Question about “Genetic Diversity” results

[Jennifer]

Darwin’s Ark results include a Genetic Diversity score, scaled from 0% to 60%, which is explained as a measure of “how genetically different your dog’s parents were from each other, or how related they were.” My dog Luna’s Genetic Diversity score is 31%. I don’t really understand what this number is based on, or what exactly it tells me about her parents.

According to Embark, who present their breed calls in the form of a predicted “family tree,” Luna’s mom had one Australian Cattle Dog parent and one “Border Heeler” parent (ACD x Border Collie), while her dad had one Boxer parent and one parent who was some sort of mostly-or-entirely-herding-breed multimix with its largest component being Aussie Shep. (Embark don’t actually tell you which parent’s the mom and which is the dad; I’m basing that on having seen Luna’s parents.) Embark also report Luna’s level of inbreeding, “a measure of how closely related this dog’s parents were,” as being 1%, which is low enough that I’d figured it simply reflected the presence of fairly closely related herding breeds on both sides of her family.

Her Darwin’s Ark breed findings to date overlap pretty closely with Embark’s, so I’m confused by the apparent contradiction between her Embark “Inbreeding” score of 1% and her DA “Genetic Diversity” score of 31%. Why would those numbers be so different? Are they measuring very different things despite the similar-sounding descriptions?

[Author]

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