Breeding

- December 30, 2008 - No Comments

DNA identifies dog breed with 99 percent accuracy

Dog DNA testsIn a study that alters conventional wisdom and paves the way for a better understanding of canine behavior and evolution, scientists say they have found genetic variations that allow them to distinguish between 85 different dog breeds and to identify an individual dog’s breed with 99 percent accuracy.

Traditionally, appearance and a written pedigree have been used to define a dog’s breed. But scientists had not been able to identify a dog’s breed based on its DNA alone in more than a few cases until now.

“I was surprised that you could assign dogs to their breed with 99 percent accuracy,” said Robert K. Wayne, an expert in canine evolution at the University of California at Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study. “That’s pretty astounding.”

More surprising to dog lovers might be some of the relationships between breeds that the research revealed: The venerable German shepherd is closer genetically to mastiffs, boxers and other “guarding” dogs than to herding dogs. The fleet greyhound, Irish wolfhound, Borzoi, or Russian wolfhound, and lumbering Saint Bernard count herding dogs among their closest kin. And the Pharaoh hound and Ibizan hound, often called the oldest of breeds, are really recent constructions, as is the Norwegian elkhound. Read the rest of this entry »

Dog related

- December 30, 2008 - No Comments

The Dingo

What is the dingo? Is he a direct descendant of the wolf or is he a wild dog which was once domesticated, then turned wild again? This puzzle is as frustrating as the proverbial chicken-and-egg progression.

DingoGenetically, the dingo is homogeneous to the pale-footed Asian wolf (canis lupus pallipes), presumed still to exist in certain remote, mountainous regions of Asia. It is believed that he has altered very little from his prehistoric forebears, which were widely distributed throughout Africa.

It is believed further that he came to Australia in a semi-domesticated condition during the last phase of the Ice Age (15,000 B.C.), and that he was in the company of nomadic aborigines who had trekked across the Indonesian archipelago.

He wandered as far as New Guinea, where he developed into a smaller variety of dingo (which is called New Guinea singing dog because of its opera-like howling at sundown), but he did not make it to Tasmania or Kangaroo Island. It is interesting to note that the singing dog’s diminished size may be the result of selective breeding. Read the rest of this entry »

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Entertainment

- December 22, 2008 - No Comments

Man Caught With Ecstacy Claims It Was For His Dog

Steven James Dwyer claimed the court that he thought ecstasy pills would stop his pet shar-peis from breeding.

Steven James Dwyer claimed the court he thought ecstasy pills would stop his pet shar-peis from breeding.

Steven Dwyer who was caught with 70 ecstasy pills told the court they were birth control pills for his dog.

Steven James Dwyer, 48, pleaded guilty to possessing a traffickable amount of methamphetamine, but contested the charge of possessing ecstasy tablets, saying he thought the pills would stop his pet shar-peis from breeding, the Northern Territory News reported.

Dwyer tried to convince the court the ecstasy tablets had come into his hands from a man with a shar-pei dog, he met outside a laundromat.

“We chatted about them - where he got them … we kept talking about dogs and how he bred her,” Dwyer said.

“And then we talked about his female coming on heat.” Read the rest of this entry »

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