Reply To: Waiting for DNA Kits

[brittney logan]

Hi there,

This research project is focusing on correlating behavior and genetics, as well as improving algorithms to tell ancestry of your dog. We constantly working on determining new and improve techniques to better understand our four-legged friends. We are not like DNA testing businesses, we have a much different goal. There are many things that slow down research, especially when it comes to grant money. We can only send out about 300-500 sample when allowed a this point.

To combat the money issue, we are making Darwin’s Dogs into a nonprofit in the very near future, so owners can donate to their dogs sample to speed up the pipeline process. This of course is optional. Once a sample is sent out for sequencing, we will receive raw data which we then need to do computational work on to make sense of it all and then report it back to you. The first information we will be able to determine is what we call “breed calling” which will tell you the ancestry of your dog. Then beings the journey of trying to correlate the behavior and genetics, which has never been done before. I wish I could tell you an exact date to expect results, but with research like this, it cannot be rushed. I hope this helps to better paint a picture of how this process work and why it is taking time. We greatly appreciate your participation and patience with this research!

When results are ready, we will upload it to your Darwin’s Dogs profile so it will all be electronic.