Wisdom Panel Dog DNA Test Kit - Canine Breed Identification and Ancestry Information

I tested my adopted puppy, who I knew to be a mixed breed, purely out of curiosity. First, the process itself. It is very easy to do; the instructions and materials are well done. I was especially careful with the waiting period for objects in the mouth (Phoenix is approximately 5 months, and is still in the chewing phase), so that presented a little bit of an issue, though undoubtedly a necessary one. I took her toys away and did it very late in the night as she was sleeping. The two included swabs have light bristles on the end. Phoenix did not mind one bit; in fact, she went back to sleep as I was doing it. Everything for return shipping is included, and it is all quite simple. It was marked as received 1 day after tracking indicated (again, completely understandable), and the website has its own tracker as it is processed. It was completed in about 7 days, 2 weeks before the promise date. More importantly, the results. I notice some of the others here doubt the results because it does not meet their preconceptions. This is understandable to a degree, but I came in with a more open mind. My dog's physical traits can be interpreted in many different ways, and it seems everyone has their own opinions (wire haired fox terrier/lab mix was the rescue's best guess, but she was very up front that it was in fact nothing more than a guess). I will include a picture on the product page so you can see for yourself (edit: this feature doesn't seem to be available right now for some reason, sorry). With that said, I was extremely surprised with the results. Yet, when I put the pieces available together, it did make some sense. Logically of course it could be argued that you could say that about just about anything, but I take it at face value. It turns out my 25 lb 5 month old wire haired puppy has a plurality of Yorkshire Terrier! Needless to say, nobody had that one. Still, my dog is such a mix that this still accounts for only 25% of her lineage. Indeed, the report did in fact get the adult weight range of 26-43 lbs correct despite the Yorkshire terrier (this is impressive in my opinion). The other primaries were Bulldog and cocker spaniel (12.5 % each). That leaves 50% mixed going back to at least her great-grandparents. The minors that showed had some dogs that made sense as well given her physical appearances (lab was included). Still, I am at a loss to explain her wire-haired coat (her hair is primarily black and about 3 inches and sheds very little, while her slight undercoat is a soft brown). In the end, I enjoyed it. It still left some questions, but this was expected going in. I do have one suggestion. The report is very ambiguous as to the mixed breed signatures (less than certain breeds). I completely understand that there are limitations given the complexity of the science and data pool, but I would like to know the quantifiable likelihood of these breeds. The bar graph doesn't help very much. It shows relative comparison to each other and in relation to "detection threshold" (which itself is not quantified), but I really have no reference to be able to say how likely any of them truly are. All I know is that these 5 breeds are possible, and more possible than other breeds. That's better than nothing, but given a bar graph is provided, more specific information it would seem is available. The bottom line - for me it was worth it. The results were both plausible and interesting. I am satisfied. Indeed, for me the idea that this kind of thing is even possible let alone available to the individual consumer is a scientific marvel. 25 years ago this was nothing more than science fiction. Now I have a DNA test on my dog to satisfy my curiosity! Pretty astounding when you think about it. Who knows, maybe in five years the test will have improved to the point where I can tell where my dog's hair came from.

I know that phenotypes don't always match genotypes. However, I'm still rather skeptical about the results of my dog's test. She is most definitely some sort of hound mix-- she bays and howls like nobody's business, has a hard hound coat, and an intense toy/prey drive. She's exuberantly friendly, incredibly stubborn, and goes deaf when she's on a scent. As a puppy I thought she might be a Beagle cross, but as she grew older Beagle seemed less likely, based on her size (almost forty pounds) and structure (very tall and lean with skinny legs and a narrow face). I waffled a bit over buying a DNA kit because of the poor reviews, but eventually I caved. The whole process was very simple: swabbed her cheeks after isolating her as per previous reviews for several hours with nothing to lick or chew and then sent the samples in. The results arrived rather quickly, just under two weeks after the sample was received. They indicate she's primarily a mutt, which I expected: only two breeds found in the last three generations. They also say she's 12.5% basset hound, which I definitely can see, in personality if not in stature. However, it's the rest that has me skeptical. The largest breed found in her (25%) is Cocker Spaniel. I just don't really see it in her at all. She doesn't look like a Cocker, and she doesn't act like a Cocker. The rest of the results (the less-than-12.5%) were equally as perplexing: 9% otterhound (one of the rarest breeds in the world!), 8% bullmastiff, and then a variety of wire-haired terriers. All put together, I'm just not sold. Could she be this odd combination of non-hound, very rare breeds? Maybe. But she doesn't look or act like a dog who supposedly only has 12.5% scent-hound in her, excluding otterhound, which again I just don't believe at all given the rarity. I gave it three stars because it is certainly entertaining and fun, and it's easy to do. Had a good laugh at the results. If you have fifty or sixty dollars to spare, go for it. But go into it knowing the results might be a bit suspect. That said, I may go ahead and buy another test for my other dog, if only to see if his results make more sense, or are equally as unexpected. I tested my 'hound' first because she at least sort of resembles some breeds, while I can't even begin to guess with him, other than some kind of terrier. First I'll have to work myself back up to stomaching another sixty dollars, though. UPDATE 08/15/12: I have to reduce this to one star, based solely on my experience when I ultimately did attempt to test my second dog. Note the 'attempt'. Again, I followed all directions. The dog was isolated for several hours with nothing to lick or chew prior to the test. I let the swabs air dry without touching anything before shipping them right off. This time, it took an entire week for the samples to be received at the lab, as opposed to roughly three days for the first test. A little strange, but I shrugged it off. For two complete weeks, the status checker on the website informed me the sample was being processed. Then this past Monday evening (8/13), it changed from being processed to results pending. Okay. Great! When I next checked it, however, it had reverted back to being processed. What? No word for Wisdom Panel on why, and for two days I waited, thinking it would change back. Nope. Finally, a bit confused, I e-mailed them asking what was going on. Their reply? The DNA sample was insufficient and didn't have enough markers, and if I wanted results, I would have to test again. Given that I followed their directions to a 'tee', could it be perhaps that the week the sample spent in the postal system in the dead heat of summer before they supposedly received it had anything to do with this insufficient DNA? I mean, a week seems like a heckuva long time for first class mail, especially when a sample sent not a month prior was received by them in less than three days! But what most rankled me is the fact that they apparently weren't going to tell me anything about this problem with my sample-- at least, not in a timely manner-- even though it seems quite clear that they knew about it on Monday, at the very least. If I hadn't e-mailed them, I feel like they would have just let me sit around for another two or three weeks despite knowing well and good that they couldn't analyze my sample. Not a good way to treat paying customers. Not to mention, when sending me back their form letter, they didn't even bother to fill-in-the-blanks with my dog's name... the e-mail literally read: "It has been brought to my attention that the sample you submitted for (pet name) was unable to be successfully processed..." Really? They offered to either send me a new kit-- no offer to expedite or anything like that, so that would mean another month or so of waiting with no guarantee that THIS sample would be sufficient-- or they said I could seek a refund. But because I bought through Amazon, they wouldn't actually give me the refund themselves. Cue a very nice LiveChat with an Amazon rep in which I was told I could not get a refund because I didn't physically have the product to return... well, long story short, I didn't take no for an answer and did end up with my refund. Go Amazon! But the whole experience has left a bitter taste in my mouth and I will definitely NOT be dealing with WisdomPanel again.

Ok, so we adopted this dog from the shelter, he is a great dog. He was about 1.5 years old when we got him, so he was just at the stage of leaving puppy stage to early adult. The shelter said that he was a Border collie and Lab mix. When you look at him you would agree. He has all of the marking of these two breeds. He definitely looks like he is this exact combination. So we started taking him to the dog park and for the first couple of months he was very well behaved and got along with all the other dogs. The on one day we took him to the park and presto, he was the big bad alpha. We thought he was just having a bad day. Well the next few times we took him he started fighting and he was the aggressor to start the fights. I then began to get concerned about his aggression. Also, Labradors are known to be very gentle and a non-aggressive breed. I started to think that he might not have Border collie, but might in fact have American Staffordshire and Lab. Some of the Staffies have the same type of markings as border collies. So I decided to DNA test him, and surprise. His results came back and he has absolutely no border collie or lab at all. It turns out he is 25% Chow, 25% Australian Cattle Dog, 25% English Cocker Spaniel and 12% Siberian husky. Now I am not saying the test was wrong, because he does exhibit traits of all these breeds, and he also demonstrates each of the breed physical traits. His black and white coat is probably a mix of Black Chow and Siberian husky. His fighting spirit obviously comes from the Chow and the Australian Cattle dog breed since they are part dingo. I must admit that I was very surprised by the results and it took a bit to digest. So I've decided that I will test the wisdom kit with my second dog. I have a pure breed dog, and I am going to obtain the mixed breed test to see if they can accurately identify my second dog's pure breed lineage. I will use my second dog as a control case. If they get it right, then I will agree that the test is accurate. I will post another review when I get the new results back. I do have an understanding of genetics and it's not unusual for the Phenotype (Physical Characteristics) to not manifest themselves like the underlying DNA and genes. Follow up - Oct 11, 2012 - Okay, this is a follow up to the above review. So, I ordered the second test and performed it on my second dog who is a purebreed. First, let me say that they got it right, they hit the target. My second dog is a boarder collie and the results came back that she is boarder collie. But there was a bit of a surprise, in that she is not 100%. It turns out that our purebreed is 92% boarder collie and 8% Lowchen. Now here is what has convinced me that the test is accurate. The only information that you provide with the DNA swab is the name of the dog and weight. From that they were able to determine that she was indeed boarder collie. Then it also revealed the Lowchen, so I decided to read up on the Lowchen and it turns out that they have some very unique qualities. My dogs name is annie, but I also had a little nickname for her because she had a funny little attribute. You see she has this extra fluffy butt, or at least some extra fur in her hind area that make it look larger than it actually is. When you push on it, it deflates. So, I have jokingly always called her "fluffy butt". When reading up on the Lowchen, it turns out that they have an odd nickname called "Fluff Butts". It looks like the breeder of my dog, must have been experimenting with crossing the boarder collie with the Lowchen to get some specific traits into their lineage. Anyways, I am going to give the Wisdom Panel DNA test kit, 5 stars. It is accurate, although you may get some surprises in the results as I have. I am convinced that both test provided accurate results for both of my dogs. Even if you don't beleive in the science, it is still fund to do.

Overall, I was very satisfied with the process, reporting and follow-up by the laboratory, but unfortunately not as satisfied with some of the results as the technology just can't be as conclusive as you would like. The test itself is very easy, just a cheek swab. the swab uses polyester bristles, which I felt was superior to previous tests I've done that used cotton swabs, as it probably collected more cells and also would dry better to reduce mold contamination. The swab goes back into an addressed, postage paid envelope and then right in the mail. It took 6 days from the time i mailed it until I got a confirmation e-mail back that the tests had been received at the lab. After this, it took 11 days to get one set of results and 16 days for the other, both well within the 2-3 weeks they say it will take. The e-mail links to the report on their website which can then be printed. I did two tests, one on a mixed breed who we had been told by the rescue group was a mix of two breeds whose litter had been abandoned at a vet's office and then passed on to the rescue group, so we were fairly confident of the lineage. She also looked exactly like almost every picture we google'd of the mix. There are 3 choices to pick from: Mixed Breed, Designer Dog, and Pure Breed. Since we thought we knew what she was we picked designer dog and selected the 2 breeds from the menu we thought she represented. The results came back in 11 days and showed exactly what we thought, even confirming her as probably a 1st generation mix. The results include charts showing how the genetic markers led to this conclusion, explanations of the test, breed information, etc. The second test was on another rescue but this one we had no information on, so we submitted her as a "mixed breed". These results took 16 days and when they came, they identified one breed that they were confident she contained, one she might be but they weren't highly confident in, and 5 more possibles. When I e-mailed a follow-up question over the weekend, they responded by Monday afternoon, so they do have very good follow-up and customer service, but unfortunately the technology just still can't identify some dogs clearly enough. It appears that the more breeds involved as well as how far back the mix occurred make a big difference so although we weren't thrilled with the results it's probably the best we can get for now. The bottom line, if you want to do a DNA test on your dog you'll probably end up using this test. There were only 3 labs doing it before, and Bio-reference and Canine Heritage have both folded or been taken over by Wisdom Panel due to patent issues. Wisdom Panel also does the blood tests your Vet might offer. The other test Amazon offers, DNAmyDog only tests for about 80 breeds per it's website versus the 300 that Wisdom panel does. It's based in Canada so I don't know if has it's own technology or if can get around the patent issue. Bottom line, easy test, good company, but be prepared that you still may not get the answers you want.

We adopted a dog that clearly is majority australian cattle dog. The shelter we adopted her from also listed her as an australian cattle dog. Her behavior is identical to a stubborn, loyal, smart, i-dont-know-my-own-strength australian cattle dog. What we really wanted to know was what else this mixed dog has in her. I chose Wisdom Panel because of their reputation but also because of the extremely important fact that very few testing companies seem to include the australian cattle dog as a possible result. The mixed breed Wisdom Panel test was easy to use. I was glad the package contents had no liquids or anything complicated. It's just some swab sticks. You're not paying for the kit, it's probably 30 cents to put together... You're paying the lab testing done afterwards. I swabbed the inside of her mouth (twice since the kit comes with two sticks) and sent them back in the provided envelope. I was concerned I did not get much saliva on the swab stick because she was fighting me and because she had kennel cough which caused her mouth to be a bit dry. The email from Wisdom Panel came and I downloaded the PDF with her results. I was VERY relieved to see her large majority breed contribution was australian cattle dog. This, in my opinion, validated the test as an accurate one and made me trust the rest of the results. It listed australian shepard and collie as her other main breeds which I can definately see in her. This test outcome provided me with the information I needed. I can now treat her, train her, and discipline her better by knowing what she REALLY is. It also provided a whole bunch of fun since dogs are basically our children and we want to have these types of curiousities cured. Would I improve anything? For the price of the kit I think Wisdom Panel should print the results and put them in a nice folder and send them in the mail. It would be nice but I suppose getting a PDF (which is very nicely put together) is 'good enough' and can be printed and filed away. We adopted another dog recently and ordered another panel... The excitement builds. EDIT: We bought and used another Wisdom Panel Mixed Breed test. We adopted a dog labeled as "Chihuahua/Daschund" mix. I immediately started telling people that, based on physical looks and behavior, that this dog has to be beagle and most likely jack russell. I was told to trust what the shelter said. Not a chance. I did the Wisdom Panel test and it came back as two breeds: Beagle and Jack Russell. Take that, people. Also, the results contained NO question marks which are usually there when a dog has many many mixes in it. For example, the test for our Australian Cattle Dog came back as cattle dog, aus shephard, collie, and a whole bunch of question marks due to a very 'cluttered' ancestry. Not this test. It was very clear: this dog is a half half mix of beagle and jack russell. Once again, thanks Wisdom Panel!

I bought 2 of these a couple weeks ago. We have 2 dogs, Hermione and Bender, that we were told upon their respective adoptions were 'designer hybrids'... a jack-chi (jack russell and chihuahua) and a dorgi (corgi and dachshund). We were pretty confident the jack-chi was what we were told she was. She looked just like one! But the Dorgi we were not sure. He has some corgi looking features and is long and thin but I had doubts. A google search for Dorgi produced no animal that looked like our Ben! I've owned the jack-chi for 6 years and ALWAYS wanted to know the truth about what she is. We adopted the dorgi for my husband 3 years ago and he didn't know such a test existed so when I told him about it a few weeks ago, he asked why we hadn't done it already! lol. Anyway, I ordered the tests for $100 for both and they arrived in 3 days. The instructions say that you have to basically quarantine them for a couple hours, not letting them eat or lick anything so the sample is not contaminated and then take a small round q-tip/tooth brush looking thing and rub it around their gums above their teeth for 15 seconds let it dry for 5 minutes and send it back. I read reviews that gave tips on crating them or putting them in a spare bedroom for that quarantine time, ect but I knew our Dorgi would be a problem! He licks evvvverything constantly! I decided that since our dogs sleep with us I would put their tests on my nightstand and do it first thing in the morning so there would be no contamination of samples. They would have 8 hours of not eating drinking or licking a thing! Some reviewers made it seem hard to get an uncontaminated sample and said the lab came back and said it was unusable. I was nervous! Well, I woke up at 3am to the dorgi licking me to go outside. LOL so I decided to go ahead and get the jack-chi sample as she was still adleep at the foot of the bed. I grabbed her swabs and woke her up and started rubbing. She probably didn't appreciate getting woken up like that! I tried to count to 15 as the instructions said but I only got to 5 on the first sample and 7 on the second. I let the dogs out and we all went back to sleep. When I woke up at 6:30am for work, Ben was still asleep so I grabbed his swabs and the same thing happened. He wouldn't tolerate the sample taking for more than 5 seconds! I was sure my samples would not be sufficient! But I had done what I could and I sent them in. That was Tuesday. 3 days later (Friday) I got an email saying that they had gotten them and the testing process had started. It said to expect results within 2 weeks. 7 days later, the following Friday around 6pm I checked my email and there were Bender's (dorgi) results. We were astonished! The PDF file was easy to read and had a family tree style diagram to clearly show us Ben's linage. We were astonished! Our dorgi was actually mostly made up of Australian Shepherd and Belgian Tervuren, the later being a breed we'd never even heard of. It had one whole line of ancestry that just said 'mixed breed' and when we scrolled down it said he was lowchen, shaffordshire bull terrier and collie and gave the percentages of each that made up that 'mixed breed' line. All of a sudden when we looked at Bender, we saw a completely different dog! Things made much more sense!! The way he looks, why his eyes are colored the way they are, his personality, ect... it was enlightening! But now I was anxious! Where were Hermione's results? Where was my confirmation telling me what I already knew? That Hermione was a Jack-chi? The next day, nothing came all day. It was the weekend, after all so I figured as much. I was sure I'd get them Monday but it was killing me! But then, as I laid down to go to sleep Saturday night I checked my email one last time on my iphone. There it was. Hermione's results were in. I shot out of bed and ran into the office to tell my husband and we huddled in front of my computer monitor at 11:30pm to open her PDF file. Again, I was shocked. I thought I knew my dog. I have an 'I <3 jack-chi's' tee shirt for crying out loud and the dog on the front of it looks JUST LIKE HERMIONE! But low and behold.... every single parent, grandparent and great grandparent of Hermione was a rat terrier. What I had on my hands was a full blooded rat terrier. At first I was actually disappointed, but Monday during some downtime at work I looked up the rat terrier and again... enlightenment. Everything started to make sense. She does look exactly like a rat terrier and her personality matches right up. The more I learned about this impressive breed the happier I got that I bought this test and found out the truth. I have always known I had an amazing animal on my hands, I mean Hermione single handedly (pawdedly?) turned my husband from a cat person to a dog person, but now here was proof that my dog really is something special :)I also know now what to looks for medically as she ages. The ailments that are common to her breed. So in summery, DNA sample taking turned out to be a snap, from ordering it off amazon to getting my results took 13 and 14 days respectively and I believe the results to be 100% correct. I am extremely pleased with this service and will no doubt purchase it for every single dog I adopt in the future!

I was curious to find out what type of mix our dog is, because we were told by the rescuer that she is American Bull with Labrador mix but at the vet, everyone said she looks like a Great Dane. Thinking I am expecting a 80 lbs dog, and hoping I didn't end up with a 100+ lbs dog I bought the kit to confirm. I followed its instruction and everything went well until I got the result. I was told that my dog is a Bullmastiff and Boxer mix. At that point I went to their web site and ask if they mixed up the test or need to re-calibrate their test, because my dog look nothing like those two breeds. She looks like "Petey" from the Little Rascals. I even sent them several pictures of my dog. I got this reply: "The sample obtained from Popcorn was of very good quality and generated a good genetic signature that supports the originally reported ancestry tree with two Boxer great grandparents (one on either side of his family tree) and a trace amount of Bullmastiff great grandparent. It is important to know that Popcorn carries the genetic contribution of the Boxer breed as this breed is prone to specific health concerns. The algorithm is clearly finding evidence of additional bully breed influence but not any other recent purebred. Dogs such as Petey from the Little Rascals and Popcorn are often described as Pit Bulls by the lay person. The "Pit Bull" is not an AKC recognized breed due to the diversity of the breed and it is this same feature which makes determining a genetic signature difficult. The "Pit Bull" is not presently included in our panel because of the genetic variability that has resulted from cross-breedings between many other breeds. The American Staffordshire Terrier, Bulldog, Boxer, Mastiff, Bull Terrier, Boston Terrier, and French Bulldog are all examples of breeds that have been used historically in crosses to result in the desired physical appearance of the "Pit Bull". The Boxer and Bullmastiff which were both found in Popcorn's background have been used in cross-breedings to generate the desired physique that falls under the Pit Bull umbrella. As this physical appearance is an extreme, it tends to be fairly dominant and can be visually appreciated in cross-breds even several generations later. From the pictures, we can see that Popcorn exhibits an extreme white pattern which is likely being passed down to her from the Boxer great grandparents. This page has an interesting discussion on white spotting and how white Boxers develop this trait which may be of interest to you [...] Color cells start near the spinal cord and spread from there. In Popcorn's case, what few color cells she did develop migrated towards her head which we commonly see as the ear's hair cells require pigment in order for them to function. If these critical areas do not develop color, the dog may be deaf. Popcorn has a drop (down) ear which is dominant meaning she only needed to inherit a single copy from any of her ancestors to express this trait and both of the called breeds do carry it. However, she does have a fairly base erect ear set meaning she has more cartilage near the base than towards the tip, which is fairly common in our bully type breeds. The overall shape and size of her ears, their position on her head, as well as the overall facial structures is the result of all the ancestors (mixed and pure) working together towards the average. Thus, Popcorn is the unique result of the various genes that she has inherited from her many mixed and few pure ancestors." Bottom line, I knew my dog is a mutt, the test is just scientifically confirmed that she is a mutt and not just any mutt, but an unique mutt! I love her just the same with or without the test result. I am disappointed about the result. I understand "Pit Bull" is not listed in their database, but "American Bulldog" and many other breeds that are consider "Pit Bull" are part of their database. Hope your test yield better result. Mine is disappointing, in hindsight I should have donated the money to help with other animal instead. P.S. The staff at Mars Veterinary is helpful and replies quickly, which is the saving grace of the product for me and earn themselves one more star.

I need to drastically change the positive review I previously wrote on this product. We had tested two known mixed-breed dogs using it and accepted the results from Wisdom Panel as accurate. We understand that a dog's breed background cannot be determined by visual inspection alone so, while we were quite surprised by the reports, they seemed somewhat plausible. We had no data to refute what Wisdom Panel gave us, and the ancestry presentation format is clear and informative. All good. Unfortunately, we now believe these results to be inaccurate and have no confidence in them. For a couple of years I have been recommending the DNA testing for people who ask about it. This included some folks who foster Military Working Dog puppies along with us. Some of them have adopted shelter pets and are curious about the breeds they might have. Recently several of them questioned the accuracy of this kind of testing, referencing their vets' skepticism. ( Our vet also questioned the report we gave him on our Regal.) To silence the doubters I decided to prove the value of Wisdom Panel's information with a little test. We have recently adopted one of our former MWD puppies who washed out of the program. The dogs bred at Lackland in the MWD program are all Belgian Malinois. In the early days of the breeding program they had dabbled with some Dutch Shepherds and GSDs, but for the past several years they have worked exclusively with Mals. Because most of these dogs are unregistered, we thought it possible that HHarpy might just have a drop or two of Dutchie or GSD in her background although she, both of her parents, and all of her siblings are clearly Belgian Malinois by anyone's standards. So to prove that DNA testing really works, and to satisfy our own curiosity, we sent her sample to Wisdom Panel as a mixed-breed dog, expecting that the results would show her to be primarily Malinois. Other fosters were waiting for the results before they spent the money to have their own personal pets tested, but I honestly expected to be vindicated. Imagine my shock when the results appeared yesterday! According to Wisdom Panel, HHarpy is a Belgian Malinois, Chinook, Samoyed Mix!! Really??? They got it half right, showing that one of her parents is Malinois back to both Great Grandparents. The problem is that the other parent is shown as a Chinook/Samoyed Mix!! That is totally impossible. I can assure you that the DoD is NOT breeding their Belgian Malinois bitches to an obvious mix of this kind, or vice versa. I told some of the head people in the breeding about HHarpy's results, and I think they are still laughing up at Lackland afb, as are the fosters, especially those who adopted some of HHarpy's litter mates. We are all searching our HH dogs carefully, looking for a stray fluffy white Samoyed hair. Now if these breeds, unlikely as they are for a MWD, had appeared far back in HHarpy's ancestry, or if there was a Dutchie or GSD grand parent on one side, it would have made some sense. No one would have been terribly surprised, upset, or incredulous. But to believe that this dog, destined specifically for military work where obedience and cooperation are absolute necessities, is the result of a Chinook/Samoyed Mix bred to a Belgian Malinois, is ludicrous. Chinooks and Samoyeds, while beautiful dogs, have exactly the opposite temperament characteristics of the herding breeds, and would certainly not be suitable for military or LE work. That's one reason the DoD personnel are still laughing about this report on one of their puppies. NOTE: As an update, I want to note that this company went out of its way to reanalyze HHarpy's DNA results. A veterinarian called and discussed her genetic markers with me in detail. She also sent me a great deal of information to clarify her discussion. The short explanation is that the genetic markers used by the company for identification of this breed are those common in AKC registered Belgian Malinois. These dogs are often quite different in appearance and disposition from the European Mals, and apparently their genetic markers are as well. DoD uses a lot of imported Malinois in their breeding program in order to achieve the drive and work ethic they need in their dogs. They do not have inbred dogs because they are constantly bringing new dogs into the breeding program, almost always from Europe where this dog was originally developed. I find it interesting that the AKC standard seems to have deviated significantly from the original working dog. HHarpy does look and act significantly different from our AKC Malinois, and I guess it shows up in her genes. However, I still have to cringe at the idea that one of HHarpy's parents being a Samoyed/Chinook mix. I could accept the possibility of one of those breeds back further in her lineage. HHarpy's mother is a gorgeous DoD-bred Malinois, and her father is an imported Mal, apparently an awesome MWD. I'm sure there are other breeds in them since the Europeans have been known to add what it takes to get the characteristics they need in their dogs. At the end of the day, I would still use this test on a mixed breed dog of mine, but I would question the results if they didn't make sense to me. This is a relatively new science and I expect the results will become more accurate with refinement. To their credit, Mars Veterinary listened to me and I got the impression they may have learned something about the diversity of Belgian Malinois from HHarpy's DNA