The Origin of Dogs

nessdog writes "Your old friend in the back-yard can read you like an open book according to this article from the BBC. They report that your dog's power of reading your body language is better than a chimps. So next time you tell a lie, just remember who might be watching..."

Comments

Dogs smarter than chimps

[macdaddy357]

Of course dogs can find food faster than chimps. They are much smarter than chimps...or people.

Re:Dogs smarter than chimps

[Stoutlimb]

I don't think dogs are smarter... They may be fairly good at interpreting social cues from humans, but that's from conditioning.

Personally I think dogs are better at finding food because of their superior sense of smell. I think this is another case of bad research, at least with comparing relative intelligence.

Re:Dogs smarter than chimps

[Austenite]

At least pretend to have read the article.

Puppies as young as nine weeks are as good as the adults, so it's not due to conditioning. Also, the experiment was designed so that the dogs could not use their sense of smell.

Oh wait.... I think I've just been trolled!

The catch

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure they can read you like an open book. But dogs can't read books! Aha!

Does that mean....

[mattsucks]

So next time you tell a lie, just remember who might be watching...

Does this mean that instead of polygraphs, the police will soon begin using lab tests?

Officer: Sir, did you rob the bank?
You: Of course not.
Lab: woof woof *
Officer: Just as we thought, lying!

* I have to go out and pee on your tires.

Hmmmm

[FungiSpunk]

Any animal that sits down in front of your entire family on Xmas day, then cleans its own gentials with its tongue, is hardly screaming up the evolutionary ladder!

Re:Hmmmm

[diesel_jackass]

Oh come on, you know you'd do it too--if you could only reach.

My friend's dad (or my dad's friend depending on how you want to look at it) used to always ask us the rhetorical question:
"Do you know why a dog licks his balls?"
"No Fritz, why is that?" we'd say.
"Because he can," he would reply.
I think he's right too.

Re:Hmmmm

[FungiSpunk]

Damn! You already worked out one of my three wishes!

Dexter's "Lab"

[diesel_jackass]

This is kind of on topic since it involves a dog, and due to the lack of comments about this article, I figured that I'd post it.

Has anyone seen the Dexter's Lab where Dexter gets a dog? I love the part when his dad goes into his room, and says "How long has this Lab been here?" Dexter was like "ummm, well the thing is..." Then his dad was like "...Because you know how much I like Labrador Retrievers!" Then his dad goes on to tell Dexter that its a big responsibility to keep a dog, and stuff.

I get a kick out of that one every time I see it.

3 canine Eves

[Strange Ranger]

Given the small genetic sample that it seems 95% of dogs have originated from, I wonder if some careful breeding of wolves back into the dog gene pool would help with all the congenital problems that dog breeders have to be so vigilent about. Genetic diversity of course being a Good Thing.

I know dog/wolf hybrids aren't supposed to make good pets, can be dangerous, wild, etc. But careful breeding back into the most popular dog breeds would be worth preventing thousands of cases of hip dysplasia, eye problems, heart problems, skin problems, etc., etc.

A wolf/poodle cross might be a little disturbing though.

Re:3 canine Eves

[Smallpond]

This article on canine genetics points out that
aggression is the most frequent problem for which dog
owners seek help. It also points out that biologists
classify dogs as "social parasites". One view I've
heard is that dogs have adapted to mimic the mannerisms
of small children in order to get humans to care for
them.

Perhaps we should cross that poodle with a rabbit?

Re:3 canine Eves

[R.Caley]

I wonder if some careful breeding of wolves back into the dog gene pool would help with all the congenital problems that dog breeders have to be so vigilent about.

Dog breeders have problems not because of the genetic base of all dogs, but because they make money breeding dogs with their close relatives. The result is the doggy equivalent of banjo players and European royals.

Re:3 canine Eves

[young-earth]

Hip dysplasia actually became common in the US in the 1930's. Yet it was quite rare in Australia until the 1970's and 1980's. That's not evidence for a genetic issue, but it does correlate quite effectively with when commercial (cooked, processed, etc.) dog foods came on the scene.

If you feed your dog the BARF (Bones And Raw Food) diet, odds are they'll be a ton healthier. Research has shown that dogs from lines raised on the BARF diet tend to have near-zero incidence of dysplasia when their litters also use the BARF diet (see the books on the above site for details).

Many breeders are coming to realize this - the problem is primarily intake not primarily genetics. This has been quite effective for our giant-breed dog, a Great Pyrenees. He's over 11 years old and still quite spry, without a trace of dysplasia.

Re:3 canine Eves

[Strange Ranger]

A couple of points

You refer to dog breeders making money from "Pure breeds". Good breeders don't use close relatives to accomplish this. At least not what we think of as close relatives. 3rd cousin-in-law twice removed or some such thing is more like it. But together we both make the same point - Because of the lack of genetic diversity in dogs, especially purebreds, distant relatives can be genetically equivalent to fraternal twins (litters are made up of "fraternal twins"). Hence the need to inject some fresh DNA into the line.

My other point to the other poster: Mutts can make the best dogs, and usually have the potential to be healthier, but you never know until after you've owned the dog for half its life. If you want the perfect pet for your own needs the best way to do it is choose a pure breed that fits your needs and lifestyle and then spend a ton of time researching breeders and choosing the right line and puppy for you. This way you are far less likely to be surprised by what you get and be stuck with it for 12 or so years. Sure, there is a mutt out there somewhere who is exactly what you want in size, coat, brains, temperment, activity level, etc, and will live a bit longer than the perfectly chosen purebred, but your chances of finding him as a puppy and raising him as your own are almost exactly nil.

Re:3 canine Eves

[R.Caley]

Because of the lack of genetic diversity in dogs, especially purebreds, distant relatives can be genetically equivalent to fraternal twins

But the diversity in the set of all pedigree poodles is orders of magnitude less than that in the set of all dogs, so there is probably no need to bring in diversity from outside the set of alldogs, just throw the gates open and let the poodles screw the alsatians etc.

If you want the perfect pet for your own needs[...]

Buy an AIBO.

Real pets are idiosyncratic, that is more or less the whole point of having a pet isn't it?

In any case dogs are for the socially inadequate:-)

Re:3 canine Eves

[RangerBob]

Hrm, I don't think that a wolf/poodle cross would fix hip dysplasia or anything. However, it might give you a dog that would bite your leg off and then start humping it ;)

Re:3 canine Eves

[lommer]

Actually a friend of mine has a dog that is 1/4 wolf, and I can say that it is one of my favourite dogs in the world. It is not dangerous or really wild, and it is incredibly intelligent. It can pick up tricks or patterns much quicker than any of the other 3 dogs in the house. If I was going to get a dog, I would definitely want a part-wolf.

Re:3 canine Eves

[richie2000]

This reminds me of the checkles I get out of reading catfood can labels. No, not the contents, the marketing hype on the front: Stuff like "All natural! Ox hearts and Liver!" Yeah, I can just see little Kitty running down an ox, tearing it's liver out. Or Tuna. Sure. Wild cats love to fish tuna. Do you have any idea how large a real, live, average tuna fish IS? Hell, even KITTEN II would have a problem landing one of those.

But I guess the Florida blue-hairs would take exception to "Mice-flavored catfood - now with real pieces of rat!"...

Re:3 canine Eves

[pyrote]

Perhaps we should cross that poodle with a rabbit?

Rabbits can actually be pretty nasty. How about sheep?

it's the big pointy teeth that get you every time...RUN AWAY!

The dog's watching...

[Kopretinka]

So next time you tell a lie, just remember who might be watching...

Yeah, it's watchin', but not tellin'!

Re:The dog's watching...

[great om]

Am i the only one getting a bush's baked beans vibe here?

dog breeding

[phriedom]

It would be a lot easier to just mix the dog breeds instead of starting over with wolves. If you start now with breeding a little wolf into dogs, your grandchildren or great-grandchildren might get a "good" dog out of it.

The problem with trying to make dog genes stronger though is that people don't want mutts or "mixed breed" dogs. People want pretty coats, and friendly, hard-working personalities. And breeding a dog to be healthy and live long doesn't win dog shows, which is where the money is for breeders.

Re:dog breeding

[Cy Guy]

people don't want mutts or "mixed breed" dogs. People want pretty coats

Thanks for that bit of insight Cruella.

But this can help...

[Polo]

Well, you can understand a dog too...

With this Dog Translator you can interpret your dog's barking.

Sorry, body language isn't interpreted.

East Asian origins

[egeorge]

"His team found that, though most dogs shared a common gene pool, genetic diversity was highest in East Asia, suggesting that dogs have been domesticated there the longest."

I thought this was an interesting point considering the fact that east asia is a part of the world where some people eat dogs.

I wonder if there is any relationship between these facts.

joke

[Anonymous Coward]

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.

-Groucho Marx

Transgenic animals

[securitas]

Please choose from the following list:

• wolf-poodle
• poodle-rabbit
• poodle-sheep
• rabbit-sheep
• poodle-AIBO

Don't know if all these options will be available, but we're supposed to see the fearsome results next year: Impossible Creatures