|

Interesting Dog Faq's

Take A Look At Our Doggie Boot
Camp FAQ's
Take A Look At Our Doggie Day Care FAQ's
Take A Look At Our Dog Food FAQ's
| THE CANINE EVES: MOTHERS OF ALL DOGS |
THE CANINE EVES: THE MOTHERS OF THE FIRST
DOG The Eves of the dog world are five or six wolf females that lived
in or near China nearly 15,000 years ago, according to a series of genetic
research.
The findings indicated that most dogs had "a common
origin in a single gene pool." Genetic diversity was highest in East Asia,
suggesting that dogs have been domesticated there the longest.

| THE OLDEST BREEDS IN THE WORLD |
THE OLDEST BREEDS
The results revealed that
an unexpected and geographically diverse cluster of breeds-including the
Siberian husky, the Afghan hound, Africa's basenji, China's chow chow, Japan's
Akita, and Egypt's Saluki are most closely related to dog's ancient wolflike
ancestors. "Dogs from these breeds may be the best living representatives of
the ancestral dog gene pool," the researchers wrote.
When the geneticists clustered the breeds whose genes
showed shared lineages, they found that the more-ancient breeds:
- Basenji
- Saluki
- Afghan
- Lhasa Apso
- Pekingese
|
- Shar-Pei
- Shih Tzu
- Akita
- Alaskan Malamute
- Siberian Husky
- Samoyed
|
These old breeds had the closest genetic relationship to the wolf
ancestors. The 14 ancient dog breeds with "genetic fingerprints" said to be
similar to those of wolves are:
- Afghan Hound
- Akita
- Alaskan Malamute
- Basenji
- Chow Chow
- Lhasa Apso
- Pekingese
|
- Saluki
- Samoyed
- Shar-pei
- Shiba Inu
- Shih Tzu
- Siberian Husky
- Tibetan Terrier
|

The study did have some surprises, especially the
suggestion that three breeds -- the Norwegian Elkhound, Pharaoh Hound and
Ibizan Hound -- are not as old as typically stated, but rather are more recent
recreations of old types. Also, six pairs of breeds are closely related:
Alaskan Malamute and Siberian Husky,
Belgian
Sheepdog and Belgian Turvuren,
Collie and Shetland Sheepdog,
Greyhound and Whippet,
Bernese Mountain Dog and Greater Swiss Mountain
Dog,
Bullmastiff and Mastiff. OTHER breeds in the study, in their specific grouping,
adapted from the explanations of the four groups.
|
Mastiff Breeds: Mastiff Bulldog
Boxer Bullmastiff French Bulldog Miniature Bulldog Perro de Presa Canario
Rottweiler Newfoundland Bernese Mountain Dog German Shepherd Dog |
Herding Breeds: Belgian Sheepdog
Belgian Turvuren Collie Shetland Sheepdog Irish Wolfhound* Greyhound* Borzoi*
Saint Bernard* *
Not known as livestock dogs, these four may have been
ancestors to the herding dogs. |
Hunting Breeds: Basset Hound Beagle
Cairn Terrier Cocker Spaniel Golden Retriver Irish Setter Labrador Retriever
Pointer and other spaniels, terriers, pointers, retrievers, and scent
hounds. |

| THE TEN ORIGINAL DOG TYPES |
The 10 progenitors identified by the researchers are:
sight hounds, scent hounds, working and guard dogs, northern breeds, flushing
spaniels, water spaniels and retrievers, pointers, terriers, herding dogs and
toy and companion dogs.
The sight hound, specialized for
coursing game, is thought to have emerged in Mesopotamia around 4000 to 5000
BC. Modern breeds such as the greyhound and Afghan hound are found at the end
of this branch of the canine family tree.

The scent hound meanwhile appeared
around 3000 BC, characterized by a highly sensitized sense of smell and a body
suited to warm weather. The bloodhound, foxhound, and dachshund are all thought
to have descended from this dog.

Working and guard dogs probably
emerged in Tibet around 3000 BC, with modern descendents including the
rottweiler, all Mastiffs, the Great Dane, the St Bernard's and the bulldog. At roughly the same time, toy and
companion breeds apparently emerged in Malta. Modern descendents include the
poodle and pug.

| DOGS WERE DOGS TEN THOUSAND YEARS AGO |
In 1997, a biology professor startled the dog world by announcing that their genetic research
suggested dogs were
first
domesticated as early as 100,000 years ago. They also confirmed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that dogs are descended
only from wolves, not jackals or coyotes as some had
surmised.

| FROM WOLF TO DOG AND BACK AGAIN |
THE JOURNEY FROM WOLF TO DOG
Today, it is generally accepted that dogs are the
descendants of Eurasian grey wolves, and there is evidence that they may have
originated in east Asia.
The dog may be a very young species at only 14 000
years old, although genetic evidence suggests dog may have began to diverge
from the wolf as long as 135 000 years ago.
However, even though dogs are the recent descendants
of wolves and are very similar to wolves in terms of both behavior and
morphology, they are in several ways quite different from wolves. Dogs
display a large number of characters not seen in wolves, such as piebald coats,
floppy ears, and curly tails.

Wolves are also seasonal breeders, with both males and
females becoming fertile once per year. Dogs are not seasonal breeders, and
most female dogs (with some rare exceptions) come into season twice per year,
and male dogs are fertile year round.
Dogs also have smaller skulls relative to their
overall size than wolves and are able to form social bonds for a longer period
of time during their early lives than are wolves.
| DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DOGS AND WOLFS |
Interestingly, many of the morphological and
physiological differences that exist between dogs and wolves may not have been
intentionally selected for by humans, and could have been a result of selection
for tameness in dogs.
It has already been noted that
selecting animals for a behavioral trait can change the amount of
hormones and neurotransmitters produced by the animals because an
animal's behavior is often controlled by such chemicals.
The early development of an animal is also, in
part, controlled by these chemicals, so a small change in the animal's
endocrine and neurochemical systems may result in changes to the early
development of the animal. In wolves, this window closes at
about three weeks, and it dogs it closes at 8 to 12 weeks, depending on the
breed.
Many researchers consider dogs to be
paedomorphic wolves, meaning that they have retained
characteristics that are typical of juvenile wolves as adults.
| HOW DOGS ARE DIFFERENT FROM WOLFS |
FLOPPY EARS
The floppy ears that characterize most
dog breeds may be paedomorphic trait, as very young wolf pups have floppy ears,
which straighten shortly after birth. Even the erect-eared dogs, such as
huskies and German shepherds, have ears which straighten up later than do the
ears of wolf pups.
THE CURLY TAIL
The curled tail of most domestic dogs is also a
neotenous trait. Adult wolves typically have straight tails that are carried at
a downward-pointing angle, whereas wolf pups, like many adult domestic dogs,
have tails that are carried up above the back
THE BARK
The bark of domestic dogs is another juvenile trait.
Adult wolves can and do bark as an alarm call, but they rarely do. However,
wolf pups bark more often than adult wolves, which makes them similar to many
domestic dogs.
THE SKULL
Adult dogs also have skull characteristics that make
them rather similar to four-month-old wolf pups. When a dog reaches four months of age, its head's
growth rate slows down relative to the growth rate of the rest of its body. A
four month old wolf's head will continue to grow at a more rapid rate relative
to a dog's until it is about seven or eight months old. The result is that
adult wolf-sized dogs have head sizes that are similar to that of a juvenile
wolf's.
Much of the diversity found in the domestic dog may be
a result of a selection for tameness around people. The farm fox experiment
started by Dr. Belyaev decades ago has demonstrated that selecting animals for
a behavioral trait (such as a lack of fear of novel stimuli) effectively
selects for animals with lower levels of adrenal hormones and higher levels of
certain neurotransmitters (such as serotonin). Since these chemicals play a part in regulating the
early development of an animal, selecting an animal for a behavioral trait
could alter its development and thus its morphology.
ARTIFICIAL SELECTION vs. NATURAL SELECTION
Although it is often assumed that the dog is a result
of artificial selection, it is possible that early dogs evolved via natural
selection. As humans began to form permanent settlements, a new niche was
opened for animals to exploit. They could steal and scavenge scraps from
villages. To live in such a niche, an animal would have to be unafraid of
people.
Thus, wild dogs living in this niche would be selected
for tameness around people. This would alter the animals' morphology because,
as stated above, selection for a behavioral trait selects for changes in
hormones that regulate the development of the animal. These naturally tame
"proto-dogs" could be the ancestor's of today's modern dog breeds.
| HOW WOLVES ARE SO SUCCESSFUL |
HOW WOLVES DO IT
Wolves walk, trot, lope,
or gallop. Their legs are long, and they walk at about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers)
per hour, but can reach speeds of 35 m.p.h. during a chase.
Their usual mode of travel is
to trot, which they do at various speeds, generally between 8 to 10 miles (12.8
to 16 kilometers) per hour.
Wolves can keep up this pace for hours on end and
have been known to cover 60 miles (96 kilometers) in a single night. They have
been clocked at speeds of over 40 miles (64 kilometers) per hour for a distance
of several miles

.
| THE FIVE SENSES OF THE WOLF |
SMELL The sense of smell in the wolf is
highly developed, as would be expected in an animal possessing numerous scent
glands. The distance at which any scent can be detected is governed by
atmospheric conditions but, even under the most favorable conditions 1.75 miles
denotes a particularly keen sense of smell.
The wolves usually travel until they encounter the
scent of some prey species ahead of them. They then move directly toward their
prey in an effort to capture it.

HEARING Next to smell, the sense of hearing
is the most acute of the wolf's senses. Wolves can hear as far as six miles
away in the forest and ten miles in the open.
Wolves can hear well up to a frequency of 25 kHz. Some
researchers believe that the actual maximum frequency detected by wolves is
actually much higher, perhaps up to 80 kHz (the upper auditory limits for
humans is 20 kHz), also according to some naturalist wolves' hearing is greater
than that of the dog.

SIGHT Wolves also have keen eye sight and
are quick to detect the slightest movement of anything in front of them. Being
major predators, their eyes are on the front of there heads, and they have
probably a little less than 180-degree vision, unlike their prey species, which
can see over 300 degrees of a circle.

TASTE Investigation of taste are made
difficult by the fact that the influence of smell often plays a major role in
the way a food "tastes." It is known that canines possess taste receptors for
the four taste categories: salty, bitter, sweet, and acidic.
Felines on the other hand, do not respond to
sweetness. The sweetness receptivity would be adaptive use to wolves, as sweet
berries and other fruits do play a minor role in their diet.

THE WOLF PACK
Few mammals anywhere are aware - and as loyal to - their group as the wolf. Unlike coyotes and foxes, the wolf usually exists for its pack.
The rare exception is the proverbial "lone wolf" - the
runt, the outsider, ostracized from the pack. If it is very lucky and finds a mate, and
if there is enough territory available for them, they might be able to start a
new pack of their own.

For most wolves, however, their identity
begins and ends as part of a cohesive, eight to fifteen-member pack. The
hierarchy of the pack is known to all and reinforced by favors,
rituals, nips, and fights.
Each pack has a leading, dominate pair, The top male,
called the alpha male, who submits to no one and to whom all the other males
defer. Likewise, a top alpha female, to whom all other females must submit (The
subservient members are usually direct descendants of the Alpha parents).
Contrary
to popular belief, a female can lead the pack, in one study of 5 packs
almost 50% were lead by a female wolf.
Next in rank to the alphas are the beta male and beta
female. For each gender, every wolf has a rank or place in line where they must
submit to anyone higher than they are, but can bully or dominate the wolves
lower in rank.
At the bottom there is an omega male and omega female.
These wolves have no one under them and may be harassed to the point where they
disperse or are killed, or are forced to leave the pack.

FREE K9
Telephone Advice - CALL NOW! 847-284-7760
CALL RIGHT NOW!
|