♪
[Travis]
We are enlisting the help of three special pooches,
and sending their DNA to four companies
who promise to identify a dog's breed
with near 100% accuracy.
But can they really?
To find out, we're putting them to the test.
[dogs barking]
[Marilyn] Molly, who's this? Come. Come.
[Travis]
This is my dog, Molly.
And Molly came to us from Kuwait.
She's a rescue.
We think that she may be
saluki, Anatolian shepherd,
but when you look at her, she looks Husky,
so we have no idea.
[Travis]
[dog owner 1] Gimme the ball.
We haven't trained them
to give me the ball back yet. [laughing]
This is Loki,
he's all the way from Istanbul, Turkey.
Now, what breed is Loki?
Our guess is some type of a terrier-hound mix.
We get asked a lot, so we don't know. [laughs]
[Travis]
what breeds make up their dog.
[dog owner 2 laughing] Hey!
[Travis]
a dog whose breed we already know.
-Love you. -Love you.
[Travis]
to be the best and healthiest Great Dane
at a national dog show.
[dog owner 2] There she goes.
She's doing a great job.
[Travis]
[dog owner 2] Am I 100% sure she's 100% Great Dane?
Yes, absolutely I am.
[Travis]
Purebred, champion Great Danes all the way back
to her great, great grandparents.
We are sending their DNA to four different companies.
Wisdom Panel, who claims to be the world's
most accurate pet DNA test
for about 150 bucks.
Embark, who also claims to be the most accurate test,
cost us $288.
$113 for a kit from Canada's DNA My Dog
and Canadian company, Accu-Metrics.
Their test ran us about $80.
Hey, here we go.
Before we even send off our swabs,
companies are already asking for a lot of information.
Tell us a fun fact about your dog.
All companies ask for a photo and some a suggested breed.
We've heard about questionable results
from Accu-Metrics before,
so we're testing to see if they're paying attention,
listing Quinn's suspected breed
as one known for being the opposite of her size,
a chihuahua.
-[whistling] -[dog barks]
Our samples are prepped and sent off.
But while we wait,
does the breed of your dog really matter?
[man] Hello.
[Travis]
whether you're able to rent a home,
access emergency shelter, or even get home insurance.
[Marilyn] Good boy. Here.
[exciting music]
With so much riding on the breed of your dog,
how much can the results really be trusted?
We're meeting with a geneticist
studying dog DNA in the Boston area,
Eleanor Carlson.
[Eleanor] So I'm really excited that people are interested
in finding out more about how DNA works.
[Travis]
by comparing DNA
to the genetics of dogs already in their database.
Consumers are making their own decisions
when they purchase these tests.
But I do think
that it is important for the companies
to be transparent about the fact
that there isn't that external validation,
that these are tests that they've developed themselves,
that they're selling themselves,
and that they're the ones
that are actually making the claims
about their accuracy.
And it hasn't been independently vetted
by somebody that is not part of that company.
[Travis]
so we're calling in all three dogs
for the big reveal.
I'm pumped. It's gonna be great.
-You guys are pumped. -[dog owner] Yes.
[Travis]
-Ready? -Let's go.
[Travis]
from Canadian brand, DNA My Dog.
[all gasping]
-What? -[Travis] Wow.
[Marilyn] Not a chance.
[Travis]
means genes have been passed down
from grandparents or up to great-great grandparents.
For a cheaper price,
how will Accu-Metrics compare?
All right. Accu-Metrics. Wow.
Even more than that.
-What? -[Travis] Yeah.
[Travis]
that was purebred cocker spaniel.
Molly. I don't know.
You're confusing. I'm confused.
Do-- do you have, like, a feeling,
like, which result is more accurate?
Marilyn?
-None of them. -[Travis] None of them?
[all laughing]
[Travis]
mean more accuracy?
Okay, so our next results are Wisdom Panel.
-[Marilyn] Oh, my gosh. -Wow.
[dog owner] Oh, what?
[Travis]
Molly is over a quarter Pitbull
and even includes a Xoloitzcuintli,
a dog known for being hairless.
[Marilyn & Travis] Molly's got a lot of hair.
Yeah. Yeah, she does.
It's all over my floors, too.
[Travis]
Will our most expensive test from Embark
give us any more clarity?
Three, two, one.
Whoa.
100% Arabian village dog.
I don't even think that's a real breed.
[Travis]
whose ancestry precedes modern dog breeds.
Well, we can all see she's very mixed.
[Travis]
Why-- why are they so different if it's genetic?
[Eleanor] Molly is a really complicated genetic dog.
It also matters which breeds they have
in their reference set.
But basically, the way the algorithm works
is it's like, "Well, I didn't find a match."
Yeah.
"So, I'm gonna go find the next closest thing
and just sort of make a guess,"
and that's where it can get inaccurate.
[Travis]
[quirky music]
-Oh. -Really?
-Wow. -Belgian Malinois.
DNA My Dog says level one means
it's the majority of that dog's DNA.
They're very high drive,
uh, working dog.
-[Travis] Yeah. -He's medium to low energy.
He sleeps a lot. [chuckles]
[Travis] Take a look.
Accu-Metrics is next.
[all exclaiming]
Over 11 weeks after we sent in our samples,
still no results.
I'd be asking for a refund on-- on-- on that one.
[Travis]
on Loki's breed?
Da-da-da-da.
Okay.
So, the Italiano again,
chihuahua, two shepherds,
and a mountain dog.
[dog owner 1] That's-- that's a big shock.
I don't think there's any Chihuahua in him.
No, he's the opposite. He's low energy.
[Travis]
Here we go.
[all exclaiming]
West Asian village dog.
Again, a breed not recognized by kennel clubs.
It's not telling us anything we didn't know
when we sent in the test.
I don't like it, I would be unhappy
if that was what I got back
after paying for it, being the most expensive test.
[Travis]
It surprises me more when you have a breed
that one company is saying
is very, very prevalent in a dog,
and the other companies are missing it altogether.
That, to me, is more concerning.
[Travis]
purebreds are easier to detect,
so companies should have no problems
with Great Dane, Quinn.
Wisdom Panel and Embark agree.
You live up to your breed.
[all laughing]
[Travis]
really leaves us scratching our heads.
[all exclaiming]
Interesting.
We have her entire lineage all the way back.
And okay, let's say oopsies are possible,
but she does dog shows and she's won Best of Breed.
So, after hearing our results,
what do you think about these consumer dog DNA tests?
I just really think
that people need to take them all
with a grain of salt,
but they should know
that these are companies, they're selling you a test.
They have a vested interest in making sure
that you are happy with the results of that test.
So, keep that in mind
when you're interpreting the results,
in that you-- not necessarily
the most transparent system in the world.
There's a profit motive involved.
There's a definite profit motive involved.
[Travis]
Accu-Metrics doesn't give us Quinn's results
for over 11 weeks,
but we have them now.
They say 100% chihuahua.
Remember, we told the company
we suspected Quinn, one of the largest dog breeds,
was one of the smallest.
[dogs barking]
We reached out to all companies.
They say they stand behind their science.
Accu-Metrics says,
we should expect a margin of error
with their results, about 7%,
which they say is industry standard.
They add, any errors in our results
were likely from cross-contamination,
either during shipping or swabbing,
but we can confirm
no Chihuahuas were anywhere near us
during our testing.
DNA My Dog says
since we've sent our samples in,
they've more than doubled their breed database,
and also bolstered their science.
They add, that old test was still highly accurate.
Wisdom Panel says
their science is openly available
to anyone on their website.
And add that their error rates
are lower than industry standards.
Embark says, "We're proud to be the only company
that specializes in village dogs."
And if other companies identify a breed
within a village dog,
that doesn't reflect the dog's actual ancestry.
[dogs barking]
We've got one last surprise in store for our testers.
Okay, so we got three dogs here,
but we've got more results.
Anyone confused?
-Yes. -The fourth dog, it's me.
-No! -[all exclaiming]
No way.
[Travis]
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[Travis]
We're testing the accuracy of dog DNA tests,
but these companies can't seem to agree
on what breeds these dogs are.
Why are they so different, if it's genetic?
[Travis]
one last set of results to reveal.
We've got a bit of a surprise.
The fourth dog, it's me.
-[all laughing] -No.
[Travis] I got a question for you.
Hypothetically, what would happen
if a human sent their DNA in?
It should not work.
-Should not work. -It should not work.
The way that they're looking at the DNA,
it should only work on dog DNA,
[Travis]
come back as failed tests.
-It's good, good. Accurate. -[Travis] Good.
-Kudos to them, yeah. -100%.
[Travis]
-[all exclaiming] -[Travis] Oh.
-Okay. -No way!
[all laughing]
[dog owner 3] Level two as well. Like--
That's a lot of certainty.
-Yeah. -Wow.
[Travis]
what my suspected breed was,
we used an app to see which dog I look like.
-What is this? -[laughs]
"Central Asian shepherd dog."
Accu-Metrics doesn't deliver
Loki or Quinn's results in time,
but they do deliver mine.
Da-da-da-da.
[all] Whoa.
[all laughing]
-I'm a shepherd. -[Marilyn] No kidding.
[dog owner 2] No way.
That's so weird. Those last two,
I've officially written off for any test.
But I-- I don't know.
I'm gonna have to have
some hard discussions with my parents here.
And so, the fact that you're getting breed calls back
when you sent the human sample
would make me very hesitant to use that company.
Accu-Metrics and DNA My Dog both confirm
I actually don't have dog DNA.
Accu-Metrics said
it was likely sample ID numbers that were mixed up,
while DNA My Dog said it was human error,
and new testing methods will prevent that
from happening again.
What would you say to dog owners
about whether or not these tests are worth it?
-Don't waste your money. -Yeah.
And don't waste your time.
Don't waste your time or your money.
[Travis]
and taking their results with a grain of salt.
[Marilyn] But you know what?
In the end,
I'm not sure,
other than to say to people,
"Yes, she is blah, blah, blah,"
it doesn't matter to me.
She's my dog and I love her no matter what,
and it-- whatever she came to be,
wouldn't change the way I feel about her.
-[Travis] Aw. -Yeah.
[Travis] That's so sweet.