This is my first post to the list.  I've been lurking for a couple of
months and have been learning a lot.   Finally, there's something I think I
can answer!


>  Dogs come in all different shapes and sizes but still are "recognizably"
wolves.>

<<Have you seen a Pekingese?  What about nearly-universal hip dysplasia in
the larger breeds -- it's a result of breeding for appearance, not for
health or survival characteristics.  Can we guess what else changed in them
while these characteristics were changing? >>


Lots of folks on the breed lists offer this argument against feeding a raw
meat/bones diet to dogs. However, in an article entitled, "The Origin of
Dogs: Running With the Wolves" (Science, Vol. 276, June 1997), the work of
an international team of geneticists and evolutionary biologists, led by
Robert Wayne at UCLA, has confirmed thru studies of mitochondrial DNA
samples that all of today's breeds had only one canine forbear: the wolf. 
David Mech, wildlife biologist for the US Dept. of the Interior and
authority on the species, is quoted as saying, "He [Wayne] has confirmed
genetically what most zoologists have believed for a long time, and that is
that the dog is a domesticated wolf." In his book,  "The Wolf: The Ecology
and Behavior of an Endangered Species (1970)," Mech states, "In fact, the
two species are regarded as so closely related that one authority (Bohlken,
1961) has proposed that the dog be considered only a form of the wolf and
not a separate species."

In 1993, the species designation of "canis familiaris" for dogs  was
changed to "canis lupus familiaris" to more correctly reflect its origins.

While man has manipulated the phenotype (external appearance) of purebred
dogs to create a range of breeds, including the brachycephalic
(short-nosed) breeds like Pekinese, Boxers, Pugs, toy-sized dogs like
Chihuahuas,  giant breeds like the Great Dane, all dogs share the same
genotype (internal makeup).  As noted in "Give Your Dog a Bone"
(Billinghurst DVM), "...the internal workings, including the entire
digestive system, and the way food is utilised for growth, maintenance,
repair and reproduction, is fundamentally the same in all dogs, both wild
and domesticated."

Both my English Cocker and my Golden, who is more than twice the size of
the EC, needed no persuasion to take their first raw, meaty bones--they
efficienty demolished them as if they'd never seen a bite of kibble (and
they never will again).  Whether or not my dogs are able to hunt down their
prey for a meal isn't important; it's that they, as all dogs, are designed
by nature to thrive on a primarily carnivorous diet of raw meat and bones,
with smaller amounts of plant foods (veggies, fruits), eggs, nuts, seeds,
etc.--in other words, a species appropriate diet is best (sound familiar?)

As for the incidence of hip dysplasia in larger breeds, Mech points out
that the prevalence of diseases and disorders in wild populations of wolves
is unknown since the incidence of finding intact carcasses of wild animals
such as wolves is rare.  However,  the foundation of each purebred occurred
long before there were diagnostic capabilities for, or even awareness of,
hip dysplasia, so breeders would not have known to avoid using affected
dogs in their breeding programs.  The fact that we have been able to
identify affected dogs thru OFA and more recently Penn Hip in modern times
gives the appearance of a higher incidence of HD in purebreds, when in fact
the causative agent for HD has probably always been present in the gene
pool and better diagnostic techniques have simply provided more information
on the extent of the affected population.  Hopefully the dog genome
project, which is estimated to complete the genetic mapping of the dog in
the next five years, will give us the ultimate weapon to eliminate HD.



Lynda Bryson
[log in to unmask]