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

Fast results and super straightforward! 📝 Gives detailed breed info and health insights I didn’t expect. Kit is well-made, and instructions are clear. Fascinating to learn more about my pup’s ancestry—highly recommend! ✨🔬

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 adopted my dog from a rescue shelter in 2020 with their guess that she was a mixed bassett breed dog, but I haven't been able to afford to get her tested without the help of amazon gift cards, don't judge me these tests are EXPENSIVE, so I ordered a DNA breed test kit and got a sample from my little girl, which is harder than it sounds when I didn't desensitize her to having her muzzle area handled. I like that the test came as a 'swab' test which is uninvasive to other body cavities , and just a minor discomfort for my dog, again not used to having her muzzle area handled, when swabbing her cheek pouches to gather enough DNA to get the test done. I also like that the results take a realatively short time, 2-4 weeks instead of 2-4 MONTHS. I'm definitely looking forward to finally finding out what breed mix my little rescue is!!

We did the Embark DNA test for our mixed breed and I’m honestly so glad we did. The process was simple — just a cheek swab and mail it back. Results took a few weeks, but the wait was worth it. The breakdown was incredibly detailed. It didn’t just give breed percentages — it explained traits, potential health markers, and even relatives in their database. That part was wild. We always guessed what our dog might be, and the results were completely different than we expected. It actually helped us understand certain behaviors better. It’s not cheap, but if you’re curious about your dog’s true mix or want insight into potential health risks, this feels like the most thorough option out there. Would absolutely recommend for anyone with a rescue or mixed breed.

The anxiety that comes while you wait to get your results is insane. Well worth it all. Im not going to lie... after I had already purchased my kit I looked on their website and if I had ordered through the embark website I could have gotten a free fi collar with my order so that was disappointing, but the results weren't. I got my girl from a breeder so I knew what she was, but a group I joined on Facebook required an embark to post so we embarked. Shes exactly what I was told she was but shes also 100% good girl. So that is fun. Also my results came back a lot faster than expected. I think overall 4 weeks at the most i waited on the entire thing.

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.

Worked well, took a while for the results, but it does say that it could take four weeks and everything was very easy to use and understand

$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.

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 😉

Such a great and comprehensive service

I was super happy with the Embark Breed Identification kit! It was recommended to me by a co-worker to verify that my Spoodle was a true F1 Spoodle (with a full Poodle as one parent and a full Cocker Spaniel as the other). It isn't that we didn't believe the breeder, but it was good piece of mind to have as the dog ages. Sure enough, the dog came back as 50.1% Poodle and 49.9% Cocker Spaniel (with a stated margin of error of 0.01%, I'd say the results were pretty spot on). The service wasn't just blowing smoke...we entered our dog's information as a mixed breed, not specifically a Spoodle/Cockapoo, and these were the results we got. The test was easy to do and was non-invasive for the dog. The kit came with physical Canadian postage stamps to be able to post the sample from Canada to the lab in the USA. An e-mail came at every step of the way--from receipt of sample, to extraction, to analyzing results--and all said it took about three weeks to complete. In registering, I did so using my email and I was getting a lot of update and promotion spam from the company, which was a bit annoying, but nothing an "unsubscribe" click couldn't take care of. I'm a bit crestfallen that there isn't a similar service here in Canada that is just as affordable, just as accurate/trusted, just as speedy with a similar slick user interface that's easy to use. I would rather support a Canadian company but there just isn't something on this level here. I'd definitely use this service again...and plan to as we have adopted a second dog which is a mixed breed from Texas. I can't wait to find out HIS mixed-up genealogy using Embark!

Assez simple à a s'en servir mais n'explique pas bien les conditions d'envoi...renseignez-vous