http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=breeding-dog-brains
August 13, 2010 (Published)
Picture:
This picture shows that dogs were being affected by selective breeding and the brain could change in smaller dogs.
Summary:
Over many years, humans have done selective breeding in dogs. They wanted this color of this dog, and that dog needed to have curly fur. We changed what dogs would look like and it is starting to affect thier brain changes to their sense of smell and their behavior. A neuroscientist, Michael Valenzuela, did a study on the position of the skull in a dog because he thinks that all dogs came from Canis Lupus, or gray wolf. Valenzuela and other scientists tried to do tests with MRIs to check the length of the skull and if the brain has rotating, making the gray wolf's brain the control of the emperiment. They also took the width and the length of dogs skull and multipthem by 100 to get the cephalic index (CI). This experiement was tested with 11 dogs. They found out that dogs with the dogs with smaller snouts actually had a different brain than the original wolf. So when humans were deciding on the perfect pet, dogs were having a change of brain which mostly affects their smell. With all the tests that were done, Valenzuela still is getting more research. But we know that pug-like dogs are not the best for the work force.
Opinion/Reflection:
I was shocked knowing that selective breeding can effect dogs so much. You would think that dog breeders were just breeding dogs to get certain traits from each and that it won't affect the dog but maybe we should start looking in another direction. Maybe we need to start thinking about trying to breed more dogs so that way they can use their sense or smell. Or look into how dogs behave and keep using the selective breeding tactic to get dogs with long snouts.
Questions:
1. Is it possible to be able to breed so that dogs with smaller snouts can still use their sense of smell?
2. If you were a scientist, how would you try to solve this problem?
3. Could breeding dogs so they had their normal traits before selective breeding change them back to the way they were?
I found a website on the selective breeding of dogs and it talked about how it is good for show dogs. They are also a group for the selective breeding of the dogs so emailed them to check this out. I said...
ReplyDeletehi i am i high school student and we have a blog about what is going one with the topics in our class. And one student put a article about selective breeding. I think you should check it out at http://fivepeoplethatdonthaveaname.blogspot.com/2012/12/selective-breeding.html
this page.
Thanks Timmy
1. Is it possible to breed so that dogs with smaller snouts can still use their sense of smell?
ReplyDeleteI think that it could be possible because this is only happening recently and there will be more and more ways that we can do things once everything is figured out more.
2. If you were a scientist, how would you try to solve this problem?
I would realize that if a dog is losing their sense of smell, then something is wrong and I would try to stop and think about what was going wrong
3. Could breeding dogs so they had their normal traits before selective breeding change them back to the way they were?
I did not understand the 3rd question
DeleteSorry I meant that could you breed dogs so that they can have their original traits and are not a hybrid mix. SORRY!!!!!!!!
DeleteI think that we should stop selective dog breeding because it is not right to the dogs at all! I think that if we want a specific dogs then it should be done naturally!Although I do not personally have a dog, I do know that when people get dogs, most of the time it is a mix between to breeds.
ReplyDelete1.Why do humans need to have a mix of breeds in their dogs?
2.How can we get dogs stores to stop the selective breeding?
3.How can we prevent selective breeding?
Hi my class is doing a blog about selective breeding. This is an article about the selective breeding of dogs and the pros and cons of selective breeding ans what effects they might have on the animal.Here is the link to the blog, http://fivepeoplethatdonthaveaname.blogspot.com/2012/12/selective-breeding.html . If you could comment that would be great.
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Kaeli
I e-mailed Michelle Welton. I chose her because she seems to know a lot about many different types of dogs. She knows how to train them and how to choose a dog that suits your family. She also could have an interesting opinion on the selective breeding of dogs.