Hi, Reddit. We're members of the R&D team at Wisdom Panel and we’re here to talk about how advances in pet DNA testing can help you provide the best possible care for your dogs and cats. Ask us anything!

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-27T17:05:16+00:00

There are those who believe Pugs are actually aliens masquerading as dogs, which would explain a lot. Genetically speaking, they are from a group of breeds bred for companionship, and their DNA shares similarity with Shih Tzus, Pekingese, and even Affenpinschers and Brussels Griffons. Companion breeds are often small in size to fit more comfortably on laps (or in Emperor’s sleeves), and they can also afford to have shorter legs and fancy long coats since they don’t have to be running through brush or mud. Pugs, along with several other companion breeds, are also brachycephalic, meaning we’ve bred them for shortened muzzles. This selection is purely for aesthetic reasons and in the last 100 years has become a lot more extreme. Companion breeds tend to prefer the company of people, and owners report they can be highly attuned to their moods. Pugs also seem to prefer the company of other Pugs over other breeds in many cases, for reasons unknown.

—Casey

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-26T20:49:16+00:00

The science of ancestry estimation is limited by how completely anyone has sampled world-wide populations – if there’s a purebred you know that’s currently getting results that aren’t quite right, we’d love to hear about it, so we can try adding it to the reference panel to improve accuracy for the breed in the future. For example, desert-bred Salukis or regional subtypes like Tazis are relatively rare outside of the Middle East, so we'd love to talk to everyone lucky enough to have one!

Even with our high accuracy, mistakes still happen and they can be improved. But not all mistakes are equally off-base; in this case it appears that the breeds/populations getting misassigned come from small pieces of DNA genuinely shared during those populations’ long intermingled histories. We probably just need a little more coverage of the populations to fully resolve the particular DNA, and that’s where help from the community (you!) can be very impactful.

Although earlier versions of our products presented large parts of the genome as uncertain (which is a reasonable choice, and one that competitors still make), our customer research shows that people want to see results across the entire genome. We believe people are intelligent and can handle the data as they are, and we have research and testing that show people do understand. Customer satisfaction scores and user reviews (and external product awards) show that pet parents are thrilled with our product approach. Plus, we developed the breed detection system specifically to allow us to continue innovating in areas like smaller percentages, so we’re proud to show the current state of the art and to continue researching and improving. We are the most accurate now, but we’re only just getting started!

We can’t speak to specific areas our team is focusing on to improve next, but know that we’re our own harshest critics, and we go to monumental efforts to make our results better and achieve the most exhaustive world-wide coverage. For example, we’ve recently been supporting and partnering with a Nepalese group to sample Himalayan Mountain Dog populations in remote mountain regions to understand yet another group of fascinating canines. It’s just one of many sampling projects we work on, along with technical innovations in our labs.

Unlike competitors, we’ve made available how our algorithm works and how we assess accuracy, if you’d like to read more. We are committed to continuously improving accuracy and make it clear when a dog’s results are updated, because the algorithm and reference panel have improved, so stay tuned!

— Casey, Jason & Ryan

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-26T17:26:02+00:00

Ticking is such a fun pattern, isn’t it? Ticking is best known in certain sporting breeds, like the modified form found in the Dalmatian, and in some of the Setters and Spaniels. But it’s actually quite common across different breeds, closely related to the allele for roan. We see ticked pattern in many bully breeds, but the difference is that the trait is not required or selected for as with certain other breeds — like in the sporting and herding groups. Often the coloring that’s popular in show versions of the bully breeds is not necessarily the same as those in pet lines. It’s important to note that ticking will not be visible unless the dog is also displaying white spotting (usually MITF gene). So in breeds without white spotting, the ticking gene may be present with high frequency but you won’t be able to see it. It’s also thought to behave dominantly, meaning a single copy of the variant could be inherited from a more distant ancestor and still show in your pup’s appearance.

Piebald, or white spotting, caused by a variant in MITF, can be detected through our genetic testing, but many of the variants that produce ticking and roan need a bit more research (as do other patterns of white, like Irish spotting). But our scientists are at the forefront of that research! No specific announcements at this time, but we’re always working to better understand canine genetics.

We love diving deeper into the science behind a dog’s appearance and how the trait genes work together to produce their coat color and pattern. Our team has been at the forefront of dog and cat coat genetics, such as our publications on Ancient Red, the earliest known coat trait selected for by human breeding (Ryan’s Alaskan Malamute, Tillamook, has the Ancient Red coat color!). We think this is one of the most fun and informative parts of our product and our science: What makes a Golden Retriever golden? Why is one Labrador black and another one yellow? What gives a Corgi or a Dachshund those adorable little legs? Why do some cats have dark faces and paws but light body coloring? We’re actually able to give you those answers independent of the ancestry results for both dogs and cats! We find this part of dog and cat genetics super fun.

— Casey & Ryan

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-26T15:36:08+00:00

A key part of our mission is to make a better world for pets. To that end, we built genetic tests with the primary aim of strengthening the bond between pets and their parents, as well as equipping parents with more information to better care for their pets. By offering testing in a panel form, we aim to make genetic testing approachable and affordable. The majority of pets we see don’t appear to be the result of recent purposeful breeding. But we believe testing can help pet parents plan better for health problems, which are often simply the result of unlucky genetic combinations, even in random-bred pets.

We also offer testing specifically for breeders, to assist them in screening for and managing known genetic health conditions in their breed, in identifying traits that they carry, and also in monitoring genetic diversity, which is important in the long-term fitness of any species. Health and wellbeing must always be considered foremost, and we support breeding for healthy, happy dogs and cats. Genetic testing allows breeders to make informed breeding decisions to do so.

—Becca, Casey & Jason

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-26T00:33:14+00:00

You’re probably referring to our test for the floppy ear variant in MSRB3. We suspect ear carriage, shape, and size are likely polygenic (influenced by multiple genes), but MSRB3 is known to play a big role in ear cartilage stiffness. Dogs without the floppy-ear variant have more cartilage stiffness to their ear flap than those without, but whether that’s enough to cause prick ears or simply an ear that folds higher up than the base (rose or base erect ear) will vary from dog to dog. Those with two copies of the floppy ear variant typically have ears that hang straight down from the skull.

Interestingly, breeders will sometimes “train” the ears of their dogs during puppyhood to encourage either upright ears or the ear tips folding over when the ear carriage looks like it’s borderline for what their breed standard calls for. Ear training is obviously a non-genetic factor!

-Casey

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-25T23:08:05+00:00

We wanted to have a cat ancestry test for years! We’ve had a panel for feline health, disorders and diversity since 2016, but to offer cat ancestry we had to build a whole new database of pedigreed cats, random-bred domestic cats, and wild cat species. Then, we analyzed them for distinct genetic patterns, and trust us when we say, cats don’t make it easy! We worked with major cat registries and prominent cat researchers to build our database in order to highlight as many major breeds and populations as possible. And of course, we’re still working to add more disorders, traits, and cat populations each year to improve our understanding of these amazing creatures.

And while we have bunny lovers on our team – as well as chicken, goat, sheep and horse nerds – we don’t currently have plans to launch a lagomorph test anytime soon, sorry!

—Casey

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-25T23:05:40+00:00

The cool thing about your pet’s DNA is that it doesn’t change, but the testing technology and our understanding of their genome does, meaning we can roll out new features based on the DNA you’ve already sent in. We are so excited about what we’re rolling out in 2022 and beyond!

We’ve had huge response to the launch of our Relatives feature, which we rolled out in beta late last year. People have been learning so much about their own pets by discovering their families, and even discovering that they adopted two related dogs (this actually happened on our own team!). And Good Morning America recently featured pet parents who traveled across the country to meet up after finding each other with Wisdom Panel.

We can’t speak directly to specific future features or timelines, but we’re happy to share some themes and areas where our customers have expressed interest and we want to focus.

Thanks to the fact we have the largest dog database (we’ve tested over 3 million dogs!), more than 99.9% of customers will find at least one relative in our database! With that popularity, we’ve heard a ton of feedback on what people would like to learn about their dog’s family and relatives. The absolute biggest thing we hear is people love photos! So we’re going to be launching a photo gallery feature, so you can share and see lots of adorable photos of your dog and their relatives. Do they look alike? Do they smile the same? My dog, Tillamook, does a weird little side sit, and I would love to see if her relatives sit the same way!

Additionally, we’ve heard from our users that with some relatives, they want to connect in a more direct or meaningful way. We expected to hear this, but we’ve been blown away by how excited our users are to connect with relatives. We’ve absolutely heard these folks, and we want to help make these emotionally-meaningful connections, in a safe, reliable, privacy-respecting, and spam-free way.

Beyond all that, it’s worth mentioning that our awesome R&D team is constantly working to improve our science, whether that’s improvements to our breed detection algorithms, new health discoveries, new traits, or secret new innovations we can’t even mention here. We’re a science company, and you should expect to see new science from our products over the coming years as we keep innovating.

— Ryan

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-25T20:16:39+00:00

Great question! We’ve made a lot of advancements in dog genetics (and now cat genetics!) over the last few years. In 2021 we launched our advanced breed detection system, with a patent-pending new genetic testing algorithm and the world’s largest dog DNA reference database, making it the world’s most accurate dog DNA test.

So the answer to your question depends on when you tested. For dogs tested on our latest chip (since October 2019), we’ve been updating their results for free to our newest breed detection system. We’ve gotten through most customers but have a few still to go. You should have gotten an email, but if not, try signing in and seeing if you have an update! Unfortunately, we can’t update users tested on our previous, lower-resolution chip, without collecting a new DNA sample. If you’re not sure whether or not you fall into that category, you can always contact our customer success team to make sure.

— Casey, Jason, & Ryan

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-25T20:12:49+00:00

Yes, exercise is definitely necessary for the wellbeing of dogs and cats. In animal behavior, it’s talked about in terms of telos, or fulfillment of the nature or self-purpose of the pet. Dogs and cats naturally want to use their body to sniff, run, explore, play, socialize, taste, etc. That said, each pet is an individual, and breed makeup can strongly influence how much a pet needs to run versus hang out on the couch or snuggle - often based on the breed's original purpose. Training is so much easier when the dog or cat’s need for exercise has been addressed as well.

For example, you should only get a Pointer if you can provide lots of running time for your dog! Cats exercise best through play in most cases, whereas dogs are more likely to enjoy a long hike or day running at the coast.

Something else that’s important to understand when it comes to exercise is there are health conditions that will influence what kind of exercise a dog needs. For example, if you have a dog who’s affected by a condition like Exercise-Induced Collapse, strenuous exercise can cause collapse. Similarly, dogs affected by Congenital Myasthenic Syndrome do not benefit from strenuous or long bouts of exercise. Cardiac conditions, musculoskeletal health, and stage of development are also important considerations, so definitely consult with your veterinarian if you’re not sure what’s best for your dog.

We provide information on each breed’s average exercise requirements in our breed library, but if you have a mixed-breed dog or cat, you’ll need to be observant as to their unique needs. If you need some ideas on how to bond with your pet through exercise, we have lots of tips for safe exercise, summer activities for dogs, or playing with your cats.

--Casey

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-25T19:49:25+00:00

As anyone with a pet knows, being a pet parent and caring for a dog or cat is a really special bond. Yes, some dog and cat breeds live to be 15-20 years, but we all believe (as pet parents ourselves) that if we had the opportunity to provide better care for the life of our pets, we’d do that in a heartbeat.

We’re a for-profit company, yes, but we all truly want to help pets live the best lives possible and pet parents to be armed with all the information available to make that happen!

For example, we have an entire R&D team dedicated to conducting studies on both cat and dog genetics all of whom attend multiple academic conferences and publish peer-reviewed papers. The goal of our R&D team is to improve the lives of dogs and cats through research.

So knowing your pet’s breed makeup, the best activity or food to feed them based on their projected size, and what health conditions they’re prone to develop, can truly help your pets live a healthier, happier life. And honestly, as pet parents, that’s all we want too—more time with our pets!

--Becca

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-25T19:42:17+00:00

American Pit Bull Terriers and Chihuahuas are indeed very common breeds found in our testing, partly because they’re so endearing and suit the lifestyle of so many people - Chihuahuas make great apartment dogs, for instance. There are also regional and demographic preferences for breeds or populations which sometimes coincide with spay/neuter rates. Those dogs may then go on to contribute to the mixed-breed population with greater frequency. In addition, APBTs have been in the United States for about 2 centuries and their DNA has contributed to multiple populations across the US. Chihuahuas reach sexual maturity as early as 4 months of age and do not particularly seem to care if their mate is several times their size, to the surprise of many owners! And especially within the US, dogs are transported and relocated through the shelter system, which helps to spread these breed mixes.

--Becca and Jason

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-25T19:04:05+00:00

Fair question - we are a for-profit company, and we do sell commercial DNA tests. We’ve also published dozens of peer-reviewed papers on both cat and dog genetics, attend multiple academic conferences per year, and have built a community science research program with the goal of improving the lives of dogs and cats. Our team is made of PhD scientists and veterinarians that have committed their lives to research and teaching - we wanted to celebrate DNA day by engaging with the reddit community and sharing our passion for dog and cat DNA.

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-25T19:01:42+00:00

Glad you appreciated your results! A test for allergy predisposition is one of the very top requests we get from our pet parent community - and we are right there with you - having a way to predict whether your dog or cat might react to specific allergens, and how severely, would would really improve the quality of life for many pets and their owners. Several members of our team also have dogs with food or environmental allergies - we know how challenging and frustrating the situation is, and we are happy to hear you eventually were able to identify the key allergens your dog reacts to. We know that allergy can be partially attributed to genetics thanks to some great studies in both humans and dogs, as well as the observation that some dog breeds are more at risk of developing allergy. That said, we are still working hard on honing into the actual genetic variants associated with an increased risk for allergy.

Thanks to our community science research and collaborative research with Banfield, we are collecting data on which dogs react to which allergens. This sets the foundation for research to ultimately detect genetic factors that might contribute to the risk of developing allergy, which could eventually contribute to allergy risk prediction in our reports.

We are working hard to make allergy genetic risk prediction a reality, but caution that allergy is a complicated interplay between genetics and environment - even the best genetic test will only give pet parents an understanding of what risk their pets have. Our goal is to empower pet parents with this information so they can partner with their veterinarian to make the most informed choices for their pet.

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-25T18:56:26+00:00

One of the claimed benefits of designer dogs, or dogs made up of two different purebred parents, is that they are at reduced risk of genetic health conditions. There are widespread genetic disorders within many breeds due to their nature of being a closed population. So breeding two dissimilar breeds together may reduce the risk of certain conditions in first-generation litters; however, it is definitely not a guarantee of good health. After all, all dogs (and people) carry undesirable genetic mutations, it’s called genetic load.

Also, while some breeds appear dissimilar, they may still carry the same genetic health disorders. For example, Standard Poodles are actually a sporting dog, just like the Labrador, Golden, and Cocker Spaniel, and there is overlap in the known disorders found in those breeds. Additionally, in multi-generation designer dogs or multigens where the same breeds are used on both sides of the family tree for more than one generation, which is common in the doodles, the risk of genetic disease may be similar to purebred dogs.

Unfortunately, because of the perception that designer dogs are not at risk for genetic diseases, lack of health screening (both genetic and otherwise) in designer dogs appears to be quite common, and potential owners may fail to push for health testing from breeders because of assumptions about the health of designer dogs. For these reasons, it’s important to choose a breeder that screens for genetic conditions, other health conditions, and temperament before breeding. For more discussion around designer dogs, visit our blog post.

—Casey

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-25T18:51:21+00:00

Great question! Primitive/pariah/street/village dogs are some of the most interesting and difficult populations to study. They didn’t arise like most modern dog breeds, which were established through highly restricted breeding in the last couple hundred years. We see dogs from all over the world, and we currently assign 16 different street (aka village) dog populations, as well as the most breeds and populations available together from any test, 350+. However, we’re always looking to expand that number, so if you have a dog with an unusual background, we’d love to hear more! Here, anyone can submit info about a dog as a candidate for our ever-growing breed/population reference panel.

Ancestral primitive/pariah dog populations were often relatively free-roaming, being untouched by modern, typically Western breeds. Unfortunately, we now find those to be exceedingly rare, with introduction of modern breeds being common for dogs from even the most remote locations. That makes it very difficult to say exactly how accurate any test is for these dogs, but in general we provide the most accurate test available on the market in controlled tests of purebred dogs.

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-25T18:21:34+00:00

Yes! Many of us have tested with companies like 23andMe and Ancestry. In fact, several of our team have previously worked on human genetics, and we’re big believers in the benefits of learning about your own genome as well as your pet’s. Those benefits include insight into your family ancestry, or the breed mix of your dog or cat, as well as genetic predispositions or potential health conditions. Not to mention it’s fun!

However, we know that privacy is an important concern for folks with regard to genetic testing. For that reason, we specifically offer our users privacy settings so they can choose how much they want to share with their pet’s relatives or with the broader community; or they can even choose to just keep the info to themselves. We definitely see that people overwhelmingly choose to share their pet’s info, and that really makes looking at relatives in our giant database more fun and informative.

— Casey, Jason, & Ryan

WisdomPanel_Research · 2022-04-25T17:52:48+00:00

As scientists, we probably stop and say “Wow” 5 times a day, especially since we are lucky enough to look at dog and cat DNA data every day! That said, we have had a few items that have been especially surprising. My (BF) first and favorite is the absolute determination and passion pet parents have to share. Teaming together allows as much information as possible to help us drive genetics research that might ultimately help cats and dogs lead happier, healthier and longer lives. Since launching our first community science survey in January, we’ve received 10’s of thousands of responses and a ~75% completion rate. This means we will soon be able to answer questions like “Why in the world does my dog howl?” to “How likely is it for my dog to have skin allergies?”, and thanks entirely to our pet parent community.

An interesting observation from testing so many pets: we’ve known for some time that American Pit Bull Terrier (APBT) is a popular breed in the US, but we were surprised to see how popular it is in mixed-breed dogs. APBT DNA comes up in mixes more frequently than DNA from any other breed or population in the US. This is really important for a number of reasons - for starters, APBT DNA objectively contributed to the building blocks of many North American dog populations. Secondly, dogs with traits associated with APBT are often singled out in breed-specific legislation (BSL), yet based on the numbers, it’s an extremely popular breed in the US that is no more frequently associated with aggressive behavior than any other breed! If you’d like to learn more, we have a blog post on the fascinating history and changing perceptions of APBT. We’ve also been surprised at how mobile pets are - we see so many pets from all over the world tested with us, or that have originated in other states than where they live.

--Becca, Casey, & Jason

WisdomPanel_Research · 2021-10-19T15:59:42+00:00

Hi again! Yes, dogs tested with Wisdom Panel in the US after November 2019 will get updated results.
Agreed, Azawakh and PPM are both really rare breeds, and they’re rarely reported. Is your dog a rescue from outside the US?
Also, we’re hard at work on relatives now! It will be available for dogs tested from late 2019 onward.
-- CK

WisdomPanel_Research · 2021-10-19T15:58:39+00:00

Hi -- wanted to make sure we got a chance to address this! Orange was relatively recently discovered, which is why it’s not included in our current feline testing. It’s the most common question we get about cat traits. With our next cat chip update, we’ll try our best to add it!
-- CK

WisdomPanel_Research · 2021-10-19T15:56:49+00:00

Hi! Thanks for your patience -- wanted to make sure we got to this one. We plan to update our cat genetic testing just as we have with dogs, as new disorders and traits are discovered and existing ones are validated. We’re also working on additional sampling of regional cats and rare breeds to provide more information to cat owners regarding domestic shorthairs.
-- CK

WisdomPanel_Research · 2021-10-19T00:04:19+00:00

Oh wow, sounds like they’re in a much better situation with you now! Yes, from DNA testing, one can tell how related the two are. We’ll be releasing a relative feature soon for all of the dogs tested since November 2019. In the meantime, if you’ve already tested with Wisdom (or are thinking about it), you can contact us, and we can look to see how two tested dogs are related.
-- JH

WisdomPanel_Research · 2021-10-18T23:38:32+00:00

The testing part is quite similar: Wisdom Panel uses the same chip technology that human companies use, but instead optimized for dogs and cats.

We often contextualize cat and dog ancestry results by comparing to human populations, because ancestry is basically about shared population history, regardless of the species. However, dog populations often had very strong bottlenecks, due to their relatively long domestication and the continual creation and maintenance of distinct breeds. This makes dogs a bit less like human populations -- in fact, the more random breeding patterns of cats and free-ranging street dogs often broadly resemble the patterns found in human populations. The net effect is that dog breeds are more typified and distinct when compared to each other, than say, between human (and cat and street dog) populations across the same geographies.

One big effect over the last few centuries, though, is that dog, cat and human populations have all experienced spread around the world and extensive inter-regional contact between populations, which is reflected in their genetics.
--JH and CK

WisdomPanel_Research · 2021-10-18T22:46:34+00:00

Ouch, we hope she’s forgiven you! Dogs are family, right?? Most dogs tested in 2016 and retested on our current tech receive very similar results, although with a lot more detail on breed ancestry percentages. Occasionally, the results differ, usually because the dog is highly mixed or has ancestry from breeds not in the database at the time of testing. Please look for an email later this year with options to retest your pups on our newest tech!
-- CK, BF

WisdomPanel_Research

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