Embark results are in!

[MissusS]

After a few threads here convinced me to pull the trigger, we ordered and sent in our Embark test for Scout.

It took an agonizing 3.5 weeks (!!) for the parcel to make it from Canada to the lab in San Diego. I seriously should have just sent it with my parents who were visiting my sister in California but I thought surely it would get there within a week or two in the mail. Sigh.

Once they received it, the whole thing took 10 days from arrival to results.

I’ll leave this initial post until tomorrow morning for any guesses and then will post her results. I’d love to hear what you all think might be lurking in her DNA!

Here are some photos of Scout. She is approx 2 years old and her 1-year gotcha day anniversary is coming up in a couple weeks. She was a stray in northern Saskatchewan for the first year of her life.

Some of her characteristics:

1. I mean, first, let’s just admire the ears in the photos above.
2. She is FAST. Like. Super fast. She has an old break in her right hock that did not heal properly but you would not know it from watching her run. Fast. For hours on end.
3. She has a very high prey drive. But I think it’s prey/play. She does not know what to do with cats when they are in front of her, for example, and sometimes is even terrified of them. But if they take off running you better believe she will chase. Cats. Birds. Rabbits. Cows. Horses. It’s a real effort for her to not chase anything and everything.
4. She wants to know the rules and wants to be a very good girl who obeys the rules. She is a very fast learner.
5. After hard-core brain work (sit/stay while I walk away, then recall, for example) she needs to RUN circles to get her brains recalibrated.
6. Tug is fun. Being chased is fun. Chasing is fun, but being chased is more fun. She does not retrieve. Chasing toys = great. Giving toys up = WTF?
7. Holy smokes is this dog athletic. She can jump like I’ve never seen before. Up over the 4’ fence, down an 8’ drop without missing a beat. Jumping occurs from a standstill and at a run.
8. She has a very soft mouth. While she likes to fling her mouth around, as soon as her teeth hit skin (EG my hand) she stops immediately.
9. She has some herding tendencies. Dogs. Humans. Cattle. You know, pretty much anything.
10. She loves to watch the world go by out the window. But heaven help us when someone goes by with a dog. She will yell (bark) at the top of her lungs - THIS IS MY HOUSE GO AWAY. Then happily prances over to me and tells me how well she did her job.

[luvmyhackney]

She looks like a Mal. cross of some sort. No clue what the mix would be.

[Mosey_2003]

I’ll say GSD for sure in there

[Marla_000]

Yup-
GSD
Malinois
Husky- for the vertical jumping
She sounds like a great dog!!

[IdahoRider]

GSD and Husky.
Sheilah

[S1969]

GSD + hound…maybe coonhound type. Or possibly something like pointer.

But I’m going to say she’s more than 50% GSD

[JumpWithPanache]

I’m gonna go with German Shepherd x Husky x Visla x Fruit Bat x Mexican Jumping Bean

Looks like she’s a super fun gal and living her best life!

[HeartsDesireEventing]

She looks a lot like a German Shephard/Husky cross we had - also a very high energy dog who loved to chase things and was very protective of the house.

[Annie10]

GSD, some catahoula and maybe a little greyhound on the woodpile

[Texarkana]

@S1969

GSD + hound…maybe coonhound type. Or possibly something like pointer.

But I’m going to say she’s more than 50% GSD

My guess as well.

[trubandloki]

She looks like she has mostly GSD to me.

[RHdobes563]

@JumpWithPanache

I’m gonna go with German Shepherd x Husky x Visla x Fruit Bat x Mexican Jumping Bean

Looks like she’s a super fun gal and living her best life!

[MissusS]

I would have guessed some type of hound and possibly Mal based on her physique, athleticism, and her mannerisms would be lurking in there along with the heavy dose of GSD.
Our vet is also our horse boarding facility (so they see her weekly!) and they were thinking the same!

The SuperMutt is Golden Retriever and Rottweiler.
100% good dog! (No Mexican jumping beans or Fruitbat)

[MissusS]

I was just revisiting some old photos. These are from when she first came in as a stray:

IMG_0060

What a world of difference a year has made.

[Texarkana]

You can really see all the GSD in the older pictures!

[QuestionMark]

Aren’t border collies one of the breeds that commonly has issues with anesthesia? She’s probably already been through that when she was spayed, but maybe good info!

[JumpWithPanache]

Wow! From her original pictures you can definitely see the high concentration of GSD. She has absolutely blossomed in the year with you! As an aside, I love fruit bat ears… one of my girls has such big ears, especially as a puppy, that we joked she could get Radio Berlin!

[beowulf]

Her “type” is very common in the south in “ditch dog” packs. They trend towards pariah dog in type if continually breeding. When I lived in Aiken there was a roving pack of about 6-10 dogs that looked just like her - clearly not 100% GSD, but clearly not anything else either. I tried catching a couple of the adults but they were way too wary. I did end up stealing a puppy of theirs which is a story for another thread Glad she has a wonderful home with you.

[MissusS]

This is interesting because here is where she is from:

And here are her closest relatives according to embark:

Note that the top result (Grizzly in Prince Albert) is about 2 hours north of where I live, and where she was found is about 3.5 hours northeast of Prince Albert. The there are a couple results in the southern states, and then the one that is located in Ottawa, ON (Kat) was actually originally bred approx 10 mins away from where I live.
All the results in her “close relatives” are 100% GSD.

[MissusS]

Here’s the next set of the closest relatives, continuing directly after Kat. Again, all these dogs show as 100% GSD.