Embark Veterinary Reviews 156

Their testing results are inaccurate!! We tested our dogs with other testing companies and the results were different. They have no customer service and logging into their website is impossible. Terribly overrated company!

We submitted age tests for 3 dogs in early November. We got the result of the first two fairly quickly. The third one however, sat with no information about it for 6 weeks. I finally had to contact them only to be told that that the submitted sample was non-viable. What upsets me the most is the fact that I had to initiate contact with this company and had already lost 6 weeks without them notifying me of anything. They do offer a free replacement test, which will probably add another at least 6 weeks to this whole process. I was hoping to have all the dogs information before Christmas and now that's out the window. Because of their unreliability and poor communication, I do not recommend this company. There are other options to do dog age and heritage tests that are more reliable and communicative.

Terrible !! I bought 2 kits on the 27th of November 25 and it’s the 16 of December 25 now and still no kits arrived it’s a scam you get in touch and no one gets back to you I left 4 messages and only one got back to me saying I will get my kits in two business days it’s been a week and nothing ! Don’t use them use privet they are great and cheaper and you get help and they call you back not like embark they take your money and that is it . I will never recommend it what horrible experience I’m having

Avoid this by all cost.
I ordered a kit from Europe, it took about two weeks to reach me. Then i used UPS to send it back as per embark's recommendation. Added the documents they provided to help customs.
It took almost three months to reach them.
And they REJECTED the delivery.
As it turned out, despite all the documentations the package had taxes due and i got no notification for it.
I reached out to the embark on what happened and then i was talking to an AI agent (or a human who was using AI for the answers) because it kept insisting that the package is at my part and I'm the receiver not the sender....
Then another human took over who told me about the tax issue and that i should pay it.
I paid the taxes but the package was already heading back and they refuse to reschedule the delivery and telling me to do so. As I'm the sender UPS does not let me act on behalf the receiver....
Complete ignorance and just sheer cashgrab behavior from the embark's side.
Noone should ever use them.

This company sells garbage. Their customer service is very good however their product is absolute garbage. You would get a more accurate result by taking a picture of your dog and asking AI what breeds it might be and what percentage and you would save yourself $100.

The results they sent me have been rejected by every dog expert I know, from veterinarian staff to shelter workers to dog trainers to people who are just knowledgeable.

The responses have ranged from "No Way!" to "Bullshoot"

It is an absolute waste of money.

I have purchased two Breed tests from this company and both times I have dealt with frustration. The first time Embark told me I would not have to pay anything yet I was still required to pay for MORE shipping to send it back which they reimbursed me which was great. This was April 2025 for the first one. I then purchased another one for my other dog however, shipping to US policy has changed in August and it is now November. I reached out to customer service at Embark who claimed they spoke to Canada Post and the shipping would only cost $3.19 so the 5 stamps they provided is enough. WRONG. It is not the process as you must pay for customs first on Zonos before Canada Post will accept it and the stamps are US so we do have to pay for more stamps. However, customer service from Embark definitely did not talk to Canada Post as I spoke to two different people from Canada Post (one in person and one via chat - not a virtual assistant) and did my research and we are 100% required to pay the $50 for customs. This product was already a lot of money so I am most definitely not paying that amount. I am waiting for Embark to response on how to proceed. To avoid this frustration and your time being wasted, if you are in Canada, DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT.

I was happy initially, I was given about 7-9 trace breeds with my dogs along with Korean village dog which I already knew.
They suddenly deleted all these breeds from my dogs profile and replaced with 100% Korean village dog which I know is not true, my dogs look like their trace breeds. I tried reaching out and customer support only says that this is better. Huge waste of 300$. Why would they not send a paper copy or even an email with the actual results. I trusted this site that I would be able to click the link and follow it since that’a how they have been marketing it. I feel scammed

Absolutely worthless. My dog is a doberman. They sent me, after a month and $149, a list of 3 commonly known conditions that Dobermans are prone to later in life noting his risk as "elevated." Really, no kidding. The department of the obvious has this important news bulletin for you: the sky is blue.

The DNA test was fine, I got the Heath + Breed one (the premium one). Results were reasonable. HOWEVER... Embark said that i would receive a FREE Fi GPS collar with my purchase. There was no reference to any extra fees or such on the page. They sent me a coupon code for the free collar shortly after purchasing their kit. The email said that the code expired on 7/31/2025, when i purchased the DNA kit on 8/18/2025. I contacted Embark and they said the coupon code is valid through 12/31/2025 despite the email date. Also, in order to redeem my free Fi GPS collar, the email says I need to pay a $20 activation fee and purchase the 6 month plan! None of this was stated upfront before my purchase with Embark. The lack of transparency is concerning from such a massive company. And the DNA results had over 10% of "Unknown", which is too large of an amount to be questioned, considering we are paying a lot of money to find out specifically which breeds the dog is. Wisdom Panel premium is much more transparent and straightforward.

I bought the over-priced embark dog dna test from chewy with a coupon. I was careful to avoid telling them anything breed related about my dog, no photos, I just wanted to see if it was real. 20 years ago a similar company existed in Knoxville, TN and lost their lawsuit and I got a class action settlement when that group were not even close on the dogs I had at that time. My embark dog is very obviously a Rottweiler mix and every vet and the shelter I adopted her from identify her as such. A white blaze on her chest and white hind quarter toes and hound shaped snout suggest a large breed hound. Otherwise at first glance she shouts and behaves like a Rotty. Embark came back with Pit Bull (not Staffordshire terrier) and Labrador; not even close!

We sent our swab back on the 2nd July, we have now been waiting 2 months for the results!

We have a beagle, possibly pure, most likely mixed, we did the dna and they sent us some other dogs results that said Chihuahua and Poodle. 100% these are the wrong results. Waited two weeks. I called and they do not take incoming calls. I can only email them and wait 1 to 3 days. Not happy.

Beware! I sent off my sample for my dog and the test apparently had an issue. They said they would send me another kit to redo the sample and it never arrived. When i contacted them about it they said i would need to pay $25. Total scam in my opinion!

I had a very good process doing a DNA test for my boy.
Process including creating account, ordering a kit, shopping it back and analysing the report was all very smooth. Very good email communication from embark team regarding any of my queries.
Overall very very satisfied

Went to purchase a test kit and realized it was incorrect. Tried to cancel the order and as an impossible to get a hold of anyone, they do not answer their phone. They do not respond to messages via email. They do not respond to messages via chat avoid this company at all cost.

We have used Wisdom Panel for all of our dogs in the past. We decided to try out Embark, paid $139 for our kit. The QR code does not work and there is no way to use this kit without scanning that QR code. The only way to contact Embark is via their website, which we have many many times in the past few days. No answer. We want our money back so we can switch back to the more reliable Wisdom Panel.

For a $199 kit (DNA + Health), I expected the pre-paid return mailer to use USPS Priority Mail with faster delivery, but it was just standard snail mail. I shipped both of my dogs’ kits on the morning of 6/23. One was received on 6/26, scanned into their lab on 6/29, and results were shared on 7/10—just under a 3-week turnaround, which isn’t bad.

Assuming both swabs arrived together, I emailed customer service on 6/29 to ask why only one had been scanned. Turns out, despite dropping them off at the same time and place, the second kit took a more scenic route and wasn’t delivered until 7/2—a full week later. Even then, it wasn’t scanned into their lab until 7/8. I’m still waiting on those results. It’s disappointing, especially since I hoped to receive both sets of results at the same time and share the news together.

As for the results I did receive, they included the three breeds I suspected—plus five more, two of which seem questionable.

The health upgrade wasn’t worth the extra cost in my opinion. The information provided is breed-related and fairly generic—stuff I could have looked up myself. For example, if your dog is 11% German Shepherd and 89% Poodle, the report lists health conditions common to both breeds without considering the DNA proportion.

To their credit, customer service responded within 24 hours of my inquiry and gave me a $5 promo code for the delay. Still, that small gesture isn’t enough to make me consider purchasing again.

I paid $99 expecting a proper breed breakdown, ancestry map, or at least some insight about my dog. Instead, I got a vague label:
"100% Costa Rica Village Dog"
Which translates to: we don’t know what your dog is, and we didn’t try that hard.

They don’t warn you that their database is U.S.-centric and won’t work well for mixed breeds outside of North America. There is no breed composition, no percentages, no family tree. Just a vague write-up and a generic sketch of a dog.

If your dog is from Latin America, or really anywhere not represented in their database, this test will be useless. And they won’t tell you that beforehand.

I feel misled and disappointed. Save your money. Embark should be more transparent about what their test can and cannot detect. This felt like a scam dressed up as science.

So not happy i placed an order and got no confirmation email I placed an order according to my bank I made a payment of 229 to embark vet dna but according to embark I never made a purchase so now im out 229 I have to report fraud now get a new card and loos out on the money so dont order from these guys unless you want to get scammed for ur money and there good at that as well not happy at all with my expierence didn't even get what I want I showed the the screen shot of my bank and the purchase and they still deny it complete waste of time

Results are not accurate. Embark uses a combination of linkage based testing and assay testing. The ones that are linkage based are not reliable and when tested with a reputable lab that uses assay testing results may be different. Reason is that the tests were developed for assay testing. Horrible customer service or rather non-existent. You are unable to talk to a person and responses are standard AI replies. No real answers. Database is too narrow for rare breeds which makes results erroneous. This is a money making "con" company not a true genetic testing company.