How to Read Your Dog's DNA Report, Section by Section

A dog DNA report is easiest to read as a set of estimates, each with its own level of certainty. A PuppyGenes report has six sections: breed ancestry, coat colour, physical appearance, temperament and size predictions, genetic diversity and oral microbiome. This guide walks through each one using Juno, one of our public example reports, so you can see what the labels mean and how much weight to give each result.

Before you start

• Every result is labelled as an estimate, a prediction or a sample measurement. None of them is a certainty.
• Confidence varies from result to result. A low-confidence result is tentative; it may not match the dog in front of you.
• Some results can be unavailable when a sample doesn't support a call. That's expected, not a fault.
• The report doesn't include genetic disease or health screening. Health questions belong with your vet.

You can open Juno's full report in our example gallery and follow along.

Breed ancestry

This section shows an estimated breed mix as percentages, including any ancestry that couldn't be resolved. Here's Juno's:

How to read it:

• Start with the biggest shares. A breed around half or a quarter of the DNA likely came from a parent or grandparent. Juno is mostly Poodle, with smaller shares further back.
• Read small shares as hints. The smaller the share, the further back it probably sits in the family tree, and the less certain it is.
• Unresolved ancestry is the part of the DNA that couldn't be confidently assigned to a single breed, including small contributions too uncertain to report on their own. A few percent is normal, especially in mixed dogs.
• Breed descriptions under the mix describe what those breeds tend to be like. Every dog is an individual, so yours may differ.

Our guide to breed percentages explains how shares map to a family tree and why they rarely come out as neat halves.

Coat colour

This section predicts colour, pattern and markings where the sample supports them, with the confidence shown clearly. Juno's result is a good example of an honest, uncertain call:

• Possible coat colour: cream, yellow or red, or solid black, marked as a tentative, low-confidence result. The available genetic data couldn't tell those possibilities apart.
• White markings: could not be determined.
• Merle pattern: could not be determined, because the sample had too little information to rule it out.

Colour can be partly unresolved, and part of a colour estimate can come from the appearance you reported rather than the genetic data alone. If the coat you see differs from a tentative prediction, trust your eyes.

Physical appearance

This section predicts coat and body features, each with its own confidence. Juno has 10 reported predictions and 1 unavailable:

How to read it:

• High confidence results are the ones to lean on.
• Low confidence results come with the note "Treat this as a tentative prediction." They're clues, not conclusions.
• Unavailable means the sample didn't provide a callable result for that trait.
• The reported genotype shown under each trait is the pair of versions the analysis reported for that gene, one from each parent.
• Shedding is a reported tendency, not a measurement of how much hair your dog sheds. Our guide to the genetics of shedding explains the genes behind it.

Our traits guides explain the gene behind each of the 11 predictions.

Temperament and size predictions

This section gives breed-informed leanings and an estimated adult height and weight. Juno's report rates 11 leanings, such as affectionate with family, trainability and energy level, and predicts an adult size of about 11.2 kg and about 41 cm tall.

The temperament leanings describe what the breeds in your dog's mix tend to be like. They aren't a measurement of your dog's personality: a 2022 study of more than 18,000 dogs found breed explains only about 9% of behavioural differences between individual dogs. The size estimate is useful context, not a promise, especially for a growing puppy. Our guide to what a dog's breed means for daily care covers how to use breed context sensibly.

Genetic diversity

This section compares your dog's inbreeding estimate with the lab's reference panel of dogs, in plain language. Juno's report says:

• More diverse than about 66% of the reference panel.
• Inbreeding coefficient of 17.0%, against a panel median of 23.8%. Lower means a more diverse, more outbred background.

Diversity is a comparison with other dogs. It isn't a health score, a pedigree certificate or a guarantee of lifespan. Our guide to COI in dogs explains what an inbreeding coefficient measures.

Oral microbiome

This section is a snapshot of the bacteria measured in the saliva sample, compared with a reference group. It's context, not a diagnosis. Juno's shows:

• Monitored bacteria: a relative abundance of 26.9%, around the middle of the comparison group (60th percentile). The percentile describes the sample; it is not a disease-risk score.
• Community variety: more varied than about 80% of dogs in the comparison group. More variety is not automatically healthier or less healthy.
• Contributors and an explorer: the bacteria that make up the monitored total, and a breakdown by group. Finding a bacterium in the sample does not by itself indicate disease.

The result describes the bacterial composition of the sample on the day it was collected. It does not diagnose or rule out dental disease, so if you have concerns about your dog's mouth, talk to your vet.

Asking Genie

Genie, our AI helper, answers questions about your dog's published report in plain language. It's available with your own report after you sign in and give AI consent. It explains what your results mean; it doesn't diagnose or replace your vet.