Step One: Hybrids

Kevin just forward me an article on hybrid dogs. The article is specifically about the Puggle - a Beagle and Pug cross - but it mentions a few other hybrids too. Now you can drive a hybrid car with a hybrid dog in the back.

I am waiting for the Great Dane and Cockerspaniel cross, simply because I like Great Danes and my wife likes Cockerspaniels. Not sure how the mechanics of that would work though. Would we call it a Great Spaniel?

I thought it was funny that they had the lady from the AKC though. Of course she is going to be critical of it. Those AKC people are really stuck up. The interesting thing is every time you breed a dog you take a gamble with what the puppies will be like, even when breeding the same breed. In fact for those who are breeding show dogs it is not uncommon to put down half the litter. This is especially true when they inbreed the dogs (with siblings) to enhance the positive attributes - it results in concentrated negative attributes too. The problem is the negative ones are not always recognized until they are breed in for a few generations. The AKC could care less about pets.

I predict that it won't be long and we will see pets engineered to order. Instead of choosing a breed we would choose a list traits and they would grow us a puppy. Just a matter of mapping the doggie genome. Just wait, it will happen.

Subject tags: [Puggle] [Dogs] [Hybrid] [AKC] [Pets] [Treds] [Genetic Engineering] [Genome]