Looking for advice on how to train your shelter dog or new puppy? Embark spoke with Carrie Weber of Good Dog Training to learn more about dog behavior and how DNA testing can help you and your trainer better assist your pup. Whether you have a puppy that’s still learning...
Almost everyone knows Clifford, the Big Red Dog. He’s the huge, lovable pup from children’s literature and the star of a new movie. If we ran an Embark DNA test on Clifford, what would we find? A gene that gives him his red coat? Maybe a new mutation that causes...
All living things inherit their traits from their parents, whether it’s a person’s height, a dog’s coat type, or a flower’s petal color. Traits aren’t copied with 100% accuracy from parent to offspring, though. Since traits are inherited from both parents, all sorts of mixing and matching can occur on...
Dog breeders often ask, why are the risks for some health conditions difficult to detect with genetic testing? The short answer is: genetics can be simple or complex—scientific terms that mainly refer to patterns of inheritance or transmission of a disease-causing mutation. Some health issues currently have a DNA test...
Every day, we hear from Embark customers who are surprised by their dog’s breed results. This often happens with mixed-breed dogs that don’t quite look like you’d imagine based on their breed breakdown. These expectation-defying differences are possible because of how genetic inheritance works. Just like you, your dog gets...
Merle coat pattern testing is included in the Embark for Breeders DNA Kits by testing for the M Locus. Merle coat pattern is common to several dog breeds, including the Australian Shepherd, Catahoula Leopard Dog, and Shetland Sheepdog, among many others. In Dachshunds, this color pattern is known as “dapple.”...
Meet Kaylee and Wiley, two pup sisters from California who were reunited after their parents learned about the connection with Embark’s Doggy DNA Relative Finder! Kaylee When Ryan and Kristen first went to the animal shelter in Oakland, Calif., they were sure they’d be meeting a pup they had read...
National DNA Day is celebrated every year on April 25. It commemorates the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, along with the discovery of DNA’s double helix structure in 1953, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). A group of scientists—including James Watson, Rosalind Franklin, and...
Hi everyone! Erin, Embark’s Senior Veterinary Geneticist, here. As more people have been choosing Embark for their genetic testing needs, I’ve been receiving quite a few questions about our technology -- what is “DNA microarray technology?” “Is it proprietary?” “How do you know it’s accurate?” “How is it different from...
Are you a fan of Agility and its superstars? If so, you may have seen lightning-fast mixed-breed dogs on the televised finals of the Masters Agility Championship at Westminster. These talented athletes and their handlers, who have also tested their dogs with Embark, include Brio, and his handler Ali Park,...
Embark’s Doggy DNA Relative Finder has only been available since November, but we’ve already heard from several pup-parents about canine relatives being brought together for the first time since puppyhood. Read the story of Jude and Lucy, two sibling pups adopted from the same litter 10 years ago, who were...
Occasionally, we get questions from customers curious about how their dog’s DNA is processed into the genotype data that we analyze to understand breed ancestry and health risks. Once we receive your dog’s cheek swab, the DNA contained in the sample is copied many times in a process called amplification....
