Terrierman reports a study by Swedish pet insurance companies that compares the longevity of several dog breeds.
Goldens come out pretty well, which surprises me. Here is their mortality curve.
I thought they would have higher tumor mortalities than that.
Here’s how the compare to the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, a dog that descends from one individual.
Cavaliers have lots of problems. The worst is mitral valve disorder which gives the dogs a continuous severe heart murmur. The dogs are usually diagnosed in middle age (for normal dogs), and if they’re show dogs, they’ve alread been bred.
Another breed with problems, the Irish Wolfhound:
This breed lives on average 7 years, and many die younger. Cancer is a big problem in the Irish Wolfhound.
All graphs and more detailed analysis can be found at terrierman’s blog.
BTW, the Irish Wolfhound should not be confused with the actual breed form Ireland that killed offf all the wolves in Ireland. That breed went extinct in the late eighteenth century, when the wolves died off. No wolves meant this breed had no real purpose, so it disappeared. A Scotsman named Captain Grahame recreated this breed by crossing the Great Dane (German mastiff, a descendant of the wolfhound and probably very similar to the original wolfhound, which often was described as smooth-haired), the Scottish Deerhound (a rough-haired greyhound often mistaken for the wolfhound), and the borzoi (a wolfhound bred by the Russian nobility to kill wolves– the show variety is relatively common in the West, while its working form exists throughouth European Russia, the Ukraine, and other parts of the former Russian Empire).
BTW, the BBC is airing a documentary about the damage that closed registries, inbreeding, and conformation shows are doing to domestic dogs. Clips can been seen here, here, and here. BTW, that’s Mark Evans of Animal Planet’s “Barking Mad” who is acting as the RSPCA spokesperson vet. It’s an excellent show that shows people how to correct behavior problems in animals humanely. The documentary is called “Pedigree Dogs Exposed.”
The original toy spaniels were closer the Papilion and Phalene dogs than the English Toy Spaniels/King Charles Spaniels. The English variety was crossed with pugs and other flat-faced dog to create the variety, while the Papillion and Phalene were crossed with dogs like the Volpino (toy spitz) and Pomeranian (another toy spitz). (Volpinos are Italian toy spitz, while Pomeranians are extremely small German spitz. German spitzen were actually used to herd livestock and guard farms. The Keeshond or Wolfspitz is the only other German spitz to gain notoriety internationally. Queen Victoria discovered the Pomeranian as a 30 pound herding spitz from Eastern Germany and what is now Poland. It was soon decided to reduce the size of the 30 pounder to make it a 10 pound dog. Then the 10 pounder was reduced to a 3-5 pound dog. I am not sure of the exact ancestry of the Volpino, other than it is small spitz breed and its name is derived from the Italian word for fox.)
Terrierman is right. Small dogs are really old. Some of the oldest forms of domestic dog are actually quite small. The Gobi Desert Kitchen Midden Dog dates back to 10,000 year ago. This tiny dog was believed to be a scavenger, hanging out around kitchen middens (where humans dropped their garbage). This dog was small and brachycephalic (flat-faced), not unlike East Asian breeds like the Japanese Chin, the Pug, and the Pekingese. However, these modern breeds are much more extreme than that dog in terms of brachycephaly. In fact, the modern peke is more flat-faced than the first pekes imported to the West, which were stolen from the Imperial Palace following the Boxer Rebellion. (In fact, one of the first dogs imported to England was named “Looty,” and presented to Queen Victoria, whose role in messing up so many dog breeds would require several books! The rough collie is probably her most famous foul up. This intelligent Scottish herder was a loose-eyed collie that small farmers kept to manage sheep and cattle. Queen Victoria bought several dogs after buying Balmoral, and the breed became instantly popular. The breed was crossed with a borzoi to make its muzzle longer and more slender, a move that has resulted in the birth of collie pups that are unable to nurse.)
BTW, one study suggests that East Asia was the place where wolves were first domesticated to become dogs. This study is based on a genetic studies of worldwide dog mitochondrial DNA, and it found the greatest diversity of dog mitochondrial DNA in East Asian dog populations. Thus, this Midden Dog might be among the oldest forms of domestic dog.
Here’s a golden retriever breeder in some part of Europe, probably France or Belgium, complaining about the possibility that the Kennel Club (of the United Kingdom) might open the studbooks for retievers, establishing them varieties that can be outcrossed with each other. This rumor probably started with a new study released from Imperial College, London, that shows the degree of inbreeding in popular Kennel Club breeds. Goldens suffer from a high level of inbreeding because of the number of dogs used for breeding within the breed is relatively low. Most goldens are pets, and people have followed the instruction that pet dogs should be desexed. However, very few studs and bitches are being used in the actual breeding program, creating high levels of inbreeding. The study can be accessed from Terrierman’s blog. The actual study can be found here, but it requires a adobe to read it. A background in statistical methods would also be helpful. Open studbooks were maintained in all retriever breeds, especially goldens, Labs, and flat-coats (goldens and flat-coats had the same studbook). An open studbook allows for new bloodlines to be added, reducing inbreeding coefficients. Because of greater genetic diversity, it is less likely that genetic disorders will pop up, because lots of genetic disorders are actually recessives, requiring both parents to carry the gene for the disorder before it happens. Mixing lines reduces the chances of recessives meeting each other. Further, one school of thought thinks that inbreeding reduces the immune system, making dogs more susceptible to infectious diseases and cancer.
Terrierman also has an excellent analysis of inbreeding in domestic dogs in his post called ”Inbred Thinking.” (*This French or Belgian breeder is concerned about the Kennel Club, because the FCI, the main European dog registry that registers all the purebred dogs in Europe, uses the standard approved by the main registry in the country of origin. The Golden comes from Scotland, part of the United Kingdom, so if the KC makes the golden a variety, the FCI will, too. Because the Europeans use British standard, most people in Europe have never seen a really dark golden retriever or have ever seen one bred solely for its working ability.)
This breeder is a conformation breeder who has it all wrong. This breeder thinks that goldens don’t have enough bone! That’s the most absurd thing I’ve read in a while. Actually, European show-type goldens have too much bone to be useful working dogs. I can take a field bred dog and put it in the water after a dummy or a bird and do the same with one of these dogs, and I guarantee that the field-bred dog will swim faster and for a longer period of time. “Bone” is a bit a of misnomer. What is meant by heavy bone is that a dog has a lot of muscle on short limbs. This actually causes structural deformities, such as hip and elbow dysplasia, and really hinders the dog in the water. Bulldogs have lots of bone, far more than even these show-type goldens, and bulldog’s can’t swim (or at least very well). If bulldogs had long, feathery hair, they would even be at more of a disadvantage in the water.
Here’s a bulldog trying to swim:
The dog can barely keep its head above water.
Here’s a video of Zomarick golden retrievers retrieving from the water.
They are fast swimmers, but because they are coated retrievers, they are little hindered in the water. Labs have a coat like a seal’s, and they are perfectly stream-lined for the water. That’s why Labs were so preferred, as were the short-haired St. John’s water dogs, for waterfowl retrieving. However, these dogs are fast in the water. They also can swim with their neck and shoulders out of the water, allowing them to clearly smell and see the objects they are retrieving. I didn’t realize how important that was until I took my field bred golden swimming with her show-bred counter part. The field bred dog could actually find the objects faster, simply she didn’t sink so deeply into the water. Her longer legs, lighter frame, and more moderate coat made it easier for her to swim in that position. That’s working conformation in a retriever. In a golden retriever that’s what I want. I don’t care what color the dog is, although darker dogs seem to work better than lighter colored ones. I don’t care if it has brown skin pigment or white spots on the chest, feet, or tail. I don’t care if it’s really quite red in color, either.
Here’s a picture of a show-type golden, a dog I’m sure has been bred many times:
Too much bone and too much coat make this dog too cumbersome in the water. Try siming while wearing a fur or faux fur coat, and you’ll see what problems this dog will have in the water. I guarantee that this dog lacks stamina in hot conditions and also has very litte speed on land. I’ve seen this particular dog in several dog encyclopedias, so this must be what officialdom thinks a golden retriever should look like. He looks very little like the Zomarick working retrievers in the video, except that he is roughly the same color.
Another trend in show goldens is to breed the lightest gold retrievers possible. In Europe, this color is called “cream.” Supposedly the Guisachan retrievers were of this color. Actually, there are paintings of light gold golden retrievers from Guisachan. The first litter of puppies from Nous and Belle were lighter in gold with some cream colored shadings. They weren’t the off-white creams that we see today. This coloration has only existed in golden since the 1960’s, and it wasn’t really common until the late 1970’s. And only in Europe. Today, most golden retrievers bred in Europe are this color. Neophytes think that these dogs are “white.” They aren’t. They at the palest extreme shade of recessive yellow to red. This color was developed through selectively breeding the palest goldens in litters until they were of this pale color.
Here’s the reunion picture at Guisachan.
The majority of dogs in the picture are creams. Creams are recessive to the darker colors, so if you breed for the light color, you will get rid of the dark color. Light goldens don’t carry dark golden genes. As I’ve said before, the majority of working-type goldens are darker in color. I have never heard of a cream-colored field champion golden in the US of any sort.
The DNA evidence presented at the “find of the century” Bigfoot press conference today was quite hilarious. The findings showed that the three samples of DNA were an opossum (Incorrectly called a “possum” here. Possums live in Australia, while opossums live in the Americans), a human, and one that cannot be tested “because of technical problems.” Meanwhile, a Halloween costume sits in a freezer in Georgia, while the bigfoot hunters presented their evidence in California. I guess if everyone saw the body, they’d know it’s just a Halloween costume covered in mud with some chitlins on top of it.
People wonder why there are bigfoot enthusiasts. I can answer this simply. People like spending time in nature. We will go out of our way to enjoy just a little time in the natural world. At least most of us do, and those who don’t really should give it a chance. That’s why people hunt and fish, but when you tell your wife that you’re going hunting or fishing, she expects that you bring back something. That expectation disappears when you’re a bigfoot researcher. You can spend weekend after weekend in the forest, and no one will expect you to bring back a thing. Plus, we modern humans once coexisted with other apes, even other hominids, such as our close relatives, the neanderthals. We like to believe that somewhere in the remote corners of the world, there exists people or hominids who aren’t like us, who aren’t spoiled by the trappings of civilization.
I would like to believe in bigfoot, but scientific evidence is really lacking. This existence of such a species is unlikely. We know that North America has not had primates other than humans living here (at least in the past couple of million years). Only central and South America have primates. All ape species, except us, live in Africa or Southeast Asia. There are no ape species in Russia or China, although one large species of Ape lived in China. It was a knuckle-walker, not a biped. It was a vegetarian. It could not have survived in the tundra and icy conditions of Beringia, and it certainly could have never made its way into North America.
One species that actually did make it on both sides of the Bering Land Bridge were the two Steppe polecats. The Russian Steppe polecat and black-footed ferret are close relatives that really did cross the land bridge. The black-footed ferret evolved to live in prairie dog towns, but when the lands opened up for settlement, the prairie dogs were shot, trapped, and poisoned. The grasslands became croplands, and the open range became pasture. The ferret was exposed to canine distemper and sylvatic plague. Its numbers were reduced severely. In 1967, the ferret was declared endangered, but in 1974, it was thought to be extinct in the wild. Luckily, a population was discovered in 1981 near Meeteetse, Wyoming. However, this population soon suffered a distempter outbreak, and by 1986, only 18 individuals remained. Those 18 individuals eventually were captured and bred in captivity to save the species. Today, approximately 750 black-footed ferrets remain in the wild. If we’d spend one tiny fraction of the time and money on black-footed ferrets that we spend on supposed giant North American apes, this species would be in an even better position than it is today.
This is one of the best books I’ve ever read about dogs. It’s both a heart-warming story about a Lab-Redbone hound cross and wonderful piece of science and nature writing about dogs and their behavior.
Here’s the youtube interview with the author:
The website for the book can be found here, and you can link up to Merle’s photo album here.
Merle is given freedom to socialize with other dogs and experience nature, and he develops into an intelligent, but free-thinking dog. It’s a really itneresting idea that dogs should be given some freedom to make choices in their lives. Last weekend, The National Geographic Channel carried a program about the San Franscico zoo tiger that attacked last the visitors on Christmas Day last year. The program talked a lot about new findings about carnivore husbandry. Using mink as a study species, researchers found that if mink were allowed to make choices about their environment and given mental and physical stimulation, they were healthier than those who lived in confined cages with little choices or stimulation. Studies on mink and ferrets suggest that they are more intelligent than cats and more on par with dogs and primates in intelligence. These findings are certainly applicable to other species of carnivore, especially the social ones, such as dogs. Today, most dogs live in confined spaces for days and days on end. We can only imagine how much this is hurting their mental and physical health. Perhaps we ought to ban keeping dogs (especially large dogs) in cities and suburbs, unless they are given off leash excercise several times a week. I know this is controversial, and it flies in the face of the current trend in dog ownership.
This beautiful painting by R. Ward Binks depicts a typical working golden in the early to mid-twentieth century. At this time, most goldens were lightly built, like flat-coats, and the dark colors predominated. Today, this dog would be called “flat-ribbed” and “racy” and “not pretty.” But I’m very much smitten with this type.
While everyone is looking at my evidence on the bigfoot hoax, I think I’ll look into another inconsistent story. This is the story of the bloodhound cross in the golden retriever. It has one source, and no documentation. Lord Ilchester was the main source for the pedigrees of the retrieverthat Elma Stonex used in her book. Ilchester wrote an article inCountry Sports and Country Lifethat first exposed these pedigrees and kennel records to the wider public. It thoroughly debunked the Russian origins of the golden retriever. If the Caucasian Owtcharka had been more common in the West at this time, this theory would have been debunked immediately.
However, Lord Ilchester’s records include something that seems a little out of place. Most of the records of the Guisachan kennel go from 1868 to 1889, and in no place is there a mention of a bloodhound being added to the cross. Supposedly, this cross happened after 1889, and according to Lord Ilchester, were “rather savage.” The actual records of this cross was written down a piece of paper and was lost.
Lord Ilchester was just a child when these crosses supposedly happened, so I can forgive him for not knowing what exactly went on. The 1st Baron Tweedmouth was Lord Ilchester’s uncle.
I’m a trained historian, and I am somewhat schooled in canine color and behavior genetics. Historians can only use evidence for which there is proof. Lost pieces of paper are not evidence. However, the golden retriever is the only breed of dog I know of that has these records of its origin. Most dog origin histories are full of lore and unsubstantiated rumor. However, bcause of the incomplete nature of the evidence behind the supposition of the bloodhound cross, I cannot accept this as true historical record.
Secondly, scent hound retriever crosses are usually more scent hound than retriever. Those that are majority retriever tend to lack biddability and retrieving instinct. I will refer you to Merle’s Door by Ted Kerasote, a wonderful book about a Labrador/Redbone Hound cross. Merle looks more like a retriever than most hound/retriever crosses. He is a clever dog, but he’s not that biddable. He also refuses to retrieve or even mouth anything. Also, I saw a cross between a black Labrador and a bluetick coonhound a few years ago. Blueticks are descended from the Grand bleu de Gascogne, a French hound that closely resembles a bloodhound. This dog looked like a black bloodhound. It acted like one, too. Very stubborn. My guess is that the bloodhound would be the last thing you’d want crossed into your working retriever lines. You want retrieving behavior and biddability (trainability, smarts, and ability to take direction). None of these behaviors exist in most scent hounds.
Further, in domestic dogs, short hair is dominant to long hair. A cross between a bloodhound and golden retriever would have short hair. No pictures of short-haired goldens exist, except those that were early crosses with the Tweed water spaniel. The dogs that are supposedly part bloodhound have longer coats than goldens appearing in later generations. I think that instead of a bloodhound, that a large Newfoundland or a large way-coat with close large Newf ancestry was crossed in.
Also, bloodhounds are not savage and never were. The breed known as a bloodhound is really the Chien de St. Hubert, developed as a tracking pack hound in Ardennes in Belgium. St. Hubert was the patron saint of hunters, who was originally the son of the Duke of Aquitaine. One day, he was hunting a stag, when a stag supposedly approached him and told him that unless he repented, he was going to hell. The stage then instructed him to meet the Bishop Lambert to receive instruction. Hubert became a bishop, and eventually an abbey was built in his honor in the Ardennes. The monks who inhabited this abbey bred large scent hounds as they hunted the forest in veneration of Hubert. These scent hounds were given to the King of France as tribute, and they eventually wound up in the hands of many European nobles. France and Belgium were already recognized as the birth place of scent hounds, which were developed there by the Ancient Celts before the Roman Conquest. White St. Hubert Hounds or Chien de Saint Hubert were called Talbot, and probably played a role in developed white and spotted hounds like the Billy, the Porcelaine, and the spotted foxhounds of England. All scent hounds were pack dogs and were not aggressive towards people. Today’s bloodhound/St. Hubert Hounds/Chien de Hubert are genial but stubborn dogs, as they were in the late nineteenth century.
They also do not come and never did come in the recessive red color that golden retrievers have. They come in a masked red. Sometimes, this mask is smaller or not noticeable. I am not sure of the genetics of it, but I do know that when a malinois was crossed accidentally with a golden, brindle and back pups resulted. It seems to me that this is what you’d get if you crossed a red bloodhound with a golden retriever. Goldens are a red to yellow recessive with black skin pigment. Many dogs that appear the same color have a different genotype than this, and when crossed with a golden, very often you get black or strangely colored offspring.
Thus, I am very skeptical about the bloodhound cross in the golden retriever. I have never seen a golden that looked anything like a bloodhound or acted anything like one either.
As for bloodhounds being savage, this comes from Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The novel is an attack on slavery in the United States, and the pivotal scene is when the bloodhounds belonging to the slave master chase after the escaped slaves who are escaping across the frozen Ohio River. These dogs are savage. This isn’t the same breed as St. Hubert’s Hound. In the Slave South, as recounted by Mark Derr in A Dog’s History of America, Latin American “bloodhounds” from Cuba and Brazil were purchased to track and savage escaped slaves and Indians.
What are these bloodhounds? The Cuban bloodhound is actually a mastiff-bloodhound cross, derived from Spanish war mastiffs that were brought to Cuba to tear native Cubans apart and then tear into Cuban slaves once that practice became established on the island. It was also used by Captain Henry Wirz at the Andersonville Prison Camp to tear into escaped Union soldiers during the Civil War. This breed is now extinct.
However, the Brazilian bloodhound still exists. It is now called the Fila Brasileiro. It still has the old type mastiff aggression, and it does look a lot like a bloodhound.
Bloodhound/St. Hubert’s Hound is on the right. The Fila is on the left.
Confusion between these two types is why we once thought bloodhounds were aggressive.
And neither played a role in the development of the golden retriever as near as I can tell.
Bloodhounds were crossed into setters, however, and perhaps the Tweed water spaniel. Through these breeds there may be an indirect link with the bloodhound and the golden retriever. But it is indirect.
Hounds may have been crossed into early retrievers, before they split off into the various strains. Sir Francis Grant has a painting called “Shooting Party-Ranton Abbey” of two retrievers working for the Earl of Lichfield. The one on the right looks like collie derived retriever with a long, black and tan coat. The one on the left is golden colored, which is a bit of a shock– most retrievers in the 1840’s were black. It has long ears and a slightly domed head. It has been suggested that this dog is derived from a bloodhound. However, it could be a St. John’s water dog crossed with a setter that had bloodhound ancestry. This dog does have longer hair than the short-haired St. John’s water dog, suggesting some setter ancestry. Early Irish setters often had heavier heads than the current breed, so it may just be a setter and St. John’s water dog-derived retriever.
According the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, the “Georgia Gorilla,” is a fake. Now, I don’t know why I’m quoting this organization, when I know it is very likely that there is NO BIGFOOT OR SASQUATCH. However, when the “mainstream” bigfoot organizations debunk something like this, you know it has to be false. It turns out that there is a Halloween costume that you can buy for $499. All they did was take this costume, get it dirty, put dentures in its mouth, place it in a freezer, and then travel to the local abattoir for some hog guts to place on top. I don’t know if it’s true, but this explanation is the most parsimonious and is the simplest. Ergo, it is probably closer to being right than the hypothesis that some Georgians found a bigfoot body in the forest.
Also, there are inconsistencies about a supposed scientist who verified the bigfoot. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a Dr. van Buren appeared in a youtube video uploaded by one of the Georgia Bigfoot enthusiasts. It turns out that that Dr. van Buren is actually a brother to one of the men who found the bigfoot. This smells so like a hoax.
BTW, I am amazed how many clicks this blog has received since I started covering bigfoot. I mainly cover dogs, wildlife issues, and evolutionary biology.
I mentioned in an earlier post that some Georgia hunters have bigfoot/sasquatch in the freezer. A DNA test has been performed, and the results of all these findings will be released at press conference tomorrow. For people who “believe” in the giant hairy North American ape, this is a moment of truth. This is the biggest finding for their side since the Patterson Filim of a supposed female sasquatch.
However, even bigfoot “scholars” aren’t so sure that this is the real deal. Jeffrey Meldrum of Idaho State University is very skeptical about the veracity of the “Georgia Gorilla” that now awaits the scientific community in a freezer. For one thing, the results of the DNA examination of the supposed bigfoot have not been released and haven’t even been finished yet. I would like to know the time line on this supposed creature, because DNA tests cannot be performed overnight (unlike what you see on television).
I am far more skeptical than Meldrum. My guess is this is an elaborate hoax. For one thing, on the Fox News piece about the creature, a photo of the beast is shown in the freezer. It looks nothing like the Patterson Bigfoot at all. You’d think there would be some similarities there, right?
Cryptozoology is pseudoscience. It has found a few things, but most of the large animal species on the planet have already been catalogued. Smaller species, such as insects and frogs, have not. I wonder why cryptozoologists haven’t focused in on the smaller species, because this is where the new species are.
Also, studies of molecular evolution suggest that new species exist. For example, there may be as many as six species of giraffe, instead of just one. This is where they should be focused. However, it is more fun to believe in fanciful creatures like the Sasquatch and the Loch Ness monster than to try to understand the true mysteries of the planet and its species.
