How Do Dog DNA Tests Work?
Most dog DNA tests kits require you to swab your dogs mouth for saliva, which contains DNA that can be analyzed in a lab. These saliva samples are then placed into a tube and mailed to the testing companys laboratory for analysis. Some DNA test kit providers use dog poop DNA testing and have you send in a sample of feces for testing.
Once youve mailed off your test kit, all you have to do is wait for the lab to contact you with the results. The depth of these results and the specific services provided will vary from one dog breed DNA test kit provider to another. Some will email you with the results, while others may contact you by phone and even offer consultation with a geneticist to answer any questions you may have.
The best dog DNA test: Embark Breed + Health Kit
Embark has a comprehensive breed database, screens for more genetic diseases than its rivals, and has reliable customer service.
*At the time of publishing, the price was $199 .
The Embark Breed + Health Kit leads the pack for both its sizable breed database and the robust list of genetic health conditions it reviews. In addition, the service was founded by faculty of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and is committed to canine research. Embark also has strong customer support.
Embark features a comprehensive dog-breed database including most breeds that are common in the United States. Embark reliably tests for more than 360 different breeds; this includes 90% of the 208 breeds in the American Kennel Club database. It also tests for breeds not accepted by the AKC, such as seven types of street dogs from around the world, the American pit bull terrier, the coyote, the dingo, the gray wolf, the Koolie, and the Volpino Italiano. To confirm the results, Embark’s computers test about 256 quadrillion different genetic ancestry combinations, and its scientists manually cross-check suspicious results. Its proprietary process means the breed results are 95% to 99% accurate, claimed Dr. Adam Boyko, Embark’s co-founder and chief science officer.
Breed ancestry isn’t the only driving force for some pet owners. The genetic health results can calm a pet owner’s fears regarding their dog, or it can theoretically help them plan for a future diagnosis or medical expenses, if health results are troubling. (For real peace of mind, pet insurance is a better bet.) Embark screens for over 200 different genetic diseases, but it wouldn’t confirm the exact number. Comparatively, Wisdom Panel tests for 211 diseases, and DNA My Dog’s Nextgen Breed Identification and Genetic Age Test evaluates for more than 100 genetic diseases, although we tested only the breed component for this guide. Boyko said Embark’s inherited-disease screening results are 99.99% accurate.
Robust genetic-health testing sounds intriguing, but “please take them with a grain of salt,” cautioned Hekman, the canine genomics expert at the Karlsson Lab at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. “They’re completely unregulated. The link between the test result and the disease is weak.” Currently, the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees animal drugs, food, and medical devices, doesn’t regulate the pet genetic-testing industry. Pet genetics researchers who are critical of the testing industry, including another author from the Karlsson Lab, found no independent studies on how accurate dog DNA tests are. But a Genetics in Medicine report revealed that results from human genetic-testing companies were inaccurate 40% of the time.
So I remained skeptical of the health results we received for this guide. Two of the five dogs we tested were reported as being carriers of degenerative myelopathy, a debilitating spinal cord disorder. (Both dog test subjects were desexed, so passing it down wasn’t a concern.) And Embark didn’t corroborate that Sparky, our 20-year-old pup, had kidney disease, an ailment she was diagnosed with four years ago. But Sparky’s vet later confirmed that her disease was age related and not hereditary.
I also received an email from an Embark geneticist about my dog Sutton’s results hours before they were officially released. The geneticist said Sutton was at risk for dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), one of the most common adult-onset heart diseases in dogs. But published research into the DCM gene, known as PDK4, has focused only on 90-pound purebred Doberman pinschers, so my 9-pound dog’s risk of developing DCM was relatively low. Regardless, they offered to chat if I had any questions. (As of writing time, if your dog has genetic markers for a particular disease, Embark will let you know, even if your pet’s breed breakdown means the disease is unlikely to be a problem.)
The results were further muddled when Wisdom Panel reported that Sutton was not at risk for the disease. (In light of the discrepancy, Embark’s veterinary geneticist offered a free retest.) Wisdom Panel later confirmed that Sutton did test positive for that specific mutation, but its policy is to hide the findings for any dog that isn’t a Doberman or Doberman mix.
“The correlation to actual clinical disease is not supported in the vast majority of these breeds,” said Dr. Angela Hughes, a former veterinary geneticist at Wisdom Health, Wisdom Panel’s parent company. “It’s basically what we consider a false positive,” she said, adding that there are no plans to disclose these results in the future.
In light of the results, Sutton’s veterinarian recommended an echocardiogram, an ultrasound of the heart. The ultrasound was negative for signs of DCM. Her vet warned that she may develop heart disease as a senior dog, and they suggested tracking Sutton’s health with extra bloodwork during annual wellness exams. But neither Sutton’s veterinarian nor the echo sonographer consulted Embark when giving this advice, which is something our experts encouraged.
Whatever the findings, Embark makes it easy to nerd out over your dog’s genetic results by revealing more information—in an easy-to-read format—than any kit we tested. The dog’s breed composition is broken into percentages, and results that are less than 5% of the dog’s genetic code are combined as a “supermutt” listing (unless there’s a closely related breed that’s already present in the results, in which case those small percentages will be added to their near neighbor). There’s also a family tree that goes back three generations, to the “great grandparents.” The genetic health results specify either “at risk,” “carrier,” or “clear” statuses for the more than 200 diseases it reviews. And there’s an inbreeding score, 25 trait markers, predicted adult weight (which was 5 to 10 pounds greater than our panelists’ actual weights in 2019), a “genetic human age,” a “wolfiness” score, and even a list of doggy relatives, just like with human ancestry tests.
View each dog’s dashboard for yourself: our control dog, Sephora, and our mixed-breed dogs Gus, Sparky, Sutton, and Swanson.
Embark sponsors the International Partnership for Dogs, a consortium standardizing dog genetic-testing services. Partners of IPFD disclose their accreditation, mishandling protocols, licenses and patents, and their genetic-testing list to increase transparency in an unregulated industry.
Embark’s dedication to scientific openness is twofold, since it also partners with researchers to better understand canine genetics. In October 2018, Embark published the culmination of one such study in PLOS Genetics, using 6,000 canine participants, and found a chromosomal link to blue eyes in Siberian huskies. It may seem obvious that there’s a genetic component, but researchers say the proof was abstract at best. They believe large-scale canine genetic testing like this can potentially unlock the genetic basis of aging, behavior, and even cancer.
When discussing medical privacy, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (also known as HIPAA, the piece of legislation that safeguards a person’s medical data) immediately comes to mind. But there’s no equivalent in the pet world. Yet Embark says its privacy policy is modeled after HIPAA and that it doesn’t disclose any information without owner consent. However, dogs are opted in to genetic research (the information is anonymized), and users may opt out by changing their privacy settings.
Pet owners can also share results with third parties without granting them account access. They can view a certificate or the full report, email the report to their vet, or download the raw genetic data. Pet owners can also share an interactive dashboard and hide from view any sections, such as the family tree or health results. Geneticists are also available to consult with a pet owner’s veterinarian so they can better understand the results.
Embark’s support team was transparent and thorough in its responses. Most emails were answered within one business day, and sometimes sooner. And phone wait times were less than five minutes. We also valued Embark’s proactive approach when a veterinary geneticist emailed us ahead of time to explain that Sutton was “at risk” for a life-threatening disease. Their offer to reconfirm the results, when Wisdom Panel didn’t report the same gene mutation, was also stellar.
Comparatively, DNA My Dog and Find My Pet DNA weren’t as forthcoming when we asked representatives about their products (they either couldn’t provide database breed counts or how many genetic markers they use). And at the time of writing, one email from Find My Pet DNA had gone unanswered for more than 30 days.
Embark has the largest collection wand of any DNA test we reviewed, and that can likely feel uncomfortable inside a small dog’s mouth. The swab itself looks like a Q-tip and is approximately four times larger than other swabs we used in this guide. Our testers with dogs under 20 pounds said it was difficult to fit the swab between their dogs’ cheeks and gums.
The collection instructions were also confusing. Embark has the pet owner swab the inside of the dog’s cheek and under the tongue for 30 to 60 seconds, then enclose the swab in a stabilizing solution tube and mail back the kit using a prepaid box. But Embark offers three versions of printed instructions (the box, a cardboard insert, and a plastic storage bag), and each was slightly different. “I think having a single set of instructions printed on the box would be much clearer and leave less room for confusion,” said Wirecutters Aviva Johnson and Swanson’s owner. (Since writing time, Embark has updated its packaging, and we’ll review it when we next update this guide.)
To see if we could trip up Embark’s breed services, we selected dogs born across the United States, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. Embark provided precise predictions of any breed that makes up 5% or more of your dog’s genetic code, which our experts cited as the threshold for dependable home results. Plus, Embark uses twice as many genetic markers as Wisdom Panel, which we think is better for most people since it provides a more accurate identification of your pup’s mix. Wisdom Panel, alternatively, uses fewer genetic markers, so it is probably less accurate, but it’s able to identify rarer dog breeds. If you’re going to spend money on a dog DNA test, it’s best to get one that the genetics experts are more likely to trust. But if you suspect that a dog has a rare breed in its genetic makeup, Hekman recommends Wisdom Panel, which tests for more AKC-recognized breeds than Embark.
Embark was also the second-slowest service we tested. The process took two to six weeks, more than any other kit we reviewed. On average, it took Embark 21 days to deliver the results, compared with 18 days for both Find My Pet DNA and Wisdom Panel.
Don’t be surprised if you’re drowning in emails after registering the kit online. Embark sent 19 promotional and update emails over three months, more than any service we reviewed. By comparison, Wisdom Panel sent five, DNA My Dog sent four, and Find My Pet DNA sent one email.
Finally, Embark is still an investment of $199, at the time of writing. To test an entire dog pack, Embark offers tiered discounts on multiple kits, starting at 10% off—but the information is hidden within its FAQ.
Wisdom Panel’s commitment to research and privacy
Like Embark, Wisdom Health (Wisdom Panel’s parent company) sponsors the IPFD, the group harmonizing the canine genetic-testing industry. It also conducts canine research based on the DNA samples it receives. For example, an April 2018 study in PLOS Genetics examined 152 diseases in more than 100,000 dogs across 330 breeds. The study reported that mixed-breed dogs are more likely to carry a common recessive disease, and that purebred dogs are more likely to develop a disease from one. Although the findings don’t suggest that a single test is a predictor for disease, Wisdom Panel, in part, believes it can help veterinarians make better treatment decisions.
Although Wisdom Panel is owned by Mars, Incorporated, Wisdom Panel told us in an email that it controls its own data, and “at Wisdom Panel, we may use anonymized composite data for research purposes and this de-identified data may be shared with third parties. However, we never share personal data or results tied to a specific pet without explicit consent from the user.”
Wisdom Panel also maintains a strict privacy policy. It doesnt share information with third parties without the account holder’s written consent, similar to HIPAA. And with an account holder’s consent, a veterinarian may consult Wisdom Panel’s in-house vet geneticists about a pet patient’s results.
Wisdom Panel uses half the number of the genetic markers that Embark does to determine breed compositions—100,000, compared with 200,000 markers—so the results may not be as precise. Genetic scientists use these markers to map out a dog’s DNA without examining a dog’s entire 3-billion-base-pair genome. They can save resources by strategically selecting the appropriate markers and comparing them to Wisdom’s dog breed database, using a sophisticated algorithm that will calculate the genetic lineage of a pup that’s the most feasible. Yet a handful of strategically placed markers alone doesn’t guarantee the best results.
Think of DNA markers as random puzzle pieces in an you haven’t assembled. The few pieces you do possess tell you the photo has shades of blue. But blue can represent anything from the sky or the ocean to tapestry yarns or a funky dinner plate. The more puzzle pieces you’ve joined, the fuller the picture gets. “Sometimes we don’t know what we’re looking for,” said Hekman, who recommended Embark for most dog owners since it uses more genetic markers than the competition. “We’re still missing a lot of information when we use just markers; the more markers are better.”
Additionally, Wisdom Panel redistributes any ancestry results below 1% equally into the other breeds on the report. According to a spokesperson, this “does not significantly alter the overall results,” which mirrors our experts’ findings that anything less than 5% probably isn’t accurate and isn’t worth trusting. Wirecutter prefers Embark’s methodology because it uses twice as many markers, and clumps breed results under 5% into “supermutt” categories. The exception to this is when there’s already a closely related “sibling breed” in the results, in which case Embark adds the sub-5% numbers to that breed since chances are that’s where it belongs.
Wisdom Panel also screens for 211 genetic health conditions, and it lists the status of each disease as “at risk,” “notable” or “clear.” In 2019, our dog panelists had consistent results among the diseases that Wisdom Panel and Embark both tested for, with one exception: Embark reported that Sutton was “at risk” for dilated cardiomyopathy, while Wisdom Panel did not. When asked about the mismatch, Hughes said Wisdom Panel doesn’t report at-risk statuses for dogs with breed makeups that are not at risk for the disease, but she confirmed that Sutton had tested positive for the mutation. She added that they’ve tested over one million dogs, and “the correlation to actual clinical disease is not supported in the vast majority of these breeds.” We appreciate Wisdom Panel’s rationale of limiting stress among dog owners—after all, someone could end up euthanizing a pet because of frightening genetic health results. But when polled, Wirecutter’s pet owners unanimously agreed that they’d prefer to be able to access all of the information they’d paid for, and to be able to discuss their results with a vet.
When questions did arise during testing, Wisdom Panel, like Embark, responded within one business day. But Wisdom Panel is less likely than Embark to rerun breed results at a pet owner’s request. A pet owner may elect to rerun a test if the breed database and algorithm have significantly changed, such as the addition of new breeds. (At the time of writing, Embark offered this as a one-time complimentary service, and Facebook users report success using it.) Two of our panelists submitted Wisdom Panel tests in 2016 and 2017, and in May 2019 Wisdom Panel declined to rerun both, citing different reasons. Wisdom Panel also gave disparate rationales on not retesting dozens of outdated kits from other users, from “not enough genetic data” to “we don’t expect a change in results.” As a compromise, some owners claimed they were offered discount codes for new tests, but others were not.
In 2020, Wisdom Panel upgraded its chip to use more than 100,000 genetic markers to test for dog ancestry and to review more than 200 genetic traits, and it’s now called Wisdom Panel Premium. The company announced plans to let customers who have used the test within the last five years get updated versions of their results for free. But as of writing time, Wisdom Panel couldn’t rerun our tests from 2019 and asked us to submit new DNA kits.
Finally, Wisdom Panel, like most of the kits we tested (but not Embark), uses two collection wands. The heads are bristly, like mascara wands, and are uncomfortable to scrape against the inside of a pup’s cheek. Then you’re supposed to perch the wands upright in the included box to dry them before shipping them back. But the wands wobbled in their stands, and some testers feared they’d fall and get contaminated.
We scouted Darwin’s Ark, a crowdsourcing effort that has pet owners submit short behavioral surveys about their dogs—and in return they receive a free DNA test. Collaborating researchers, like Hekman of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, study the research in the hope of understanding what exactly makes dogs, well, dogs. There’s a waiting list for the free DNA tests, and it can take years to receive the results. (I’ve been on the waitlist since 2019.) Anyone can buy a test starting at $249 (reduced to $149 after submission of 10 surveys). Most results for paid tests are available in 90 to 120 days. Darwin’s Ark has 101 breeds in its database and uses 4 million genetic markers. We look forward to reviewing Darwin’s Ark after it receives additional funding and can streamline its testing process for all participants.
DNA My Dog NEXTGEN Breed Identification and Genetic Age Test provides breed analysis and a predictive health plan (not a disease screening) with every purchase. Dog owners who use this receive the breed results via email, typically within two weeks. There’s no certificate sent via postal mail, even though it’s marketed as a perk. (We also inconsistently received duplicate certificates from Orivet, which DNA My Dog may outsource tests to, but neither company confirmed this after repeated inquiries.) There’s also no notification when the health plan is ready, so users must stalk their accounts for updates. They must also create a secondary account to access the health plan, which isn’t explained online. And, at the time of writing, we had not received the health plans for three of the five dogs we tested. The company also tests for 96 different dog breeds (a smaller number than with any kit we tested), and it doesn’t disclose how many DNA markers it uses.
When we first wrote this guide, in 2019, manufacturer Find My Pet DNA (unavailable as of 2021) featured a website, registration process, customer service emails, and DNA products that nearly mirrored the DNA My Dog experience. All of these factors made this one an easy dismissal.
This guide is dedicated in loving memory of Sparky.
This article was edited by Catherine Kast, Jennifer Hunter, and Jason Chen.