Cass Anderson
After rescuing a dog earlier this year I was left with unanswered questions about my dog’s past because we missed the vast majority of the first year of her life. In fact, we weren’t even sure we knew what breed she was or her history until we looked into Embark Dog DNA Tests, which helped us fill in so many of the blanks.
When my family and I rescued our dog earlier this year, we weren’t proactively looking to bring a new dog into the fold just yet. Still reeling from the loss of our soul dog two years ago, we were taking our time and waiting for the right fight.
It was just around the time I had contacted some breeders nearby that my wife came across a photo of a smiling pup on Facebook that was available for adoption at a nearby animal rescue shelter. She didn’t send me the pic or mention anything at the time but something about that sweet dog caught her attention. Later that day, her mom coincidentally sent her the same post on Facebook and suggested we go look at the dog ‘just to see.’
My wife still didn’t mention anything to me. It wasn’t until one of her best friends sent her the same post and suggested we go look at this strikingly beautiful 10-month-old puppy with the dark black mask of a raccoon and bright white fur like a baby polar bear. So we did but before we left the house I told her ‘There’s no going to look, if we go see this dog there’s a 99.999% chance we’re coming home with a new pup.’ She didn’t believe me and held onto the idea that we could just go look… We came home with Winnie after immediately falling in love with her.
Here she is after her first meal during her first night at our forever home:
Cass Anderson
The volunteers at the pet rescue were incredibly kind and helpful throughout the process but we were still lacking clarity around our new family member’s past. We were told she was an owner surrender because she was bred to be a livestock guardian but failed the tests.
Later, on that same Facebook post where we first laid eyes on her, I messaged back and forth with the person who claimed to have found my sweet girl and her sister abandoned at a railroad track in Georgia. While both stories could be true, I took ‘owner surrender’ to mean that the owner dropped her off at a rescue and not that she was found abandoned in the woods.
Embark DNA Testing and Rescue Dogs
We were told she was a mix breed of Great Pyrenees and Anatolian Shepherd. This checked out as she has very distinct looks characteristic of both breeds. Some folks call this mixture a ‘Colorado Mountain Dog.’
But in doing our homework on the breeds and how to best meet her needs we had questions like ‘is she more Great Pyrenees or more Anatolian Shepherd’ because both breeds mature in very different ways and all sorts of online chatter had us spooked about whether we’d be able to meet her needs.
It was around this time our veterinarian suggested we do an Embark Dog DNA Test. I did my homework and found out that Embark is widely regarded as the most accurate dog DNA test. Their breed database includes over 350+ dog breeds which means they test for some pretty rare breeds. They also test for 270+ genetic health risks.
What did I learn?
Cass Anderson
After months of people seeing my dog and saying ‘wow, she’s so beautiful, what kind of dog is she?’ to which I’d always respond ‘well, I think she’s….’ I finally had answers.
My pup’s Embark breed results came back with a split of 81.5% Great Pyrenees and 18.5% Anatolian Shepherd. This was good news. We were worried the Pyrenees x Anatolian split would be closer to 50-50 and she would take on a lot more territorial characteristics as she aged. We loved the additional information Embark provided about her breed characteristics.
And after having lost our last dog to Degenerative Myelopathy, which occurs in some Bernese Mountain Dogs, we were interested in the health results. Winnie came back with some notable results, which we know to look out for, but is not at risk for Degenerative Myelopathy.
I also loved their Relative Finder feature, which can connect you with other Embark dogs that are related to your pup based on the percentage of DNA they share. I was able to find Winnie’s sister, Judy, and other close family members.
And while we don’t know what the first 10 months of our puppy’s life was like for her, we at least now have a more complete picture of her past. When I’m constantly asked ‘what kind of breed is your dog?’ I at least have a straight-forward answer now without having to dive into a small story about ‘well, she’s a rescue and we don’t know and we got multiple variations of her origin story and well…’
I can now say ‘She’s a Great Pyrenees x Anatolian Shepherd mix’ which often leads to me explaining what Anatolians are but hey, that’s a small price to pay for getting to benefit from her endless love. And I’m very thankful that Embark’s Dog DNA Test helped us fill in the blanks along the way and put my mind at ease about potential genetic risks lurking under the surface.