Using Pair Predictor to assess a breeding pair

As of March 2022, Embark offers an automated Punnett square calculator called “Pair Predictor” that helps breeders understand the potential health risks for the puppies produced by a specific sire and dam.

To use this feature, you must have a breeder account and the genetic health results for at least one sire and one dam in your Embark account. Tested dogs that show in the “My Dogs” section on your My Embark for Breeders page can be paired in the tool. If you’d like to compare a dog that is not in your breeding program or share one of your dogs with another breeder, follow these steps to share your dog’s account and set permissions.

Steps for using Pair Predictor

1. Find Pair Predictor in the Breeder Tools section of your My Embark for Breeders page:
   
   
   
   
2. Choose a sire and dam from your account and click calculate.
   
   
   
   
3. The genetic health calculations are based on the test results from the selected sire and dam and are ordered by the highest predicted risk for the puppies. For example, if both parents are carriers for a recessive condition, we can expect 25% of the puppies to be at risk, 50% to be carriers and 25% to be clear. Because there is a possibility for puppies to be at risk for this condition, we display it in the "at risk" section. If both parents are clear for a condition, the puppies are also predicted to be clear, and will be listed in the “clear” section.
   
   If a condition is currently not recognized as relevant for the breeds in the pair but the cross predicts a probability of producing carrier and/or at risk puppies, we will highlight this information in a section called "Notable non-breed relevant conditions."
   
   You may also see a section called "No predictions available" which identifies if there are any conditions where only one of the dogs has a test result that we can run a prediction against. This may be due to which genetic chip the dog was tested on or if we were not able to make a call (i.e. "no call") based on the data we collected.
   
   
   
   
4. You can click into any of the health condition results to learn more about the prediction. Note that some variants are found in most or all dogs of a specific breed. If you have any questions about how to use these results in breeding decision making, check out our educational resources linked in the tool or contact our Embark specialists. 
   
   
   
   
5. Average breed COI and expected litter COI (eCOI) are available in Pair Predictor for many single breed and designer crosses to assess the proportion of a dog’s genome in which the dam’s and sire's genes are identical by descent. If we are unable to provide an automated calculation, we may be limited by the number of registered dogs of this breed in our database. You can help by including applicable registries and registration numbers in your dog’s profile and promoting the use of Embark with fellow breeders.
   
   
6. We recommend taking a screenshot or printing your results to save match outcomes. You can also return to your My Embark for Breeders page and create a unique match tag to apply to your pair for easy reference. Select a different sire or dam from your breeding program to see how your puppy predictions may change. 

How is this different from Matchmaker?

Unlike Matchmaker which is limited to certain purebreds, this tool is open to any breed, any cross. If you’re looking at a purebred match in Matchmaker, you’ll see the number of variants of a breed-relevant health condition that each dog carries, but it’s up to you to calculate the Punnett squares that take the number of variants, mode of inheritance and breed relevance into account. If you’re excited about a match you see in Matchmaker, you are able to “Contact Owner” and ask if the breeder is comfortable sharing their dog to check the match in Pair Predictor.

Example from the health results section for a pair in Matchmaker: