Embark Breed Identification Kit - Most Accurate Dog DNA Testing Kit - 99% Breed Ancestry Accuracy for Mixed Breed Dogs - Plus Relative Finder & Family Tree

This was my second time purchasing this product. It was really easy to use and the instructions were clear. Collecting the sample was quick, and I got updates along the way while waiting for the results. The breakdown of breeds was super detailed and included traits and health insights, which was really interesting to learn about. It was fun, informative, and totally worth it if you’re curious about your dog’s background.

I am so glad we had our precious 14 year-old dog tested before she passed away a few months later. I had wanted to do the test for a long time, and my friend recommended Embark because they are pretty thorough. It was very easy, and the turn around was only 2-3 weeks during the summer. They sent me emails keeping me updated during the process. We were surprised by the results, because as my brother said, "she was half Australian Cattle Dog masquerading as a Black Lab." She was 100% black until she got pretty old and looked like a small lab, but with different ears and a mottled tongue. She was adopted at 1.5 years, so we had no idea of her history. We knew she wasn't purebred Labrador, but being half Australian Cattle Dog was a surprise! It does explain some of her stubbornness. We had our other dog tested as well, and the results are a surprise but definitely accurate. I actually just purchased the breed + health test for our new puppy. This is a good value and it's easy and reliable. I'm glad it's available. Highly recommend!

We have two rescue pups. We got the tricolor first and the red a year later. Everyone kept telling us the red was a mutt (we didn’t care). We met a couple at a corgi gathering with one who looked very similar to our red and told us they used this test and learned he was 100% Pembroke Welsh Corgi so we ordered the test. It was easy to do and results came back quickly - she is also 100% Pembroke. I’m ordering again for our tri. Clearly she’s Pembroke (both came from Honey Brook puppy mills) but our red was a breading mommy and we were delighted to be able to see dozens of relatives in her results! Now we want to see if the tri comes back related. The Wolfie factor is particularly interesting. Red is very Wolfie and we would agree. Tri is a sweetie pie and my guess would be less Wolfie.

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.

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!!!

Mailed my dog’s swab out on July 24th and received the results on August 12th. Found out he has a bit of a mix of another breed (90% schnauzer, 10% cocker spaniel). We always suspected he was a bit of a mix and it’s nice to find out what exactly that was. I dinged a star because the breed breakdown and potential dog relatives are literally the only information they give you without having to pay more money. Come on, this is an expensive kit, give us more freebies! You can unlock more info by paying more. Ugh. As for the kit itself - Typical easy to use DNA swab kit. I say easy, but that depends on your dog’s willingness to let you swab their mouth. I did a gum swab and it worked fine - my dog refused to let me access his cheek. They have a nice web app and send email updates on when their lab receives the sample, and the progress of the analysis.

Yup, I’m that person who spent a hundred bucks to get her dog’s DNA for absolutely no purpose but intrigue! My adopted boy looked full-blooded but I knew he wasn’t, and the girl who initially rescued him through the had the dreaded hound dog in him. (I live in a rural area. If you’ve ever been kept up at night by baying hounds, you know what I mean.) I was curious and bit the bullet and ordered the Embark test. I wasn’t sure it would even be valid, as someone the swab ended up with more treats on it than slobber even though I waited more than the suggested time to swab. Love the website and its updates! Within three weeks I had his results—and, thankfully, no hound! I’d definitely do it again if I ever adopted another dog! It was easy and seems valid based on the results.

$130! What I like about this Embark kit (besides the name) is that it arrives quickly, is easy to use, the company let me know how things were progressing, and the report looks nice. What I dislike about it is that I think that breed identification is wrong, not only on my dog but on many others I’ve looked at. [The attached photos show 1) two views of Belinda; 2) Belinda’s photo with supposed breeds from her Embark page; 3) Belinda beside a 35 lb Shelty for comparison; 4) Photo of a Continental Toy Spaniel or Papillon Phalène from the World Dog Show to show similarities to Belinda; four bitches from the Embark site with the same mitochondrial DNA 1Ab Haplogroup and A402 Haplotype as Belinda, to show that they aren’t enough to establish the breed, anymore than they do with humans.] When I submitted the information for my dog, Belinda, I did not include a photo or name what I think the breed is because I wanted the DNA test to make the determination. I don’t think it can be trusted. I believe Belinda is a papillon of the sort called a Phalène (moth), with ears that lift and drop as if she is trying to fly and ear tassels sometimes 7” long. (Papillons with upright ears and Phalène with mobile flying ears come from the same litters and are both shown as papillons in shows.) She has a wavy smooth single coat a couple inches long, as expected for a papillon. (Much linger on the culottes.) She has a very light long white tail that flies around but is not held curled. She is five, and I got her at 18 months, and she has always weighed 12 lbs 3 oz. That’s several pounds heavy for a papillon, so I figured she was mixed with something else. (Though she might just be from a papillon stock too heavy to show.) She is 12” at the shoulder, with long legs. She has culottes, as papillons always do. She’s a very fast runner, as papillons often are. She has one of the typical papillon faces (some have more pinched faces). Papillons often appear in paintings of royalty and nobility from the 16th to the 18th century, always as Phalènes, and Belinda looks just like them. They were her size back then. We call her a “killer papillon” because she loves to chase deer and thinks she is much bigger than she actually is. She’s an ankle-biting herder, always careful not to get stepped on. She happily runs several miles beside trotting horses. I chose Embark because Papillon was in their list of dogs they can identify. To my shock, Embark identified Belinda as 56% Pomeranian, 23% Dachshund, and 21% Supermutt (from Pekingese, ShihTzu, Pug, and Lhasa Apso). No Papillon at all! Oh, and an 11% Wolfiness Factor (the highest percentage I’ve seen—based on ancient wolf genes, not recent ones, supposedly—a larger percentage than Eskimo dogs!) Supposedly, both of Belinda’s parents were Pomeranians and two of her grandparents were Dachshunds. Imagine! That sounds almost deliberate. Okay, Pomeranians are way smaller than 12 lbs (though their larger cousin the German Spitz Mittel would be about the right size). Unlike Belinda and unlike papillons, they have double coats, the outer one rough. Like Papillons, they have culottes. They all have upright triangle ears, unlike Belinda’s flying Phalène ears with ear locks hanging down. I don’t know if the Embark test can distinguish a Pomeranian from the larger sizes of German Spitz dogs. As for Dachshunds, Belinda has silky fur, as do some dachshunds, but that’s about the only thing they have in common. Her legs are long, her body is not, and her ears are constantly in motion. She easily leaps three feet into a bed. That is not a Dachshund quality. Belinda’s Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroup is A1b, and her Haplotype is A402. I’ve attached photos of several other dogs with the same haplogroup and Haplotype, according to Embark. They don’t look very similar. Many Papillons also are in Haplogroup A1b, but so are Pomeranians, Dobermans, St. Bernards, and a Great Danes. Embark says that A402 is limited to Dachshunds, but a lot of dogs with that Haplotype don’t seem to look much like dachshunds. I realize that dog DNA studies are not as far advanced as human DNA studies. Maybe Embark’s tests for various diseases are accurate. I didn’t have those tested. I’m not a geneticist. I don’t understand all this. I do know that the human DNA testing companies can accurately tell you what your Haplotype is and where that occurs and where various markers are found. They can sort of guess where your ancestors come from, but sometimes that might be “Mediterranean,” or “Northern European.” Both of those cover many countries. Many people in Ireland and in Spain share certain genetic markers, but they may not look much alike. I’ve noticed that the 23 & Me and Ancestry DNA tests got much more specific about my Norwegian and South German and English ancestry when I told them that’s where my ancestors came from. However, they both also identified Ashkenazi Jewish, African, and East Indian ancestry I suspected I had but didn’t tell them about. I think a panel of dog show judges could be just as accurate at guessing dog breed just by looking at photos, especially if the owners volunteer that their dogs are purebred. I could do better myself, I think, than some of the Embark identifications. I saw three dogs identified as half Papillon and half Miniature Australian Shepherd, but they looked like Papillons to me. I hate to say the Embark identification kit is a scam, but I will say that if the result is unexpected, don’t assume it is right. If a dog is mixed, some of the markers used to identify a breed might occur in many breeds. With a purebred dog, perhaps the DNA markers fitting a pattern is conclusive. With a mixed breed, perhaps the very mixture makes it much harder to be conclusive. I am certain, however, that my Papillon Belinda is not a Pomeranian/Dachshund/Wolf. I wrote to Embark with specific questions about the science. I received an immediate response saying I’d get a full response in 48 hours. A week later I received a form letter that didn’t answer any of my questions. I responded, asking for an answer to my questions and explaining that I planned to write this review. I received no response.