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Size in Dog Controlled by One Gene Fragment

Difference Between Mutts and Jeffs? A Gene - New York Times

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

If it weren’t for IGF-1, Paris Hilton’s life would be a lot less elegant.

She’d be lugging around an Irish wolfhound in her purse.

Scientists have just discovered which gene fragment controls the size of dogs, which have the greatest size range of any mammal — no other species produces adults with 100-fold differences, like that between a two-pound chihuahua and a 200-pound Newfoundland.

In a study to be published tomorrow in the journal Science, researchers analyzed 3,241 purebred dogs from 143 breeds. Genetically, the yapper arguing with your ankle is almost identical to the drooling behemoth bred to hunt bears, except for a tiny bit of DNA that suppresses the “insulin-like growth factor 1” gene.

Dog breeders have unwittingly been selecting for it since the last Ice Age. Dogs emerged from the wolf about 15,000 years ago, and as far back as 10,000 years ago, domesticated dogs as big as mastiffs and as small as Jack Russell terriers were trotting the earth.

The study’s lead author, Elaine A. Ostrander, chief of cancer genetics at the National Human Genome Research Institute, said she visited a lot of dog shows, asking for blood.

“It became kind of a status symbol to participate, and we were inundated,” she said. “I only wanted one sample from any descendant of one grandfather, and owners would show up with five Scottish deerhounds, all of them siblings, and say ‘oh, absolutely, they all want to be in.’”

Making it “cool biology,” she said, is that the same gene suppressor is found in both mice and men, creating mini-mice and suspected in human dwarfism.

And because it controls growth gone awry, she said, it will help cancer research, and is to be planted in mice.

But carefully: A mouse the size of a Great Dane, she said, “would be a little scary, wouldn’t it?”

Difference Between Mutts and Jeffs? A Gene - New York Times.

World's First Sex Selected Puppy Litter Born In America

Five cuddly puppies born in American are more than your average litter. They're the world's first dogs to have their sex selected prior to conception via cutting-edge cell-sorting technology developed by an American biotech company.

The black Labrador pups, three female and two male, join a long line of animal species the group. has demonstrated can be successfully artificially inseminated with sex-sorted sperm to achieve the desired outcome -- female or male offspring. To date, XY(R) Sex Selection Technology has been used to produce hundreds of thousands of sex-selected offspring of various animal species. Cattle, horses and sheep have benefited from this technology, which also has been successful in elk, domestic cats, the bottle-nosed dolphin and the Mediterranean water buffalo.

"We are delighted to show our sex-selection technology also works in the canine world," said Dr. Mervyn Jacobson, president and CEO of XY Inc., an international biotechnology company based in Fort Collins, Colo.

XY Inc. holds worldwide licenses and patents to a technology that is revolutionizing animal breeding, particularly the dairy cattle industry in which literally millions of dairy cows are needed to satisfy the need for increased milk supply in developing countries.

The successful births were a collaborative effort among XY Inc.'s research team; Dr. Greg Burns, DVM, owner of South mesa Veterinary Hospital in Fort Collins; and, of course, Morgan's Chocolate Rose, the patient mom of the rambunctious brood. Rose is owned by Steve Huffman and his family. Huffman is a laboratory technician with XY Inc.

"Over the last several years, XY Inc. has been approached by organizations breeding seeing-eye dogs or dogs used by law-enforcement agencies and the military. These groups have an interest in breeding technology as a way to improve and expand their breeding pools of animals desired for certain traits or temperament," Jacobson continued.

In the case of seeing-eye dogs, Labradors, particularly females, are a desired breed due to their calm and gentle disposition and intelligence.

"Producing a single litter of five pups is only the beginning of the process to prove the sex ratio really can be controlled, but if the sperm-sorting process is proven to work with canine semen over many litters, this will be a major step forward," commented Eldin Leighton, The Jane H. Booker Director of Canine Genetics, The Seeing Eye, which breeds Seeing Eye(R) dogs.

While XY(R) Sex Selection Technology typically guarantees at least a 90-percent accuracy rate in selecting for the desired offspring in cattle and other animals in which the technology has been rigorously field-tested and used in breeding for many years, the Labrador litter of sex-selected puppies was 60 percent accurate in delivering the desired sex -- female.

John Schenk, XY Inc. reproductive physiologist, explained the purity of the doses of sexed dog sperm was sacrificed to achieve the quantity of semen need for AI.

"We are reasonably certain the less-than-optimum purity of the X-sorted sperm doses, which was 81 percent, had significant bearing on the female/male split in the litter," said Schenk. "There was an 18-percent chance we would end up with this combination in a litter of five."

A typical dog ejaculate contains up to 1-billion sperm and decreases rapidly after the first semen collection. In this case, XY Inc. researchers were able to sort 46-million sperm on the first day; 21.5-million, the second day; and 27-million, the third day. Dr. Burns used the fresh sperm to artificially inseminate Rose three times over a five-day interval.

"With sperm sorting, early research is a process to learn what precise combination of factors is needed to first achieve live offspring from sexed sperm and then improve accuracy to consistently produce a very high percentage of the desired sex of the offspring," Schenk said.

Dr. Burns explained the use of AI with non-sorted sperm to breed dogs has become an increasingly popular method over the last decade. Each AI dose typically contains 100-million sperm, and over the breeding service several doses are used.

Rose was AI bred with less than 95-million total sorted sperm.

"The low dose and the fact that the sperm were sorted is a 'double first' in the dog-breeding world," Dr. Burns said.

Rose, who is a first-time mother, had no complications during the pregnancy or delivery of the five pups. Dr. Burns noted a typical litter size for a female Labrador is five to 10 pups with a mean of seven. This litter was no exception, with the litter developing normally over the typical nine-week gestation cycle.

Dr. Burns concluded, "Using sex-sorted sperm to artificially inseminate dogs is probably not too practical for typical breeding. However, for specialty breeding, this is a major breakthrough with great potential."

Added Leighton, "The Seeing Eye would find it very helpful if some litters could be produced that are mostly females, and I believe that access to sex-selection technology would be useful to dog guide schools around the world."

World's First Sex Selected Puppy Litter Born In America.

AKC CAR - Microchips as low as $4.59

Link: AKC CAR - Companion Animal Recovery - Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved.

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What''s New?? What is a Good Breeder?

Link: Breeder Recognition Program Revisited.

Ultimately, I think what separates hobby breeders from the others is our dedication to the welfare of our dogs-to our individual dogs and to our breeds.

    • by carlotta cooper •
   
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the demise of the AKC's planned Breeder Recognition Program. During the recent Petland discussion, many breeders were asking themselves and each other how they could distinguish themselves from commercial breeders. How can they help the public tell the difference between a mass-produced puppy and one bred by a serious hobby breeder? These are important considerations, and I think it would be good to look again at what the Breeder Recognition Program could offer. Can this program, or something like it, genuinely help breeders in the fancy?
    First, to refresh your memory, the Breeder Recognition Program had five stated goals:

    1. Differentiate AKC breeders from non-AKC breeders
    2. Provide the pet-buying public with additional information about AKC breeders, enabling the breeder selection process
    3. Provide benchmarks for excellent breeding practices
    4. Raise the standards of AKC breeders, thus positively impacting the overall health and quality of breeding stock and puppies
    5. Be the most respected and meaningful recognition program for breeders

    The details of achieving these goals were still being formulated by AKC staff when the program was ended, but the AKC had already launched some efforts. The most successful of these programs, such as the AKC Breeders Newsletter, the AKC/CHF Breeders Symposia, the Full Litter Registration pilot program, and the Breeder-Exhibitor Coupon program, are continuing without the support of the Breeder Recognition Program.
    Those initiatives are all very good, as far as they go. However, the breeders I talk to and correspond with need and want more. They are, in many cases, outstanding breeders with superior puppies, but they find themselves in competition with puppies often either commercially produced and sold in pet stores which may also have AKC papers; or produced by backyard breeders—also claiming to be AKC puppies. How is the public supposed to know that getting a puppy from a serious hobby breeder is a much better choice? If all of these puppies are AKC-registered, how is a buyer supposed to know if one puppy is better than another?
    Many people say the answer is buyer education, and that's true. But it would help if we could tell the buyer what to look for in an AKC-registered puppy. For years our mantra has been “Buy From A Breeder,” but that formula seems to have had limited success. Most people won't listen very long before moving on to look for a puppy from someone else—from someone who won't preach at them or lecture them or make them feel inferior. Besides, even commercially-bred and backyard breeder puppies may boast champions in their pedigree just a generation or two back. That's good enough for many buyers. Most potential buyers may never have stopped to look at a breed standard. They may not notice things like differences of breed type or even obvious conformation problems with puppies. They don't know anything about genetic disease. They do, however, recognize the AKC brand name, no matter where the puppy comes from.
    In addition, it seems that hobby breeders cannot supply all of the purebred puppies that people want to buy. Not only that, but many breeders would not sell a puppy to many homes seeking a puppy—breeders are picky and often turn people down, many times with good reason. So, if we want to compete for the best homes for our puppies, we have to find a way to attract those buyers and let them know that we have the puppies they really want.
    How do we do that? How do we set ourselves apart and show the public not only that we have the most desirable puppies, but also that we exist? Many people aren't even aware that serious home breeders are an option when it comes to looking for a puppy, or they have a negative perception of us. One idea is to take a program like the Breeder Recognition Program and make it truly promote breeders in the fancy. Look for ways to reward serious home breeders and breeder-exhibitors. Go another step further and advertise hobby breeders. Feature us in AKC advertising, on the Web site, in the newsletters to pet owners. Show the public what we, as breeders, do to produce great dogs. Show us involved in our dog activities, including showing. Embrace what we do and what we love. We have a passion for dogs and for our sport. Let us show everyone else. But, promote us as hobby breeders and show the public that we take pride in what we do. Recognize us.

What's New ?? Do You Love Your Dog More Than Your Breed

Link: Do You Love Your Dog More Than Your Breed? Addamo Asks... Pointed Questions for Dog Fanciers. Wouldn't it be better just to be able to go to a Dog show? Club News TheDogPress.

Do You Love Your Dog More Than Your Breed?

 

The first thing I want to establish with this article is that I believe there are no perfect dogs. I wish more dog fanciers (including judges) would accept that as a fact.  Perhaps if we could all agree on that fact, the lives of some dogs would be improved (the sometimes drastic measures taken to create the perfect dog would stop) and dog shows would start looking like “dog” shows.  Additionally, wouldn’t it be nice to eliminate the double standards such as the “field” (fill in the sporting dog) versus the “show” dog or the “working” (fill in the breed) versus the “show dog.”?  Why do they often look like two different breeds? 

 

I’ve been pondering how the sport of dogs could have possibly gotten so corrupt that even the AKC whose mission was to protect and maintain the studbook, has failed.  I ask the question, does the fancy love their dogs and the excitement of the show win more than they love their breed?  Did the failing of the AKC to maintain the integrity of the studbook and lack of enforcement create the current attitude that winning is more important than breeding quality dogs?  Has the politics of judges made breeders feel so hopeless that the breeder’s commitment has changed from breeding with the standard in mind to the politics and possibly the personal preferences of judges?  Has it become easier to dye them, cut them, or whatever fakery has become rampant, over trying to breed better dogs and only showing the best?  On the flip side of that is the phenomena of people, who can afford it, breed a dog that has major fault(s), but nevertheless start an advertising campaign on the dog and the dog incredibly starts to do a lot of winning.  Why would a breeder do that?  Let’s face it, the average competitor with a great dog can not compete with an advertising campaign.

What's New ?? AKC Full Litter Registration

Link: American Kennel Club - Downloadable AKC Forms and Applications.
AKC Forms

New York, NY - The American Kennel Club® today announced the launch of the
Full Litter Registration Application pilot program. Breeders now have the
option to register an AKC® litter and individually register each puppy in
the litter all at the same time using one easy application form. The full
litter registration application offers breeders discounted litter and dog
registration fees.

What's New? Coat Color Discussion

Link: ACD Coat Color Photos.

Photos submitted by Maggie Wheeler for discussion on Cattledog-L

Join the discussion.  If you aren't already a member of Catledog-L follow the above link and sign up. 

What's New?? Available Stud Listing

Link: <-> Australian Cattle Dog . Com <-> Available Studs.

Looking for a stud dog?  Want to advertise your stud dog?
Check out the new listing on www.australiancattledog.com
(not limited to red dogs... though we could use a blue stud on the page right now)

List Your Stud Dog -

$25.00 per year
(Only $10 per year with a breeder listing or 6+mo prepaid classified ad contact us for discount)

Includes 2 pictures and 3 generation pedigree & contact information
Email links only, please

What's New?? Proactive Ethics & Breeding

Proactive Ethics & Breeding

Proactive Ethics & Breeding

Are you an ethical breeder?? Are you ethical in what you show and honest about it?

I have a tendency to ask loaded questions, not to slay the dragon but to make it a better mythical creature.  Since I have poodles and everyone knows it, lets start there because it is the most artificial breed (in my opinion) and I can speak about them with some authority.  For example, Poodles come in 3 sizes:

Toy: a max of 10 inches
Minis: a max of 15 inches
Standards: a minimum of 21 inches to be competitive.

Now in Toys it is difficult to get the "look" at less than 9 inches so we have about 1 inch to work with. It is a near impossibility to breed within that limit.
Many Toys finish at over 10 inches.

Minis? Not unusual to finish a 13 1/2 inch mini but not common. Most are at 14 and the best ones are at 15 and (my opinion) difficult to breed, again with about 1 and 1/2 inches to play with and be competitive.

Standards: In modern Times I know of no one who will dare to show a standard less than 20 inches and only personally know of a few who have finished at 21 inches - the average is 22 /23 for a bitch and 25/26 for a dog. There have been some exceptions - a dog named Alekai Zuess finished at 30” and it was a case of the judges either loved him or put him at the end of the line.

 

Bear in mind that the standard says each size should look like the other, the win should go to the diminutive when all other things are equal.

Any solid color at the skin is permissible.  Let’s admit our short comings. Poodles are an enhanced breed, artificial in nearly every way. We snip and clip and put on this product and that product and color here and there, and Yes Virginia we use WIGS (gasp) and hairspray (gasp) and stuff them to get them fat enough to get the round ribcage and drop in the chest. Then we put them on a tread mill to get the beautiful muscles in their naked butt, cut their toenails extra short to keep feet (or make them), and lets face it ,we can change the entire look of the dog with a pair of scissors. Don’t like the eye? Just put the top knot in tighter. Don’t like the color? Dye it. (horrors you say? Sally's sells a LOT of "water works.") Whites stained and dingy? Bleach it.  Go to any national or regional and sit in the stands and you can see for yourself that the vast majority of blacks look like they came out of the very same bottle.

Not enough hair? Well just sit around the grooming area and watch the hair pieces come out after show time. Don't blame me.. I didn’t invent them!!! But I sure as hell know how to use them and have had to learn all the tricks of the trade.

Why? Because I am an owner handler who has to compete every weekend with the top pros in the nation and If my grooming is not as good as theirs, if my conditioning is not as good as theirs, if my dog is not BETTER than theirs .. I have no chance of winning!

I used to be a purist (years and years ago) but now all I ask is that every one play the game the same way... and be honest about it.

• If your dog is dyed and I ask to breed to it, just tell me.

• If your dog finished and is over, fine by me, just tell me.

• If your dog has a white patch or white toes... fine, just tell me.

• If you had the curled tail fixed, ok by me -just tell me.

• If you had dental work done...well ok, then TELL ME!!!

 Don't let it be a surprise when I breed to your fine dog, and all my puppies come out with patches of another color, have squirrel tails and all grow to be 16 inches tall, and have stained or crooked teeth. Don't let it be a surprise when my 9 year old standard has toe cancer, is auto immune thyroid and sterile, bloats and has seizures. (Fortunately he doesn't have SA or VWD, addisons or cushings, not ...yet.) Can I be SURE that the dogs in the pedigree I breed to are REALLY the dogs I believe I AM breeding to?

A very, very well known handler years ago said to me...it is an artificial breed but under it all is still a dog, flesh and body that the judges can feel and see move. The rest is top dressing; we fool the eye into seeing what we want it to see.

Should we Slay the Dragon or can we make changes that will bring us back to where we need to be? I believe it is worth the effort, but lets clean our own house before we kill the very dogs we love so much first.

I believe it will take a huge outpouring of show people to make the changes that need to be made, or a huge bunch of us to leave, even for a little while, and play in other venues. Maybe the powers that be will then get the idea that THEY are not the AKC.

The AKC is US, like the founding fathers who were dedicated dog men one and all.

In the 1960's when I was but a girl and sat outside the show rings watching beautiful poodles strut around, I would always look down at my obedience poodle, who was a brilliant but ugly bitch, and I would dream of the day I would own and breed poodles that were brilliant and beautiful, warm and loving, that could perform circus routines, or sit in an old lady’s lap, that could warm a sick child’s heart, or win a BIS.

I have taken the lives of thousands of unwanted dogs and cats as an animal control officer, I have taught thousands of people in obedience classes on how to have better pets. I have bred a few good dogs, accomplished many goals; but the one thing that eludes me is getting people to see that their destiny in the dog world is in their own hands.

This is an age where you cannot be apathetic. You must be proactive in the world of politics. Get involved; get informed; GET BUSY. Clean your own house, so we can all clean the dog world.

Vickie Haywood  Vickie@TheDogPress.com 
April 2006

 Copyright © 2006 TheDogPress.com - Reprint rights hereby granted upon the condition that a link to the reprinted page is furnished to

What's New?? Available Stud Dog Listing

Link: <-> Australian Cattle Dog . Com <-> Available Studs.

You can now have your available stud dog advertised on AustralianCattleDog.com for an entire year.  For only $25 a year we will post 2 pictures, a 3 generation pedigree, contact information, and link to your email address on the Available ACD Studs page

If you already have a paid breeder listing, business card, or 6+mo classified ad on AustralianCattleDog.com it is only $10 additional per year to advertise a stud dog.

Watch for the ACD Breeder Education section coming soon.

The Ultimate ACD Trivia Contest starts soon - dom't miss this one!