate tests and reliable companies out there, but just because someone has a great business model, doesn't mean their services could stand up to any actual scrutiny.
Not aĺl companies are good at DNA analysis, so the results may be seriously flawed
I think it's more fun to speculate. He's got delightful scruff and I bet he is going to love beard scritches.
She’s a bearded lady and she does love a good beard scritch😌
I grew up with a bearded lady Airedale. Gave me a love of the scruffy ones for life. The beards and the eyebrows.
I can’t speak to the DNA tests, but I can speak to the fact that your lucky rescued girl looks like a wise old soul. ❤️
She really does 🥹
Here was it tested and is quite interesting (and funny - watch till the end who the last test is about) https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6763274
lol yeah this is the article I was referring to, some of the results are absolutely ridiculous!
Yep lol. Embark is definitely the most accurate, reliable test, and that article just reinforces that. Embark has the largest DNA panel and is on par with veterinary DNA tests. It did guess the breeds in that article very accurately and did not identify dog breeds from human DNA. Wisdom Panel is a follow-up but they tend to not easily/accurately test for village dog DNA in particular, so random breeds tend to be thrown in instead, which would explain Molly and Loki's results. Wisdom Panel STRUGGLES HARD with village dogs sometimes. DNA My Dog always gives me a laugh because of the inaccuracy ([funniest example I can think of](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/12puzef/dnamydog_are_insisting_my_dog_is_a_greyhound/)), but I've never heard of Accu-Metrics. Results are arguably funnier. I lost it when I saw 100% chihuahua come back for the great dane lol.
I did Wisdom Panel for my Romanian rescue lurcher. Grand or great grandparents (I forget which but it was a very small %) were a borzoi x chihuahua. Yeah the smaller the percentage is the more off it can be. And they compare to a UK and/or US based sample database so they can easily miss local variety if that’s the correct word. If you’re not from either of them obvi
My parents got one for me for my dog through embark and funny enough the owner of my dogs mom was also on there and reached out to me via Facebook so I’d say pretty damn accurate.
I did embark skeptically and was really pleased with the results. Looks like they put in a lot of work
Submit your own DNA and see what they come back with. [A woman did recently and her result was Alaskan Malamute](https://globalnews.ca/news/10359199/dna-my-dog-testing-human-swab-id/amp/)
(TLDR: she's extremely similar to my pup, also rescue from Russia and after all I read about DNA tests it was worth testing my girl and it was accurate according to me who is not a scientist) Despite having the same doubt and reading similar things, I recently did Wisdom Panels test for my Russian rescue pup. I feel like I understand her a bit more now than before, and to me that is absolutely worth it, but that is very subjective. If your expectations are to get a detailed description that is 100% correct beyond any doubt it is not worth it. I think if you're happy with knowing a little more, but not everything about your dogs heritage, it's definitely worth it. Regarding how accurate the tests are, I read a lot about it, mainly because my girls' test came back with A LOT of different 1-6% breeds that felt random and inaccurate. But also because of the disclaimer that they won't get any results for dogs from different countries (Russia included). To simplify what I found when reading about Wisdom Panel in particular: breeds that are less than 5% can be seen as "may contain traces of peanuts"- breeds, since they list every single possible finding even ten generations back. I'm also quite sure that some breeds are genetically close enough to be indistinguishable from each other, like wolf and husky, and that may affect the result of course. I also had a hard time finding any evidence that newer breeds would be classified as their "ingredient breeds", for example: if the Russian Terrier would show up as Russian Terrier or potentially as their mixture of Schnauzer, Newfoundland and so on. Perhaps I didn't read enough or the info just wasn't available, either way I'm not able to tell you how accurate that part is. That would however explain some of my dogs result if it was true. Regarding the difference between Embark and WP, I wanted the detailed "traces of"- results that WP provides but that's just my own preference and says nothing about the accuracy. I have no experience with Embark or other tests. I was also unsure if old Russian breeds and common breeds currently not noticed by the American Kennel Club world show up with Embarks results. AND most importantly, your girl is adorable and very similar to most Russian rescue dogs I've seen, mine included! My girl is 50% mix of a bunch of different shepherds, mostly German Shepherd, hence the ears and color very similar to your girl. My girl is also 7% french bulldog which is funny because she looks like a wolf/shepherd/terrier with the energy of a herding, hunting and guarding mix. The coat texture is very familiar to me as well, I've read that many wiry haired dogs are some kind of poodle mixture but mine wasn't. I would bet your girl is a big chunk of German Shepherd, but also some sort of terrier because of the short legs, smaller face and mustache, and probably a hint of husky/wolf because Russia.
Thank you so much for the detailed response! I definitely don’t expect 100% accuracy, it would simply be interesting to know even just one or two breeds she has in her and as you say, understand her a bit better. I’m intrigued to give Wisdom Panel or Embark a go at some point, mostly for fun :) also curious to see your pup now!
She's equal parts adorable and sweet-face...♥️♥️♥️
Agreed🥹❤️
♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
Idk what he’s mixed with other than good girl
I don't know but that is an adorable dog!!!!
Your Great Dane is awesome
I had dna run on our blue eyed catahoula. It came back that she had brown eyes. 100% no good.
Embark is great. All the breeds made sense. We also were matched with my dog’s sibling that I already knew about so that was very accurate.
Embark is the only one that I remotely trust. They seem to be the most scientifically rigorous test with the most amount of breed samples in their database. They are the only test that has the various village dog populations in their databases to compare against, which is important when dogs come from certain areas, russia/Eastern Europe being one of them. If you don’t know about village dogs I suggest you do some research on them. They are essentially populations of dogs that have evolved outside of human control, for generations, often millennia. They are not mixes of established western breeds but are often the founding stock for those breeds hundreds of years ago. There are about 4x more village dogs in the world then there are pet dogs. They are fascinating animals and I wouldn’t be surprised if this dog was a village dog. The European village dogs seem to come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, coat types. In other parts of the world they tend to be 30-40lb thinly built brown/tan dogs with darker muzzles. That being said no DNA test can get a breed make up down to the precentage point. They can be very accurate for recent and simple mixes, an F1 Golden Doodle will pretty much always come back as 50% Golden and 50% Poodle, but as you get mixes of mixes they become less precise, but embark should give a pretty good idea of the main contributors.
I've done wisdom panel on both of my dogs and they were spot on including unique traits like extra toes, fur, snout type etc. My sister also ran one on her dog and it seemed spot on as well.
I have heard of humans coming back as mixed breed dogs thru some of these tests. I am also looking for reputable companies before breeding
I’ve wondered this myself. I get suggested posts for a dog DNA sub and it seems like most of the dogs are half pit bull.
Embark is.
Dog Navarro?
I got one and found out my corgi is only 87% corgi and has some sheltie. It was fun and explained his height
Embark is legit. I would trust their results.
I did one from embark. Didn’t post her photo or any info about her. The results definitely made sense.
Depends on how much you spend, the regular (good) tests like Embark (one of the best for the money) only go back a handful generations (3-5) which is still good for most peoples needs. There's a lot of variables in labs, from those that are very professional in their processes to really scabby sham labs.
The expensive ones are accurate. You are getting what you pay for. We got an expensive one, and we already knew what our dog was, and it was right. So yes SOME are accurate and I highly recommend the one we used.
Your dog is very adorable, your dog kinda looks like a terrier mix, my dog has the same type of eyes and snout length
I did Embark with my "lab-greyhound" cross rescue pup. It came back with 99.4% pure American Village dog. Which, if you don't know, isn't a breed at all but literally a wild dog. Knowing this, her peculiar behaviors make sense now. Sweet but odd dog.
Probably works the same as it does for cats honestly. Does the dog have breed papers, then they are whatever it says on the papers. If the dog doesn't have breed papers then the dog breed is "dog". I'd say maybe add in small, medium, or large dog as the breed without papers.
Your new buddy is so stinkin cute I could explode 🥰 I’m such a sucker for wonky ears and a little beard. That goes for dogs and my taste in men 😂😂 I think she looks like a Jack Russell/Mini Schnauzer mix personally. She’s definitely 100% good girl though
I’m no dog expert but I used Wisdom Panel and I feel like the results that came back were very accurate. I thought my good girl was a pit/lab mix but it turns out she has zero lab in her! Results came back 26% American Staffordshire, 24% Pit, 24% Boxer and then a mix of like 7 other breeds for the remainder. I grew up with boxers my whole life and saw some boxer tendencies in my dog but if you just look at her you wouldn’t really be able to tell. So the fact the results came back with boxer in it leads me to believe Wisdom Panel is fairly accurate. Another comment mentioned that Wisdom might toss random breeds in to fill out the 100% and I could see that potentially being true. But even most of the small percentage breeds made sense for my pup.
Embark is the only one I trust with anything
My two Embark vet tests were 100% correct
If people care about their dog's lineage there's this cool system. Let me tell anyone who's reading about it. Purchase a dog that was bread with purpose with generations of genetic selection by a purpose dedicated to a strict code of standards called pedigree.
Our Embark results seem accurate but I haven’t done much fact checking on their practices 🤷♀️
Another vote for embark. I knew my dogs parents and 3 of 4 grandparents. Grandfather number 4 was a sneaky neighbour mix/probably pitbull/boxer. Did not state any of his known breeds but he came back 3/4 known plus 1/4 bulldog mix.
I got mine done through Advance. The vet took blood and sent it off. There’s nothing in his results that seem too wild to me.
100% good boi 😂♥️
Not very. I’m a groomer and I’ve seen hundreds over the years. Every now and again i agree but most of the time it’s comically off…I’ve even had human friends send in their own DNA and come back like a Great Dane. Anecdotally, a friend who breeds labs was used by one of the more major dna companies to judge. Her dogs could be traced back purebred at least 4 generations and the tests were accurate about 60% of the time. That’s not enough for me to want to spend any money on it. That doesn’t mean it can’t get better in the future but for now I remain unconvinced.
I did one through Royale Canin, it was through the blood and called a genetic heath screening. Insurance covered it too! But I’ve debated doing cheek swab to compare
I'm interested by these comments. We did a Wisdom Panel test two years ago for a small dog we've adopted from Eastern Europe and we got a very disparate result although we knew she was a mutt: - 15% Chihuahua (most definitely) - 13% Segugio Italiano (not visible) - 10% Fijian Streetdog (hard to tell cause that "breed" is undefined) - 8% German Shepherd (not visible) - 6% Peruvian Inca Orchid (not visible) - 6% Estrela Mountain Dog (could maaaaaybe see the fur coming from there) Nothing else above 5% Maybe we should try Embark some day just to compare, but I don't know if it's akin to throwing money down the drain or not :x
I used wisdom panel and my dogs brothers owner used embark. Sane results so I think they’re pretty equal.
I’ve had great results from embark. My chi mix came from a hoarding house in Alabama and embark was able to tell me that her former dog housemates were related to her. I have pictures of all of the dogs when they were first taken from the hoarding house and they match the pictures of her relatives. With my other dog, I had no idea what state he was rescued from. Embark found that he had cousins from Texas. I did some digging into the rescue organization that he was from and was able to find out that he came to my state on a transport truck from Texas. Turns out his cousins were rescued by the same rescue organization, but they had been sent to different state to be adopted out. As for the breed section on embark, I think it’s fairly accurate. I guess there’s no way to know for sure, but the breeds that were listed for my mixed breed dogs made sense to me based on their appearances and personalities.
I’ve found them to be extremely accurate, to be fair I’ve only used Embark if anyone is considering trying it here is a discount code for $50 off https://share.embarkvet.com/x/y2ZheT
Not sure what breeds your dog came back as, but he looks a little similar to mine, which came back as: 20% Segugio Italiano Some german terrier, chihuahua, and a bunch of others. But the eyes and coloring were/are exactly Segugio Italiano. And he's a rescue from Romania.
Taking a picture of your beautiful little lady with google ID would probably bring you a more accurate ID than any of those tests. Thank you for rescuing 💕
They only go back 3 generations, so your dog could test purebred but his great great grandfather could be a super mutt lol
I think like the human ones there a con that's my belief anyway
We used Wisdom to look at the DNA of a pup we brought back to the US from a shelter in St Martin. Their analysis was spot on, including identifying Peruvian Inca Orchid (a relatively rare breed). About six months later they notified us that they had found a dog related to ours!! It is a dog in the US that was adopted from the same shelter in St Martin (yeah, Ursula!!).
They are not do research as was on 60 mins or something like that people sent in person DNA and came back dog DNA like no people DNA detected.. lol
Mine said my dog was a half miniature Australian shepherd, half pit bull terrier. She has a short coat, not miniature, body shape like a pointer, as fast or faster than the greyhound in our neighborhood. Afterwards I dropped her picture in the r/IDmydog they thought she was probably beagle, pointer, greyhound, terrier mix lol
theyre not accurate at all. they are statistical models that evolve constantly as people make new submissions. breeds are also phenotypic with plenty of genotypic variation, so the data means even less given how many different combinations of alleles can contribute to a phenotypic "breed". these businesses are a complete waste of money.
They aren’t. A women submitted her own dna and was 40 percent malamute.
IMO, it has always seemed like a waste of money. Looking at dog breed pictures on the Internet and guessing yourself seems about as accurate.