I recently tried out 2 different dog DNA test kits – Embark and Wisdom Panel – to compare them and find out which DNA test was best and how accurate they were.
I have a dog who has been a mystery since the day I brought him home from the pound. It’s been a bit of an ongoing game among my family and friends to try and guess what dog breed(s) he is. So having a pretty unique dog to test these 2 popular dog DNA tests kits out on created the perfect opportunity for a deep-dive review and comparison. I hope reading through this comparison of Embark vs. Wisdom Panel gives you a good idea of which DNA test is best for your dog!
Things you’ll find in this review of Embark and Wisdom Panel
My dog with the mystery DNA
My dog, Zeus, was the one getting tested, which was pretty exciting for me (maybe not so much for him…) because, even though I’ve had him for 10+ years, I’ve never really figured out what he is – aside from the best boy.
He was a rescue and the guesses about his breed background ranged from St. Bernard to Anatolian Shepherd.
After getting the results for these tests it’s pretty clear all of my guesses were wrong. He does, however, remain a very good boy.
This review/comparison of Embark and Wisdom panel is fairly detailed, with some suggestions and thoughts based on my personal experience. I hope this comparison will help you decide which dog DNA test kit is best for your good boy or girl. It was a lot of fun to go through!
What The Dog DNA Test Kits Include
A far as the basic kits go, they have small differences but the functionality is essentially identical. Both Embark and Wisdom Panel kits are very simple. They basically come with:
- A swab (or 2 in Wisdom Panel’s case)
- Instructions on how to use the swabs to get your dogs DNA sample
- An activation code to set up your account online
- Prepaid packaging to send your swabs back to the lab for testing
A couple differences between the 2 test kits:
- Wisdom Panel has 2 swabs with bristles
- Embark has 1 swab with a spongey tip and a vial with fluid
- Embark is more ~fancy~ looking
- Wisdom Panel looks a little more basic
Price
There are a couple of different kit options for both Wisdom Panel and Embark.
There is a basic version (called “Essential” for Wisdom Panel and “Breed ID” for Embark) that focuses on getting your dog’s breed info, and an upgraded version (called “Premium” for Wisdom Panel and “Breed + Health” for Embark) that also gives you a wealth of info about your dog’s traits and health on top of the breed results.
Wisdom Panel
~$100 (Essential Kit) | ~$160 (Premium Kit)
Embark
~$130 (Breed ID Kit) | ~$200 (Breed + Health Kit)
NOTE: You can upgrade to get your dog’s health and trait info later if you decide you want it by paying an extra fee.
How It Works
The process of using both of these tests is super simple.
No matter what test you choose, getting your dogs DNA sample is very easy (assuming your dog doesn’t give you too much grief – my dog, Zeus, was a champ about it) and just requires you to rub the swab on the inside of your dog’s mouth in between their gums and cheek.
You’ll have full instructions from both kits on how to go about it, from time spent swabbing to how long to wait after your dog eats to use to the test.
Website integration
You’ll also get an activation code with each kit that you’ll use to create an account on their websites and add your dog to the profile. You’ll receive email updates from the info you put in the website, and you’ll log back in to see your dog’s results once they’re ready.
Pack it up, send it back!
Both Wisdom Panel and Embark include prepaid packaging to send your dog’s samples back to the lab. The packaging is also small enough to drop in your mailbox so there’s no need to take them anywhere to ship.
What The Results Look Like
My Expectations
So, since I ordered the basic panels from both Wisdom Panel and Embark, I only expected to see results for Zeus’ dog breed, not any of the extra health/trait stuff. I really didn’t know what to expect as far as features that the sites would include with the results, but I was very interested to see if both panels came back with the same results.
These are my good boy’s results:
I was SUPER surprised to see his results.
I never even considered most of the dog breeds that his results indicate. After seeing the results I did go back and look at some photos of him when he was younger (he’s gotten pretty grey in the face as he’s aged) and I can now really see the Akita in him.
I was also happy to see both panels came back with similar (though not identical) results. It definitely gave them some validity in my opinion.
A couple differences between the results
Both tests determined that the majority of his DNA was Akita, but with slightly different percentages attributed to it.
There were differences in the percentage of his DNA that was attributed to each breed across the board, and there were some different breeds reported overll.
Part of the reason that there might be some breeds that were on one report but not the other might simply come down to the breeds that each company focuses tests on. From what I’ve read, Embark focuses on breeds that are included in The American Kennel Club’s database and a few outsiders such as wolfs. Wisdom Panel covers more breeds including some that may lesser known.
White Swiss Shepherd?
For instance, in the Wisdom Panel test, Zeus has a relatively high percentage of White Swiss Shepherd in him (10%) but the same result is no where to be found on the Embark test. Well, I had never heard of that dog either, so I looked it up, and found that it wasn’t included in the AKC’s database.
Embark and Wisdom Panel came back with German Shepherd in their results, and White Swiss Shepherds were originally bred from German Shepherds.
Don’t quote me on any of these “dog facts”, I’m just looking stuff up to try and understand my best bud a little better.
So it’s possible that Embark is picking up on that lineage of German Shepherd, but sorta skipping over the White Swiss Shepherd part because it isn’t in the database.
Either way, after doing some reading on the White Swiss Shepherd it seems highly likely to me that that’s where Zeus gets his personality from. It also most closely matches his body and coat type.
All of this is really cool and helps me to better understand Zeus.
Dog DNA Tests and Bully Breeds
Both tests did report back some American Staffordshire Terrier, but the percentages attributed to that breed were wildly different (4.3% vs. 20%) with Embark reporting both American Staffordshire Terrier and American Pit Bull Terrier.
Even though I hadn’t really expected any form of “Bully” in him, I knew it was possible because it just seems like so many mixed dogs end up with at least a little bit of “Bully” in them.
I’m far from being a dog expert but I wondered if these tests would be able to differentiate well between different types of dogs from that family because there just seems to be so much overlap in terms of their genetics. It does seem like they struggle somewhat with identification here, and it would be interesting to do another comparison with a dog that’s more clearly part of the Bully family.
To their credit, Wisdom Panel addresses this a bit on their site.
How did Embark and Wisdom Panels results compare?
Embark and Wisdom Panel identified many of the same dog breeds in my buddy’s DNA, including:
- Akita
- Alaskan Malamute
- American Staffordshire Terrier
- Golden Retriever
- German Shepherd
And although many percentages were very close, none reported the same percentage of any particular breed.
What Features You Get
Both companies have done a really good job of giving you lots of information and making it easy to understand through both visuals and text.
What you’ll get from both dog DNA tests
Both companies give you:
- A breakdown of breeds by percentage
- a dog family tree
- informative guides to learn more about each dog breed that is included in your dog’s DNA results
- PDFs to download the new info you have about your dog.
So with these similarities in mind, which DNA company did them better?
Well, Embark continues to be the more visually interesting of the 2, from kit to website. Generally, I’d say they do the visuals better.
However, I personally liked the description pages on Wisdom Panel better. There seemed to be more info about the breeds, and I liked that all the info about weight, height, lifespan and breed group etc was easy to see.
Embark also has that info in their descriptions, it’s just not as easy to find.
What you’ll get from Embark
There are some features Embark offers that Wisdom Panel doesn’t, so let’s go through those.
PDFs
Although both companies do offer downloadable PDFs with lots of cool info, Embark offers several different types of PDFs, while Wisdom Panel only offers one.
The PDFs from Embark include:
- A framable certificate with your dog’s DNA results
- A full report of the findings for your records
- A vet report that you can give to your vet for their records (more helpful if you upgrade to the health panel test)
- A raw data PDF that most of us probably can’t understand, but it’s still cool
Social media for dogs?
Kinda, but not really.
Embark includes a few features that allow you to see other dogs who have had their DNA processed, and in some cases, you can chat with their owners. These features include:
- Mix Matches – see other dogs that have similar breed percentages to your dog
- Relatives – see dogs in the Embark system that are actually related to your dog by DNA and opt to send their owners a chat to connect!
Wolfiness
This is a little hard to explain, but Embark tests for something they call “wolfiness” – which doesn’t mean a literal wolf breed (although they do test for that on the breed panel) but more refers to ancient genes that may still be present in your dog’s DNA.
Zeus has a “wolfiness” score of 3.4%
Share-Friendly
They way Embark put together their site makes everything very easy to share.
They include a “results video” that you can share among family and friends, along with just sharing the breed percentage reveal. This makes it incredibly convenient to share the results around right after you get them.
Wisdom panel does not include features like this and so I ended up sharing screenshots instead.
What you’ll get from Wisdom Panel
Embark has a lot of cool little features that are fun, but Wisdom Panel does outpace them in a few ways.
Even with the cheapest dog DNA test, you still get some health and trait info!
I was surprised to find that even with the “Essential” panel (aka the cheapest option from Wisdom Panel) you still get some info about your dog’s health and traits.
In this basic panel, Zeus was tested for 29 genetic conditions (and cleared – thank dog) and also tested for 39 genetic traits (like coat, body features, etc) which was all very interesting.
You could, of course, open even more results by upgrading, which I haven’t done.
Breed Types
I really like that on the breed breakdown page, Wisdom Panel separates the breeds in your dog’s DNA by breed type. The breed types for Zeus include:
- Asian
- Guard
- Herding
- Sporting
- Terrier
- Hound
- Companion
What I really liked about Wisdom Panel
The Information
I really loved the amount of information Wisdom Panel has included in their results. I felt like I learned more about each breed by reading through their breed pages and all the info was laid out really well.
Breed Inclusion
I like that they include breeds that may not be in the AKC, like the White Swiss Shepherd.
I might be a little biased at this point, because when I saw that dog and then read more about it and its personality, I felt like I had a much better understanding of how Zeus came to be Zeus.
Because, although he might have gotten his coloring from Akitas, almost everything else seems like there’s a good chance it’s from that White Swiss Shepherd.
The Price
If you’re looking to do a dog DNA test just for fun, cost might be the deciding factor. If it is, Wisdom Panel really does provide a lot of value for the price.
What I really liked about Embark
How easy it is to share results
As soon as I got Zeus’ results I wanted to share them with everyone. What can I say? He’s my favorite.
It was great that Embark make sharing, not only easy, but fun with their pre-made sharable options.
Relatives
It was really cool to see dogs in the Embark database that Zeus is actually related to by DNA. It was especially interesting to see that basically all of his close relatives were 100% Akita.
The Visuals
If you’re a visual person, Embark does a really nice job of putting all your dog’s DNA info into different visuals, which makes everything even easier to understand.
This is true not only around their site, but also in the PDFs they provide.
Which dog DNA test should you get?
This is such a tough call. They both are really great and give you a lot of info.
Breed, mix, money? Wisdom Panel.
I think, if I was going to do a basic panel (breed only) I would opt for Wisdom Panel.
Not only is it cheaper, but you still get a little bit of health and trait info included. I would be extra tempted to choose them if I thought my dog was mix of several things (like Zeus!) because it seems like you might get more breeds included with Wisdom Panel.
The works? Embark.
However, if you’re interested in getting a full panel – breed, health, traits, the works, I’d go for Embark.
Embark is feature-rich, and I’ve read (but obviously can’t be sure because I haven’t used the upgraded version) that their health panel is more comprehensive and that you can even get in contact with a vet that will help you understand your dog’s results.
If money isn’t a determining factor you might want to splurge and get everything they have to offer with the Breed + Health panel.
Basically an excuse to show you my dog…
I really hope this review of these 2 popular dog DNA test kits helped you decide which is best for your best bud. I really enjoyed the whole process, and especially the excuse this post gave me to finally give Zeus the spotlight he deserves.
After all this time it is really cool knowing all this new info about him!
If you decide to get one of these tests I do always appreciate it if you consider buying it through one of the links on the page as it helps keep the lights on and is a nice way of letting me know you enjoy the info you saw here.
If you do get your dog tested I would love to know how the process went for you in the comments!
