The AKC Basenji book to opened

[Barklessdog]

This is kind of big dog news, but the AKC is "opening" its registry of African breeding stock, which was last opened in 1990. This means people can submit the dogs they have collect since then from Africa as "accepted" breeding stock, to continue the blood line.

Since then trips have been made collect more basenji's to re-invigorate breeding stock. The most recent trip is uncovering that true ferrel basenji's are being bred out of existence due to encroachment of domestic dogs and modern man. They had to go to very remote locations to find them.

http://www.akc.org/news/index.cfm?article_id=3572

http://www.basenji.org/NativeStock/ImportIndex.htm 

You can click on each area dogs were collected to see them. Some look like basenjis others do not. That's what the AKC will have to determine. This could be one of the last opportunities to introduce native dogs, wile they still exist in remote villages

[Dave W]

I fixed your second link, it had an extra character at the end.

It's a good thing they're doing this now before it's too late.

[Barklessdog]

I think the last trip cost the guy $30,000 for a week of remote traveling, in dangerous country, for some $4.00 puppies.

The puppy pics


Here is how the Tri color dog looks recently. The puppies were split up to different owners in Finland, for European breeding stock.


Thanks for the fix!

[Freuds_Cat]

As far as I know the only 2 ancient lineage dogs that do not bark are the Basenji and the Dingo. Some of them even look similar.

Of course another difference is that we shoot Dingos and are not allowed to own them as pets.

[Barklessdog]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/05/0520_040520_dogbreeds.html

The findings, reported in tomorrow's edition of the research journal, Science, may also offer the first way to determine the breed of a dog based on a genetic sample. The majority of breeds tested have a unique DNA signature, despite the fact that many breeds were created only within the last few centuries.

The distinction found between breeds is much higher than the distinction between human populations on different continents, Kruglyak said. The variation is large enough that an individual dog's breed can be distinguished using its genetic sequence alone, he added.

"It's remarkable to find such differentiation, since the vast majority of the explosion of breeds we see today have a recent origin," commented Robert Wayne, evolutionary biologist and expert on dog genetics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Most previous research using a different, less-sensitive type of genetic technique had not been able to detect great differences between different breeds, Wayne said.

To collect data, graduate student Heidi Parker, geneticist Elaine Ostrander—both of the Hutchinson center—and other team members contacted breed clubs across the U.S. They also scouted numerous dog shows to take cheek-swab DNA samples from five purebred dogs of each of the 85 common breeds they tested.

Another surprise for dog lovers is that some purportedly ancient breeds—such as the Ibizan hound, the pharaoh hound, and the Norwegian elkhound—are not included in this ancestral group. "Breeds like the pharaoh hound have long been thought to be quite ancient, descended from ancient breeds pictured in wall art in [5,000-year-old] Egyptian tombs," Zeder said.

The results revealed that an unexpected and geographically diverse cluster of breeds—including the Siberian husky, the Afghan hound, Africa's basenji, China's chow chow, Japan's akita, and Egypt's saluki—are most closely related to dog's ancient wolflike ancestors. "Dogs from these breeds may be the best living representatives of the ancestral dog gene pool," the researchers wrote.


Funny but the AKC will not use DNA testing to determine if the new dogs blood is pure?

[Dave W]

The study mentioned in that National Geographic news release has not been widely accepted as valid, which probably explains why the AKC doesn't use doggie DNA to determine breed.

[Granny Gremlin]

Also, DNA testing is $$$$