Why is there a Breed Similarity Score vs. a Breed Percentage?Updated 10 months ago

Part of the reason why we decided to change the way we report on breed genomic similarity, in particular, is that the percentage breakdown representation of results is often misunderstood by pet parents. 

Oftentimes, their interpretation is that their pet is x% breed A and y% breed B, automatically assuming that their pet is the result of mating of purebred pets. In fact, it is equally plausible that the pet is a mutt that shares genomic similarity with certain breeds, simply because they had a common ancestor at some point before the particular breed was even established. We believe that presenting our results in the form of a breed genomic similarity score is less prone to misinterpretation. Our feline report will also be updated to use similarity scores instead of percentages in the near future. 

Whether your result is presented as a percentage breakdown or as a genomic similarity score, what we are measuring in each case is how similar your dog's genome is to different breeds. A percentage breakdown would give you information about the top breeds your dog's genome is similar to and what proportion of your dog's genome shares the greatest similarity with a specific breed. A breed analysis result presented as breed similarity scores is viewing this information through a different lens - it captures the top breeds most genetically similar to your dog, but also puts a score on how similar your dog's genome is to genomes of dogs belonging to those breeds. We use a 0-10 points scoring system, where the higher the number, the greater the overall genomic similarity to that particular breed.