Quickly inspect your dog’s mouth between the cheek and gums for any food debris. To reduce the likelihood of food debris being present, we recommend waiting to swab until at least two hours after your dog eats.
Open the swab sleeve and remove the swabs, but avoid touching the bristles. Firmly roll and rotate the swab’s bristles against the inside of your dog’s cheek. Use your other hand to apply gentle pressure from the outside of your dog’s mouth to ensure good contact of the cheek with the swabs.
Allow the sample to dry for at least five minutes before putting the swabs back into their sleeve.
Wisdom Health is the world leader in canine genetic testing and has been trusted by over 1.5 million pet parents. We have observed in our long history of testing dogs that the accuracy of a sample can vary depending on the quality of the DNA sample collected from the dog. Because of the potential variation in DNA quality, we’re unable to provide a definitive rate of accuracy at this time.
To ensure our tests are as accurate as possible, we focus our research on the following.
Genetic markers: These are the places of variation in a dog’s DNA. By studying both the similarities and differences in these markers among different breeds, we’re able to determine characteristic signatures. When developing Wisdom Panel tests, we completed over 19 million genetic marker analyses and genotyped over 13,000 dogs.
This is important because careful analysis is necessary to accurately locate the sites of variation that make each breed unique. All of these calculations require a very advanced computer program that can analyze all of this data and identify the breeds in each dog.
Numbers and types of dogs: Our algorithm compares your dog’s DNA to other dogs’ DNA. Thus, the more breeds, the better the test.
Validation testing for accuracy: This includes repeated testing of research samples and review by independent, third-party specialists, geneticists, and leading authorities on canine genetics. To ensure proper quality control, a USDA-accredited laboratory processes all Wisdom Panel tests.
You should receive your results two to three weeks after our lab receives your dog’s DNA sample. You’ll get an email notification when your results are ready. Please note—due to the digital nature of our product—your results will be available in your account only. No physical report will be mailed.
Wisdom Panel dog DNA tests aren’t designed or intended to determine or validate whether a dog is purebred. Rather, they’re meant to demonstrate how closely a dog matches the reference genetic signature for a breed.
The database we use to develop the reference genetic signatures consists of samples from documented purebred dogs and samples from a network of veterinarians. Though we’re constantly updating our database, genetic drift and the impact of breeder preference can prevent small and/or foreign family lines from being well-defined by the dogs in the reference database.
It’s important to keep in mind that not every individual of the breed will meet the breed standard set forth by the Kennel Clubs (both UK and AKC). And variation exists even among puppies from the same litter. If you purchase a dog with registration papers, however, Wisdom panel dog DNA tests are not intended to refute the documentation. Rather, our tests seek to help determine the breeds present in a dog of unknown progeny or one that lacks an authentic certified pedigree from the Kennel Club. We use statistical analysis to compare a dog’s signature against the reference genetic signature established for each breed covered by our test. The statistical modeling process considers 11 different possible family trees, trying to fit the best breed combination to the model to explain the dog’s genetic signature. Hence, it starts with a simple purebred tree and goes all the way up to a highly complex tree with eight different great grandparent breeds coming together. Because there is only one purebred tree model in the 11 considered, the statistical process inherently favors mixed ancestry.
If questions arise about a purebred dog’s pedigree and breed ancestry, parentage testing is the appropriate and recommended course of action. For this evaluation, the documented sire and/or dam are examined to ensure they were the genetic contributors to the dog in question. If they are confirmed as the parents, their pedigree (and breed) is conferred onto the puppy. To find out more about parentage testing please contact the American Kennel Club.
The term "pit bull" does not refer to a single recognized breed of dog, but rather to a genetically diverse group of breeds which are associated by similar physical traits. Pit bull-type dogs have historically been bred by combining guard-type breeds with terriers for certain desired characteristics. As such, they may retain many genetic similarities to their original breeds and other closely related breeds.
Due to the genetic diversity of this group, Wisdom Health cannot build a DNA profile to genetically identify every dog that may be visually classified as a pit bull. When these types of dogs are tested with Wisdom Panel, we routinely detect various quantities of the component purebred dogs including the American Staffordshire Terrier, Boston Terrier, Bull Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Mastiff, Bullmastiff, Boxer, Bulldog, and various other terriers and guard breeds. Additionally, there are often other breeds outside of the guard and terrier groups identified in the mix, depending on each dog’s individual ancestry.
Some communities in the U.S. have put restrictions on pit bull ownership. Wisdom Health encourages dog owners and care providers to be fully aware of their local laws, which vary across the country, when considering DNA testing.
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