The Nuts and Bolts of Layla

[nightdog_barks]

So I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it here, but back in March I decided to pull the trigger on an Embark DNA test ... for Layla. We were curious, what can I say? I'd thought about doing it sooner, but I always held off because we had a truly pants result from a test on our previous dog, Chango (an obvious Chow/Border Collie/something mix that the testing people interpreted as ... Pekingese). But that was many years ago, and surely, I thought, canine genotyping has improved since then! Plus Embark has really good reviews! So I stuck a cotton swab in her mouth (she bit it), swabbed it around to get a lot of saliva (she was very baffled), and sent it off.

The results came back this afternoon.

50.0% Golden Retriever
36.1% Labrador Retriever
13.9% ... Belgian Malinois

:D

For what it's worth, I think they're pretty much on track with what we'd suspected. Two thumbs up, 10/10, would rec Embark.

Comments

[nightdog_barks]

I've tried a couple of the human DNA services (they weren't 23andMe; I'd have to look up what they were) when I was exploring my ancestry. My father was an orphan and never knew his biological parents. This was pre-World War I, so I'm not sure if his adoption records still even exist. I know I'm Scots-Irish and English on my mother's side, but my dad's side was always a mystery.

The ancestry genotyping was ... all over the place. One service said his ancestors were Hungarian (very plausible), another said somewhere in Scandinavia. Yet another, that my sister used, said ... well, I can't remember what they said. The truly sad thing is, these canine DNA people did a MUCH better job of laying out all the information and making it easy to understand for a layperson. LOL

I think I'd like to take the 23andMe genetics test. But what if I found out I had a predisposition to Alzheimer's? Would I want to know that? I mean, I could say that means I could prepare for it ...

tl;dr, Omg this is a big universe and we've come so far. :D

[topaz_eyes]

The Embark people have done an exceptional job with their graphics and explanations about genetics. Their chromosomal map is a thing of beauty.

And that's the thing, isn't it? Would we want to know if we were predisposed to certain diseases. Most conditions involve a complex stew of genes and environmental factors. The commercial tests only look at one or two genetic markers. Now that we can test, maybe the question becomes, do we have an obligation to know. (Certainly the life insurance companies would love that.) But perhaps that's best left to philosophers?