12,000 year old Ice Age puppies could be first evidence of domesticated dogs

MARCH 28, 2016

by Brett Smith

Researchers working in northeast Russia were recently able to recover the fully-intact remains of two puppies that sat preserved in ice for 12,460 years.

According to a report from the Agence-France Presse, the puppies could shed light in the history of dog domestication as they may have been owned by local cavemen.

"To find a carnivorous mammal intact with skin, fur and internal organs -- this has never happened before in history," Sergei Fyodorov, head of exhibitions at the Mammoth Museum of the North-Eastern Federal University, told the AFP.

Finding prehistoric puppies

When the hunters came across the first frozen puppy in 2011, they alerted Fyodorov who quickly flew over to the distant Russian Arctic region of Yakutia, located approximately 2,900 miles from Moscow.

Last year, he returned for a more comprehensive examination and discovered the second puppy near the same spot. Both dogs passed away when they were approximately three months old and they probably come from the same litter, Fyodorov said.

Last week, the Russian scientist oversaw the removing of the second puppy's amazingly well-preserved brain.

"Puppies are very rare, because they have thin bones and delicate skulls," he said.

Fyodorov said an initial check of mammoth remains also discovered at the dig indicated some had been butchered and burned, a sign of humans. However, the scientists said they weren't sure if the puppies were domesticated or wild. Sequencing the genomes, which will take a year, should reveal the answer.

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First Puppies Born by in vitro fertilization

Date:December 9, 2015

Source:Cornell University

For the first time, a litter of puppies was born by in vitro fertilization, thanks to work by Cornell University researchers.

The breakthrough, described in a study to be published online Dec. 9 in the journal Public Library of Science ONE, opens the door for conserving endangered canid species, using gene-editing technologies to eradicate heritable diseases in dogs and for study of genetic diseases. Canines share more than 350 similar heritable disorders and traits with humans, almost twice the number as any other species.

Nineteen embryos were transferred to the host female dog, who gave birth to seven healthy puppies, two from a beagle mother and a cocker spaniel father, and five from two pairings of beagle fathers and mothers.

"Since the mid-1970s, people have been trying to do this in a dog and have been unsuccessful," said Alex Travis, associate professor of reproductive biology in the Baker Institute for Animal Health in Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Jennifer Nagashima, a graduate student in Travis' lab and the first to enroll in the Joint Graduate Training Program between the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and Cornell's Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, is the paper's first author.

For successful in vitro fertilization, researchers must fertilize a mature egg with a sperm in a lab, to produce an embryo. They must then return the embryo into a host female at the right time in her reproductive cycle.

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Yawning puppies

ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2012) — Do you get tired when others yawn? Does your dog get tired when you yawn? New research from Lund University in Sweden establishes that dogs catch yawns from humans. But not if the dogs are too young. The study, published in Springer's journal Animal Cognition, found that, like humans, dogs show a developmental trend in susceptibility to contagious yawning. While dogs above seven months of age catch human yawns, younger dogs are immune to yawn contagion.

Contagious yawning is not just a sign of sleepiness or boredom. Previous research has shown contagious yawning in humans, adult chimpanzees, baboons and dogs, and suggests that it can be used as a measure of empathy. Empathy, mimicking the emotional responses of others, is difficult to measure directly, but contagious yawning allows assessment of a behavioral empathetic response, the researchers say.

While the development of contagious yawning in human children has seen much research, this is the first study to investigate its development in another species.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121023100942.htm

Raining cats and dogs: Lucky puppy survives 30ft fall through the sky

The fortunate canine had a lucky escape after being grabbed by an eagle-eyed hawk and then flown through the sky as it struggled to escape from its clutches.

He was finally released from the hawk's sharp talons, but was sent plummeting through the sky from over 30ft and into the arms of a loving young boy in Los Banos, California. 

The two-month old nearly didn't survive the fall, but is now making a steady recovery at the home of youngster Taylor Callaway, who explained the moment it landed in his garden: 'All of a sudden I saw this little puppy laying there, he was almost dead.'

Speaking in her back yard, his grandmother Elaine Bouschard added: 'Right here is where Taylor started yelling that he saw the puppy.

'I looked up and the hawk was just flying right here, circling around and at that point, we all just went to the puppy.

'My thought is that when God drops a puppy from the sky, you keep it,' she added.

The family believe the dog may have been a stray picked up from a junkyard because it was covered in grease when they found it.

It has been named TJ Heavenly after its new owner and in honour of its miraculous tale of survival.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/899392-raining-cats-and-dogs-lucky-puppy-survives-30ft-fall-through-the-sky

Dalmation has 15 puppies - double the average number

Not quite 101 Dalmations

There aren't quite a 101 of them but for new mum Pebbles her 15 Dalmatian puppies are more than enough.


Pebbles' owner Kay Sullivan was left shocked when her pet pooch gave birth to the huge litter - double the average number.

The birth left two-and-half-year old Pebbles so exhausted that she, husband Neil and daughter Cerys had to step in to lend a hand.

Mrs Sullivan, of Garnant, Carmarthenshire, said: "By the time we had fed the last one, it was time to go back to the first one."

And thanks to their help all of the puppies have survived. The family now have the task of coming up with names for all five males and ten females.

Newly christened is Patch and Phantom Of The Opera due to the fact half his face is black and the other white.

Their story has drawn parallels to the Disney film '101 Dalmatians' because 15 is the number of puppies stolen from Dalmatian parents Pongo and Perdy.

Mrs Sullivan, who is not a dog breeder, said they may keep one or two of the new arrivals but were looking to sell the rest.

"We were expecting an average litter of about seven or eight. We weren't expecting 15. It's a bit much," she said. "We don't want 15 dogs running around."

Dogs rescued from Hot Springs 'puppy mill'

The ASPCA announced this morning that it was working with the Garland County sheriff's office to care for more than 100 dogs removed today from what it described as a Hot Springs puppy mill. The news release said the sheriff's office had been investigating mistreatment of dogs there since 2009 and mostly small breeds such as Boston terriers, dachsunds, chihuahuas and West Highland terriers were involved.

The ASPCA said the dogs had been neglected and were living "in feces-encrusted pens and deplorable conditions."

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West Village pet stores refuse to sell puppies to boozehounds making impulse buys

West Village pet stores have a message for their customers: Lay off the hooch if you want to buy a pooch. The owners are sick and tired of boozehounds coming in, fawning over the animals through beer goggles and trying to make an impulse buy.

Staffers at Le Petit Puppy on Christopher St. tell the inebriated to go home and sleep it off.

"It happens very often," Le Petit Puppy manager Fernanda Mortiz said.

"If the person is completely drunk, I won't sell them the dog ... or I say they can't leave with the dog that day....I can see it in their eyes if they've been drinking."

BY CHRISTINA BOYLE

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-07-06/local/29759454_1_new-dog-aspca-cute-pups