Slashdot Mirror
China Says it Cloned a Police Dog To Speed Up Training (xinhuanet.com)
A cloned dog, believed to be the first of the kind in China, has started training in Yunnan Province in a program to reduce the cost and time needed for training police dogs. From a report: Kunxun, a female of the Kunming wolfdog breed, was born on Dec. 19 last year in Beijing and arrived on March 5 for training at the Kunming Police Dog Base of the Ministry of Public Security. She was cloned from a 7-year-old female dog, known as Huahuangma, that has been in service in the city of Pu'er, Yunnan, by Sinogene, a Beijing-based biotechnology firm. The cloning is part of the ministry's research program.
Huahuangma played important roles in helping detectives with dozens of murder investigations, and was accredited the first-level merit in 2016, said Wan Jiusheng, an officer who is responsible for training Kunxun. Huahuangma's outstanding abilities as a police dog made her an eligible donor of genes, Wan said. "It takes four to five years to train a meritorious dog such as Huahuangma, and costs hundreds of thousands of yuan," he said. Police dogs serving in real tasks are not usually used for breeding. The cloning program helps researchers copy their excellent genes and reduces the time and costs needed for training, researchers familiar with the program said.
Huahuangma played important roles in helping detectives with dozens of murder investigations, and was accredited the first-level merit in 2016, said Wan Jiusheng, an officer who is responsible for training Kunxun. Huahuangma's outstanding abilities as a police dog made her an eligible donor of genes, Wan said. "It takes four to five years to train a meritorious dog such as Huahuangma, and costs hundreds of thousands of yuan," he said. Police dogs serving in real tasks are not usually used for breeding. The cloning program helps researchers copy their excellent genes and reduces the time and costs needed for training, researchers familiar with the program said.
So the training gets embedded in the DNA and transferred to the new generation?
Nature vs Nurture argument is back here. If we clone a good police dog, but assume it will be cheaper to train, then they don't train it as well as it genetic predecessor, thus isn't as effective, and the high cost of cloning a dog.
We have identical twins, who have different personalities, and over time actually have some physical differences in appearance, (A little fatter or skinnier), Gone gray earlier, one needs glasses while the other doesn't, even their face structure can be different over time, just because they express emotions differently.
I don't see much advantage over cloning a good dog vs breeding a good dog with an other good one.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Cloning would only affect the physical attributes and mental 'capacities' of the dog. It would NOT pass on the acquired skills or training so the dog isn't going to know how to sniff out a perp without that same 5 years of training including for physical abilities. I don't see how this "speeds up the process" although it's more likely that you're going to guarantee a successful candidate from the cloning.
I mostly agree the speed of training would not be impacted, a big advantage would be you'd have a police dog that should not wash out of the program.
There is actually one way in which training could be sped up though, trainers that had worked with the original dog would theoretically better understand what specific things helped motivate the dog. In that way they could take some shortcuts in training not having to fine tune the rewards they give.
I find it amusing though that Doom using repeated textures for soldiers and dogs was actually a prophetic vision of the future.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So, I'm told all the time now that aptitude doesn't exist for humans, that anyone can learn anything, that genetics doesn't determine (or maybe even influence) who will come out on top for a skill.
But it exists for dogs?
Maybe we could measure what we are going for here ... we could call it DQ (Dog Quotient).
I'll be curious to see how this turns out. It has implications for other cases outside of police dogs if it works*. For instance thoroughbred horses, prize bulls, and other fields where high-price breeding fees are in play.
*By works, I mean produce an animal with the same physical abilities, temperament, and other genetic traits without any undesirable side effects of the cloning process. Obviously no one thinks the clones will come out of the womb pre-trained.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
It would be far better to use embryo transfer to produce a few dozen puppies from selected parents. The mother wouldn't need to be retired because they can use surrogates to carry the pups.
Of course that assumes the female hasn't already been spayed, which has probably happened in this case.
I understand cloning an animal passes on certain abilities and learning traits.. but it doesn't pass on the memories, experiences or those actual learned behaviors... so where's the time savings? What's not being said?
First thing you learn about Chinese research claims is always go to the source and verify the proofs.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Do you really think they aren't already doing this? You report on the cool dog clone, not the cool supersoldier clone...
The cloned dog will be trained with the best, premier techniques thought to produce a great police dog. However, what experience had shown to be a great police dog (the DNA donor) might have been raised or trained in ways nobody documented because they did not follow the handbook. So the new dog, while genetically similar to the old one is trained in the officially mandated style of today - which won't necessarily give you another champion dog because the training is what they think is best, not necessarily what the great dog got.
What about cloning Einstein and other bright minds?
Only if you're especially incompetent. Or do you think in-vitro fertilization techniques for humans require killing the woman in order to harvest her eggs?
Typically you just administer a drug that causes rampant ovulation. Kill the donor and all you get are ovaries full of immature eggs, which will need special care to become viable (I don't know if we even have the technology to do that), since normally they mature during the days before ovulation.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
How long before china selects the most trainable soldiers for cloning?
I bet they're already planning for it.
I treat this like all "news" coming out of China: As misinformation or a downright lie to make it seem like China actually achieves things, which i highly doubt it does. See also the FUD stories about people injecting themselves with fruitjuice and other bullshit like that.