What info do I get from my dog's sequence?

[brittney logan]

Hi Ruth, great question!

As the research continues, we will add more to your dogs profile, such as size predictions based on genetics, personality reports and more to come! To find out what we are currently reporting, please check out our Stories tab, where we have a post about our results and what they mean.

All about ancestry: your dog’s results and what they mean

If your dogs breed is not currently listed in our reference panel (list found on FAQ) then a portion on the results will likely be called “unknown”. As of right now, we are working on adding more breeds to the panel, and will continue to do so.

[Ruth-Sampson]

What do I learn about my dog from the report? Is there a sample report on the web site? If the my dog’s breed not in the data base, do I get anything useful? UC Davis provides a certificate that shows what alleles the dog has at their selected marker sites and a report on the level of inbreeding even if they do not have a large enough sample population for a breed profile.

[kristen johnson 2]

Oh that will be interesting. My little Dexter has been on a diet and never gets any smaller. I would love to see what size predictions would be for him. His personality report would just say “nightmare” lol.

[Jennifer]

It seems like most of the genetic tests commercially available nowadays, whether from UC Davis or Embark or whatever, will at least give you a rundown of your dog’s genotype for several of the genes presently known to be associated with certain physical traits–coat pattern and texture, overall body size (numerous genes involved in that) etc., in addition to level of inbreeding. And Darwin’s Ark is looking at much more of the genome than any of those tests, so I’d imagine(?) all of that info and more would be available. How “useful” that info is would depend on your interests–like, I’d be curious to know if my dog might be merle (she has very little black coat pigment, so I can’t reliably tell by looking) because if she were it might explain some odd quirks about her coat patterning and eye color, but I don’t know that that’d really be “useful” info so much as personally interesting to me. But what’s really exciting to me about this study is not so much anything I’d learn about Luna specifically–I already know her behavioral quirks, and as far as it goes no DNA test is going to help me manage those–but rather the opportunity to contribute in some small way to furthering scientists’ understanding of the genetic bases of dog behavior, which in the long run could be very helpful for breeders too.

[kristen johnson 2]

I agree Jennifer. I really do like the idea of contributing. I feel like my Dexter has all the “negative” behaviors……so I thought he’d be a goldmine of information. Then I had to get my parents involved because their dog is about as well behaved as they come. He’s really eager to train and learns so fast but is so calm and chill. I think it could be very helpful for breeders as well. I think about the fact that if Dexter had gone anywhere else he would be homeless because no one else would have put up with him and it makes me sad. My dogs are mixed so breeders didn’t play a part here but I still think it would be useful for those who do get dogs from breeders.

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