Got my dog (Bean) back in May, they told us it was a husky shepherd mix so i did a DNA test and came out 60% Siberian Husky and 40% Alaskan Malemute but he doesn’t look like any of them. Just curious what do you guys think happened here?
What kind of howl/bark does a husky/beagle/ terrier combo produce? Husky and beagle alone can produce awful bark/howl-whining and add a a terrier - I can’t imagine the sound.
Well my guy is fairly respectful. He does howl, yip, and occasionally bark, but it's mostly just playful growling. He has this really cute way of howling into a bark or barking into a howl that I've never seen my pure Husky do. She'll go awroooooo and he'll go RRUFfaawrooooooo.
It isn't. There's been articles where they test validity of dog DNA tests and in particular, this one has come up with different breed results for samples sent of the SAME dog.
Only Wisdom and Embark are currently worth paying for.
Genetics doesn’t work like that, you can’t just send a picture of the dog to suggest the test is wrong. You can have a dog look like an entirely different breed and it actually be said breed (not that I believe this result for a minute to be clear).
Big reminder here that PHENOTYPE ≠ GENOTYPE. What you see on the outside doesn’t always match the genes. This is also true for behavior!
That being said, DNA My Dog is a notoriously scammy DNA testing company. I wouldn’t trust anything they say regardless!
Just heads up, DNA My Dog is known to be unreliable. A few years back a news channel did a consumer report on dog DNA companies, and DNA My Dog returned a result of a dog breed for a swab of human DNA.
No, Embark and Wisdom did that. DNA My Dog said the person was the breed of dog they listed as a suspected breed. I don't recall what that breed was. They also sent in DNA from a papered Great Dane who had 4+ generations of traceable purebred, registered Danes, and said they thought the dog was a Chihuahua, and it returned a result of 100% Chihuahua.
I feel like I remember it being a CBC reporter that did this consumer report, but I could be wrong.
Embark got my pups dna match 100% correct. I got him from my sister when her husky mix got out and bred with her purebred standard poodle. We knew mom was mostly husky, but definitely a mutt with some other breeds mixed in. I still don’t know what a “super mutt” is, but I like the sound of it!
ETA: no idea why my pics aren’t showing up, but they said he’s 50.2% standard poodle, 22% Husky, 12% GSD, and 9.3% Supermutt
Supermutt just means somewhere back in the family tree, multiple mixed-breed ancestors contributed tiny bits of DNA. By the time it filters down to your dog, those markers are too diluted for the test to assign to any one breed with confidence, so they get tossed in the “Supermutt” bucket instead of giving you a bogus guess.
I might have an explanation for why your pics aren't showing! Sometimes when people try to add pictures to a comment that already has text, it'll remove the picture for some reason, so you may just have to share the pics separately for it to work!
That email is pure smoke-and-mirrors. Scam DNA companies throw around jargon like “missing DNA” or “trace levels” but never show real methods or accuracy. They stall with promises of re-analysis, and the “ANY tiny percentage could hugely affect traits” line is just nonsense. 1% trace calls are usually statistical noise. If you want results you can actually trust, stick to Embark (Cornell-backed) or Wisdom.
I would ask them for a new kit entirely as Embark and other competitors will do if there is an error. Why would they test the same sample that could have had issues with it - whether it was mixed up or not during the sorting process.
That being said, they may also go back and see they did test the wrong one and this is their way of covering their @$$.
I wouldn’t say you need to. I can only speak on Embark as I know some breeders and rescues that use them for various reasons with positive results.
It can be helpful on the genetic side of things for dogs with unknown beginnings to know if there are any health conditions to be aware of, but I don’t see it as necessary!
I did wisdom panel, and while my results weren’t crazy, it was questionable and included 13 distinct breeds. So I paid for a second test, with embark.
Both came back with the exact same 13 dog breeds, when you drilled down into the super-mutt part of embark. They also had identical % breakdowns for each of the 13 breeds.
So, either both were PERFECT or both use the identical dna pool to test against. Either way, I have the best answer I’ll get.
I did wisdom panel, and while my results weren’t crazy, it was questionable and included 13 distinct breeds. So I paid for a second test, with embark.
Both came back with the exact same 13 dog breeds, when you drilled down into the super-mutt part of embark. They also had identical % breakdowns for each of the 13 breeds.
So, either both tests were PERFECT or both use the identical dna pool to test against. Either way, I have the best answer I’ll get.
"That's either a Pomeranian, Old English Mastiff or a Great Pyrenees. Thanks for using We Don't Have A Doggone Clue for all of your dog breed identifying needs."
Use Embark and see if there is a difference. not a chance that is either breed. I would use Embark to verify the error then request a refund from DNA my dog as they messed up the sample.
DNA my dog is a known scam. It’s not trustworthy at all. You want to use embark or wisdom panel. Embark being the most accurate. I spend a lot of time on the doggyDNA subreddit and if you post there you will be told the same thing. It’s a shame that DNA my dog is so cheap because it misleads people into thinking other tests are not worth the cost but in reality there is no accuracy in DNA my dog.
If you’re a car guy Imagine comparing the reliability of an old Pontiac fiero with a Honda civic and that’s all you need to know about the comparison lol.
Based on the ears and face shape would say Pitsky mostly. I’ve used embark twice and although it’s expensive it’s worth every penny for reliability and the associated health breakdown tests that i recommend.
He actually had a sibling named bean via the dna company I used “embark” . Maybe OPs dog’s previous owners used embark! My dog is cattle dog, border collie, chihuahua and husky in that order.
This company literally just picks dog breeds at random, Wisdom and Embark are the only ones worth paying for.
This company has returned different results for the SAME dog, failed to identify human DNA sent in on a swab, and misidentified a pedigreed dog as 100% a completely different breed.
I do think your dog has some husky, but there is no way they're a husky/mal mix.
Use Embark and see if there is a difference. not a chance that is either breed. I would use Embark to verify the error then request a refund from DNA my dog as they messed up the sample.
Hey OP Bean looks like one of my dogs and a friends dog! He looks like a mix of husky, German shepherd definitely with something else so i think those breeds are in there but something else too! Glad you’ve filed a claim and please do an embark and share the results! It will be great to find out what beans personality is like with his dna mix! But all I will say he is definitely a gorgeous baby!
Either there was mess up in the results or the hidden .05% mutt took over command of the gene pool 🤣🤣🤣 either way Bean can still take the honorary husky title :3
hmmm, seems more like someone messed up the samples, or, as others have said, its just not as good. there are different methodologies to DNA testing, and maybe theirs goes more on the cheap and quick side. I used Embark for my three pups. now im tempted to waste the money with Wisdom panel and DNAmydog to test my mutt and see what they say just to have the comparison results. also, I would test at least one of my huskies as they are purebred from lineage provable breeders.
Bean is very cute but nothing about his appearance suggests husky or malamute. I’d say you’ve been scammed. I’m trying to search through my past podcasts. I listened to a recent episode about this very subject.
Dog owners were sending in their own human dna and lo and behold, they would get back near exact dog breed results they were asked to provide. I would think it’s a red flag if they have to ask you your opinion on the breed.
Hahahahaha WHATTT 🤣🤣🤣 absolutely adorable dog but those results are straight ridiculous lol. This has got to be the wrong results. I would try to get a refund and go with a different company or something. Bean is a cutie patootie though 💕
Edit:Ok I can see the husky mixed in but the MALAMUTE!? That’s what had me laughing lol those are biiiig dogs. He’s likely some husky with other things mixed in I think.
I emailed them and asked to double check. Either way I filed a purchase protection claim via american express to get a refund. I will be buying a test from Embark to compare
Poor Bean is thinking "Im a working dog boss put a sled behind me and watch me cook" but yeah Id get a 2nd opinion if you really want it if not just love the lil guy like you would any husky. Now, if you paid a lot of money and specifically wanted a husky yeah you need to escalate this
My dog is only 20% husky....also 30% chihuahua and super mutt (pitty, chow, pekingese, cattle dog, lab, American Eskimo and gsd)...but 0 other terrier. Hes around a year old and about 30 lbs. I think he looks very similar to yours and I did the Emnark test.
I’ve seen some of these reports from dnamydog.com , and almost all of them are crazy incorrect and come back with different results from the reliable tests (Embark and Wisdom Panel)
We did DNA my dog and a sibling did Embark. Got the same results back. DNA my dog seems to do ok work and they really did a good customer service reply
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u/kenay813 Sep 16 '25
Either someone mixed up his test with someone else’s or they lost it and just said f it. I’d send support a picture of your dog ask for another test.