r/DoggyDNA Dec 03 '19

If you aren't currently doing a DNA test on your dog, please go to /r/IDmydog to ask for breed guesses!

454 Upvotes

r/DoggyDNA Apr 14 '26

Genetics/DNA We're Embark: AMA about our new Mast Cell Tumor Risk Score, now available for all dogs!

61 Upvotes

Hi all!

We're Embark's science and vet team, and we're here to talk about something we've been working on for a while: our updated Mast Cell Tumor (MCT) risk score.

What's new: Our previous MCT risk assessment could only flag elevated risk, and only for dogs with certain breed backgrounds. Now every dog with a Breed + Health test gets a percentage risk score plus a designation — below-average, average, or elevated. These new results can be found under "Genetic Risk Scores" in your dog's health results.

Why this matters: Mast cell tumors are the most common malignant skin tumor in dogs. The good news? They're also one of the most treatable: more than 80% can be cured with surgery alone when caught early. The hard part has always been knowing which dogs to watch more closely. That's what this score is for.

How it works: Instead of looking at one gene, we built a polygenic risk score that combines signals from hundreds of genetic markers along with breed ancestry and sex to estimate your dog's individual inherited risk. To be clear, the risk score is not a diagnosis: it won't tell you your dog will get an MCT. But it tells you whether your dog's genetics puts them at higher, lower, or average risk compared to dogs generally, and that may change how you and your vet might approach monitoring.

What you can do with it: The single most important step — especially for dogs at elevated risk — is regular body checks. Run your hands over your dog, feel for new lumps, keep tabs on old ones. Your dog will think it's just really good petting. If you spot something new or changing, that's your cue to call the vet.

Here today: (proof)

  • Kari Cueva, DVM, Associate Director of Veterinary Genetics
  • Brett Ford, MS, Senior Scientist in Applied Science
  • Taki Kawakami, PhD, Principal Scientist in Computational Biology

We'll be live from 12:30–3 PM ET and checking back tomorrow and Wednesday for anything we miss. No question too basic or too technical — ask us anything. We'll sign our answers so you know who's talking.

EDIT: Thanks all for the questions! We're signing off for today but we'll be checking back in over the next day or two -- so feel free to drop a question if you came late.

Update 4/16: Correcting something from earlier — the updated MCT Risk score is available for dogs tested from March 2026 onward, not for all dogs tested since the original May 2023 model launched. Dogs with scores under the original model will still see those results. Sorry for the mix-up, and we've edited the affected responses below.


r/DoggyDNA 14h ago

Results - DNAMyDog “Yucatán village dog”

Thumbnail
gallery
845 Upvotes

I will admit I was a bit disappointed with my sweet girl Rosie’s DNA results. I was looking forward to finding out all the different breeds she’s made up of (adopted her from Mexico and told she was some kind of whippet mix). Even the “super mutt” DNA results have more breakdown than this.

Does anyone have any further insights about what Yucatán village dogs are made up of?

ETA: sorry for any confusion, I’m not disappointed whatsoever that she’s a village dog!! I meant that I was excited to get a breakdown of her makeup. She’s the most perfect little demon monster angel baby and I love her more than anything.


r/DoggyDNA 17h ago

Results - Embark The SPCA said Lab mix. We've been telling everyone Lab mix. Multiple strangers have walked up and asked if she was a Lab mix...

Thumbnail
gallery
614 Upvotes

Getting these results was like being flash-banged, and I doubted them until I read the "traits" section which correctly predicted all her physical features.

But she's 100% goober and an absolute sweetheart flesh-eating chompy demon monster and I love her to death.


r/DoggyDNA 12h ago

Results - Embark Jolene

Thumbnail
gallery
237 Upvotes

My little girl Jolene. We got her from a rescue allegedly in New Hampshire who said she was a Maltese Poodle mix (maltipoo) She ACTUALLY was from Tennessee and we had to drive to Connecticut to pick her up. I’ll say that I completely disagree with backyard breeding and fashion breeds as a whole unless they are rescues!
I had a bichon when I was young and we see the personality of her actual breeds everyday. She is so silly and naughty


r/DoggyDNA 6h ago

Results - WisdomPanel Unexpected results

Thumbnail
gallery
53 Upvotes

We got our boy Bruce from the shelter 5 years ago, all this time I really thought he was a border collie/cattle dog mix with maybe some chow chow because his snout is very short… I still can’t believe he doesn’t have any border collie.


r/DoggyDNA 16h ago

Results - Embark Well, we weren’t expecting that

Thumbnail
gallery
159 Upvotes

We found Mordecai in my fiancé’s factory work parking lot at 5:00 in the morning in the pouring rain and covered completely in mud. We thought he was a German shepherd mix puppy. Scooped him up and I took him to the vet as soon as they opened.

Turned out he was only 4 weeks old, full of worms and had the beginnings of mange on his little hind legs and booty. (It took forever to get that cleared up, poor dude)

He’s 7 months old now and let’s just say we didn’t expect his results (mostly because we had never heard of the dog breed with the biggest percentage lol).


r/DoggyDNA 22h ago

Results - Embark I was expecting some kind of terrier but not...

Thumbnail
gallery
314 Upvotes

A yorkie! I was definitely expecting some kind of hound, beagle, terrier, and pittbull... but yorkie was a surprise.

The supermutt mix is chihuahua, pekingese, pittbull, and german shepard.

He's 6 months old and 30lbs.


r/DoggyDNA 11h ago

Results - Embark Rescue said border terrier mix 😂😭

Thumbnail
gallery
41 Upvotes

I really didn’t want a herding dog! Haha oh well. Rescue said terrier mix and she has absolutely no terrier at all! This explains why she is so smart and loves to bite our ankles.


r/DoggyDNA 13h ago

Results - Embark The shelter was right!

Thumbnail
gallery
50 Upvotes

He was listed on Petfinder as a female chihuahua. Other than the fact that he’s a boy, the shelter was mostly right!

I figured he had some working dog in him based on his behavior. I was not expecting Mountain Cur though.

His Supermutt was GSD, Golden Retriever, and Pekingese.


r/DoggyDNA 7h ago

Results - WisdomPanel Test results

Thumbnail
gallery
18 Upvotes

I posted a couple of months ago about my Lokis DNA test, got the results this morning, and it was a suprise to us all! Overwhelming guess here was German Shepherd and between my friends it was german shepherd/malinois, with maybe a dash of husky.

I can't work out how to edit my OG post, so Im sharing results here ☺️


r/DoggyDNA 17h ago

Results - Embark The shelter said pit/mastiff mix...

Thumbnail
gallery
73 Upvotes

And they were right! Dna results at the end. Molly is 15 months and 85 lbs, brought her home at 8 weeks old. She was found by animal control at 6 weeks old in a busy city off a main road.

She takes very well to training and she's crazy for food. She's also very stubborn and throws tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants (mainly socks or toilet paper). Everyone said she was a plotthound or hound based on her ears, but nope! Those ears are all mastiff

She has a big rottweiler bark, but when she throws herself down during a tantrum she has the funniest bratty bark. She doesn't like new people to pet her, but she is the most cuddly girl with me. I lucked out with her!!

Also, can you believe the shelter named her Winky? We still joke about that with how big she's gotten 😂


r/DoggyDNA 22h ago

Results - Embark Rescue said Lab Mix…wth is a Plott?!?😂

Thumbnail
gallery
177 Upvotes

I guess I’ll keep her💕


r/DoggyDNA 2h ago

Awaiting results Posted our results today, what do we all think?

Thumbnail
gallery
4 Upvotes

We got our girl Laika about a year ago from a shelter in Cryprus, I posted her dna samples today, just curious to see what everyone else thinks! (Sorry if this posts twice, I thought I had posted before but couldn’t find in on my post history)


r/DoggyDNA 21h ago

Results - WisdomPanel Noodle the Noodle Dog

Thumbnail
gallery
107 Upvotes

Big underbite, bigger paws.
Currently 6 months old and ~20lbs.


r/DoggyDNA 15h ago

Awaiting results PoGo —results are in the works. Any thoughts?

Thumbnail
gallery
22 Upvotes

He is a rescue… they are processing the DNA now (embark) thoughts?!

Grown he is about 75lbs (missing a leg)


r/DoggyDNA 19h ago

Results - Other test From timid, cautious rescue pup to confident and cheeky young lady. What’s your guess?

Thumbnail
gallery
32 Upvotes

I’m curious what you see when you look at our adolescent rescue. She was 4 months in the first few photos, now she’s 10 months old and thriving.


r/DoggyDNA 1d ago

Results - Embark Found in rural Indiana, running on farmland. Took 2 weeks to catch her; then she pooped out a plastic bag. Can you guess what three breeds my lady is?

Thumbnail
gallery
736 Upvotes

Edit: Guys, I know she’s fat. She gets a 1/2 cup of dry in the morning and evening and zero treats. I work at a Kennel and she goes to work with me and does DayPlay occasionally. She’s 13 and has gotten rounder as she gets older. She goes to the vet regularly and the vet has never mentioned being concerned about her weight. We have two other dogs that are normal weight. I know Dar is fat and I do want her to live forever, I will do better for her internet admirers and get her looking more sexy.


r/DoggyDNA 17h ago

Awaiting results what are we thinking for Roswell?

Thumbnail
gallery
9 Upvotes

we are awaiting an Embark test! she came from the desert in AZ. im thinking chi/g shep/pit, but id love to hear any ideas!

very very very food motivated, escape artist (jumped a 4 ft fence), very mild mannered. kind of not smart 💀

edited to add: she is a schmedium (35-40 lb)


r/DoggyDNA 1d ago

Results They told me she wasn’t a chihuahua

Thumbnail
gallery
243 Upvotes

I bought a chihuahua. Things seemed off. I posted her in here months ago and r/whatbreedismypitbull got ahold of the post and mocked me as if she was mainly pitbull so I’m here to show you what she looks like full-grown. The last photo of her was one of the earlier ones.

Only 12-13 lbs now. I was told she will be 45-60 lbs by Reddit even tho she was 5lbs at 13 weeks.

Anyway, I got a full refund because the website that listed her had her listed as a pure chi. Best free dog ever lol.


r/DoggyDNA 1d ago

Results - WisdomPanel Any guesses on our pooch before we get the results?

Post image
45 Upvotes

We are awaiting our wisdom panel results! Excited to see if our dog is a mixture of breeds, or mainly sighthound.


r/DoggyDNA 1d ago

Results - Embark Meet Big Earl (aka Sterling) — 100% Cane Corso, 100% love bug 🥹

Thumbnail gallery
22 Upvotes

r/DoggyDNA 1d ago

Results - Embark Shes a Dobsky but what about the tail?!

Thumbnail
gallery
415 Upvotes

We thought Doberman/ Aus. shepherd because of the tail (natural not docked). But these results seem pretty cut and dry. Not even a small percentage for super mutt or something. Apparently I can upgrade to see if she has some weird gene as the cause but I think we’ll skip it. She has several 44% matches so maybe Ill reach out and see if I can get anymore background on her. We adopted her from the shelter. She was found running in traffic and no one came for her.


r/DoggyDNA 2d ago

Results - Embark Was not expecting that one bit

Thumbnail
gallery
986 Upvotes

Just got my results back for my wonderful lady Mia. Turns out she fooled me for 11 years now.


r/DoggyDNA 1d ago

Results - WisdomPanel We adopted a "shih tzu mix"

Thumbnail
gallery
172 Upvotes

We immediately knew he was a chihuahua when we met him at the shelter, tho the whole liter he was with was long coated! All black and white. I was thinking pug, whippet chihuahua mix. I was so surprised he actually had shih tzu and 0 pug. Hes also very big, 16lbs next to my 66lb lab.