Embark Breed ID Dog DNA Test Kit – 400+ Breeds, 99% Breed Accuracy

This was a fun and surprisingly informative test to run on our dog. The kit is easy to use — you just swab inside the dog’s cheek, seal the sample, and mail it back using the included packaging. The instructions were clear and the whole process only took a few minutes. After sending it in, you just wait for the results to show up online. The report breaks down the breeds in your dog and gives a pretty detailed look at the genetics and traits. It’s especially interesting if you have a mixed breed and have always wondered what they actually are. It does take a little time to get the results back, but the information you receive is pretty detailed once it’s ready. Overall it’s a cool product if you’re curious about your dog’s background.

Fast, insightful, useful, seemingly accurate, and as a bonus also super fun info to know! My Jenson came back with breed mixes that had never even crossed my mind but made a lot of sense when I put all the pieces together. So cool, and also found 2 full siblings and many other relatives. He's a shelter dog and his full siblings were over 10 hours away in the same area so I messaged them to see if they have more info on the litter since my boy ended up so far away from them. I may buy 3 more of these just to find relatives of my other 3 dogs, I loved this!!

I’ve always used embark and always will. I have tested it from pure bred dogs purchased from breeders (to test accuracy) as well as my rescue dogs. It’s super simple to use, just a cheek swab and ship it off. It takes a couple weeks to get results back, but totally worth it! Personally I think it’s a must with rescue dogs to know what breeds you are dealing with to help you train and navigate them in the best way possible! I love that you can also piece together parts of their story by seeing their relatives who have also done the DNA test.

This review will be a comparison between Wisdom 3.0 and Embark. I bought these during the Christmas holiday season, so they were on sale. Wisdom 3.0 was $49, Embark $99, with the intent of only using Wisdom, it was bought first. When we got the Wisdom results, I thought they got our sample mixed up with another dog’s DNA. The test results look NOTHING like our dog. So, we bought Embark. Embark took longer, perhaps it was the time of year, or maybe it was just their process. Both tests say they go back 3 generations. Wisdom advertised 350 dog breeds, while Embark says it has fewer breeds but more in depth genetic marker testing. Wisdom results: Siberian Husky 25%, Chow Chow 25%, Boxer 12.5%, American Staffordshire Terrier 12.5%, Border Collie 12.5%, Breed Group (Herding, Asian, Terrier) 12.5%. We thought Wisdom screwed up, so we bought Embark. While we waited for Embark, we began to notice our dog matched some of the Wisdom results. We had our baby only 3 months before we tested her, and she was a rescue, so we truly had no idea what her heritage would be. We looked online and found some breeds we thought she looked like (Carolina Dog, Dingo, Norwegian Buhund, and the animal shelter said she was Sheltie and Shiba Inu) and NONE of these breeds came back as a result. How could that be? Hence, why we thought there was an error on Wisdom’s part. However, while we waited for the Embark results, we began to notice the breeds that were listed in her Wisdom results. She has “snowshoe feet” of a Siberian Husky and she LOVES the snow, the outdoors, and to RUN, RUN, RUN (and she’s quick); every once in a while we can see the Pit Bull Terrier in her face (when she gets a certain look); her paws curl like a Boxer’s and when she jumps up she doesn’t just put 2 paws on you and stay there, she continues to paw at you like a Boxer. Her tail, of course, curls over her back like a Husky and Chow, and she has upright pointy ears like many of the results do, no argument there. I also did some other research on coloring, and discovered Husky’s can be this blonde coloring with white. Embark results finally came back: Siberian Husky 28.9%, Australian Shepherd 20.0%, Chow Chow 15.2%, American Pit Bull Terrier 11.6%, Boxer 9.5%, Border Collie 7.1%, Supermutt (Alaskan-Type Husky, Alaskan Klee Kai) 7.7%. Emabark also gave a Wolfiness score of 0.9%, their site says most dogs are 1% or less. The Embark results seem to be more closely accurate, based on the percentages are down to the tenth, rather than Wisdom percentages that seems to be to the half. WOW! Imagine our surprise when it came back nearly the same as the Wisdom Panel. I guess Wisdom didn’t actually mess it up. So, what we have learned is, our baby is mostly Siberian and Alaskan type of Husky, Pit Bull type of Terrier, Chow Chow, Boxer, Border Collie, and some Shephard type. The more we live with her, the more we begin to see the results in her. We received the Wisdom results about 2 months ago from this writing, and the Embark results about a week ago. After comparing both results, we are happy we did both. They were both VERY similar, with minor differences. It has been an enjoyment to learn about our baby, her breed's temperament, and what to expect when she is full grown. She is an excellent watch dog (not guard dog), and she is so loving. Embark seem to have more information from their results which is really interesting, including other dogs they tested that are close genetic matches to our dog. We would DEFINITELY do both tests, together, again.

So easy to swab the cheeks, even in a younger puppy. The processing was quick even though it said it would be close to a month for results. I love seeing the breeds that make up the mutts I love so much. I already knew the main ones but seeing what makes up the smaller percentages is nice. Pretty expensive for what it offers though. Definitely wait for a good sale. Especially if you get the health and trait upgrade after the fact. Most of the health things are very breed specific so they don't even apply to most other dogs. $50 more was crazy for the little more it told me. Most of the traits said they weren't certain anyways so what was the point?

This was SOOO MUCH FUN! We were surprised to learn that our new puppy was not a chocolate lab mix. There was no lab in him in matter of fact. I debated which one to buy just the DNA test or the one with the health and traits. I chose the DNA only because we seemed to have a very healthy puppy. There was nothing that was causing us alarm. To use: I simply swabbed my puppy's cheeks very well. Slid it in the vial. Did what it told me to do. I dropped it in the prepaid box/mailer and dropped it in the mail. Within days, Embark sent me an email that stated they received his sample. They told me it would take about a month and a half for the results. I thought that was going to be it. Wait a month and receive the results. In about a week or less, I received the first email saying they were starting the process. We got excited because we were going to find out what our puppy was. Anyone who saw him said he didn't look like a chocolate lab. We would say "well, that is what we were told but we are having his dna tested.". Another week or so, we were sent an email saying that they were moving on to the next step. I wish I saved the emails for the exact wording, but I did not. Another week and they were almost finished. One last email to tell us that their scientists were checking the results by hand. The results will be ready very shortly. The joke in the house was that we had a group of scientists working on our pup's DNA. Then yesterday, I received a text and an email stating the results were in!!! We were so excited. I have been checking the web page, it felt like every hour for the last month. Upon clicking the link, it gave us choices if we wanted to play a guessing game, watch a video or just find out. As a family we decided we wanted to play the guessing game. We knew from the information they gave that there were 4 breeds in our puppy. The first choice in the game it gave was- Doberman. We said no. He isn't Doberman. He doesn't look at all like a Doberman. We clicked false to learn he was 50% Doberman. We laughed because we didn't see it. Another breed came up. We thought definitely he had some of this in him. People were suggesting it. Nope. More laughter. Pit Bull? We have had other pit bulls, we thought at first there might be pit bull in him. 25% pit bull. More laughter and told yas! Then the surprises! Great Pyrenees? Absolutley not, we said. He doesn't have long hair or anything. He is 12% Great Pyrenees. Lastly, Australian Shepherd? I kind of thought of this because there were Australian shepherds at the place we got him and he looked similar but not the hair. Sure enough he was about 12% Australian Shepherd! No lab at all in him! We all had a very good laugh. We knew our puppy was from a certain state. Here, you can see other dogs who have had their DNA tested. It pulled up 2 other dogs that were similar to ours from the same state. Because of how close the DNA match was, they are probably immediate family. Accuracy? We started reading about the different breeds. We were familiar with the pit bull already and the coloring and his chest seem pit bullish. Doberman? The ears and height and body. Great Pyrenees? He has a back do claw that we had already researched before hand and Great Pyrenees was a breed that had them. Australian Shepherd? We believe the eyes are theirs. He has beautiful eyes. The other thing I laughed about was our pup has made a game out of dropping a ball down the stairs and fetching it. Sure enough, one of the breeds when bored will make their own games up. Dobermans are very smart. This puppy learned to open a closet door for shoes, he just pulls on the bathrobe hanging out the door every so little. 5 stars: I know this is a longer review, but I wanted to share how we thought our pup was a chocolate lab and wasn't at all. That knowing what he was at first we were like No way is he a Doberman until we started researching. We pulled up a Doberman with his ears not pinched and it looks like our pup. We can see traits of the different breeds in our pup. It is a wonderful tool to learn about the puppy. A wonderful tool to know what to expect from a breed therefore how to train. Each of the dogs (but one, I think) are job oriented dogs. We know that we have to give our dog jobs for him to be happy. We know that every breed is an active dog. We know we have to walk him and exercise him a lot to keep him healthy, strong, and well behaved. Knowing what our dog is, is a great tool!!!

Awesome product and company, super easy to use and got results back within 2 weeks.

I bought this to include in a basket of dog goodies for a tricky tray. I’ve used embark on two of my dogs and the results seemed to be accurate. I’ve bought the one with the health testing as well and found it to be of no use- none of my dogs serious issues were mentioned. This particular kit was for me perfect because it gave me exactly what I wanted: breed analysis and connecting to relatives. It connected me to two full siblings for one of my dogs. I was able to determine his age after finding these two relatives. The age test offered by embark was also a disappointment for me as the results were too broad to determine an exact age - it gave a broad range, something like +/- 2 years.

Skickade iväg testet och de tappades bort så helt kostnadsfritt skickade embark ett nytt sample åt mig. Smidigt och så snabbt som de bara kunde gå

Les races sont tellement évidentes une fois les résultats reçu 😉

I was so impressed with the customer service I received. I received the kit on time and carried out the swab and sent it off. Unfortunately, my swab got stuck enroute and I reached out to Embark who helped me track it and they reached a decision to resend a kit at no cost. Kit arrived in no time and I sent it off. Embark informs you when the swab has arrived, swab extracted, etc. So at every stage you are notified which helps build up the excitement. I won't spoil the rest however the results were very interesting and what surprised me most was the accuracy and rhe detailed breakdown. They also share information of close relatives and the picture of my dog's sibling was a spitting image of her. Forgot to say the only information I provided was my dog's name and swab as I purposely did not share pics or her breed type so it was amazing that through science I was provided with mind blowing results. I definitely recommend this product.

We adopted a dog from a rescue organization, and trying to figure out her breed mix was driving me nuts. We were told she was potentially a german shepherd mix, but we guessed she had some snow dog and maybe akita mixed in. The swab process was simple, straightforward, and we were given lots of updates along the way (which I very much appreciated!) The included postage was enough to send the swab back from BC to the US. Her breed mix was akita, german shepherd, malamute, husky, golden retriever, and 'super mutt.' I ended up upgrading the report to include health reports to see if there were any genetic predispositions to illness (our previous rescue dog was a purebred husky and was quite ill). We found out she's genetically healthy, and the report also broke down her likely colouring, adult weight, muscling, and appetite. I'm a bit of a genetics nerd, so I found this all quite fascinating! The test isn't cheap, but I think it's great info for anyone wanting to know more about their dog. I found the results to be quite accurate - the predicted weight, muscle, and colouring were almost 100% accurate. We also found out potential close 'relatives' with others that have done breed testing on their dogs. There was also an option to send a condensed version of the report to our vet. I'm not sure if it will be of much use to them, but at the very least it rules out any genetic causes of illness in the future. Overall, I would definitely recommend this test for anyone that wants more info on their dog. If I had a purebred dog, I'd be more likely just to order a test for genetic health issues - but for our 'rescue mix,' this was fantastic!

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