At the Belgian Shepherd Health Project we encourage everyone to conduct as much genetic testing on their dog as they feel is appropriate. We hope that you will share whatever results you might have with us. With a little help from you, we are able to incorporate the results from any testing that you have done already and use it to further our understanding of the genetic health of the breed.

You have many choices about which company(ies) you choose to have conduct the testing and which tests you choose to run. Your choice could vary for any number of reasons. Perhaps your first concern should be whether or not the breed organization in your country requires testing. If they do, are there specific labs that must conduct the tests for the results to be accepted as official? If so, then, of course, you should have the testing done with those labs. If not, we would encourage you to consider testing with Embark.

There are a number of reasons that we encourage people to use the Embark test:

  1. It includes the tests for both forms of ataxia (SDCA1 and SDCA2), the only genetic diseases that have been identified that are currently known to be an issue in Belgian Shepherds
  2. It includes tests for all the coat and color characteristics that breeders need to make their decisions, particularly for breeders that are pursuing inter-variety breedings
  3. Embark is actively engaged in research to identify the genetic cause(s) of gastric cancer in Belgian Shepherds and is providing data to aid those projects
  4. You, the owner of the dogs, own the results generated by the test and can provide that data to any researchers with whom you choose to collaborate
  5. Embark is willing to collaborate with us to identify and pursue other genetic projects that might be of interest to Belgian Shepherds
  6. Embark has a system in place to allow you to update your dog’s information as new tests become available. The majority of those tests will be conducted free of charge. However, there might be times when the technology requires that an entirely new panel be conducted, at which time a fee will be required.
  7. It’s economical – the discounted cost of the test is $139 (plus $10 shipping outside of the US) for friends of the Belgian Shepherd Health Project, for which you receive the results for both forms of ataxia, all the coat and color traits, plus many other useful tests that will help to inform us about the genetic health of our breed, overall