Canine Genetics

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Interested in participating?

We have just initiated a project that is 100% reliant upon community involvement! Our goals are to understand 1) the geographic locations where dog-coyote admixture is found; and 2) the dog breeds that are common in those dog-coyote admixed genomes.

In this project, we are asking for dog owners or other facilities to donate their dog's Embark© dog genetic ancestry report (as a PDF file) to us! We will not be using any personal identification of the owner(s) in this study. Nor are we asking for a genetic sample of your dog. Just their report! We have an approved IACUC protocol with Princeton University that states our commitment to keep any human-related personal information confidential and hence will never be published on a website or in a scientific peer-reviewed paper (IACUC #2098A).

Our motivation is centered on the difficulty it is to adequately collect data on dog-admixtures in wild canines. There is a depth of reports and accounts where suspected dog-hybrids are observed, both wild and domestic, with little assessment to understand their origins and abundance. Here, we want to gain a deeper understanding of the geography where such dog admixtures are reported, confirmed with an Embark© genetic test, and learn about the dog breeds that are commonly found in these canines. Although the North American Canine Project has made several advances towards understanding the ubiquitous and mysterious coyote, many questions still remain unexplored.

How to participate:

You are welcome to donate to us your dog's Embark© genetic ancestry report. Just click here to generate an email and attach your dog's PDF ancestry report. We welcome multiple submissions should you have multiple dogs, each with their own report. If the link above does not work, please email vonholdt@princeton.edu with the reports as PDF attachments.

We also kindly ask that you answer the below questions in bold with each Embark© report you submit:

What is the method by which you adopted the dog associated with the report? Possible answers include but not limited to: shelter; purchased from breeder; stray animal that we took in.

How long has the dog been under your care? Please give years or months as the units.

Where did the animal originally come from? For example, is it known that the animal was brought to your local adoption center from another state? If so, please give the original location.

At this time, we cannot accept genetic ancestry results from other commercial testing services.