CANINE GENETICS AND HUMAN HERITAGE

Pet shop puppy or dog show winner, you are proud of your dog’s breed-related characteristics and instinctive traits but what about YOUR genetics?

March 9, 2022

Barbara "BJ" Andrews, SAAB Member

We’re going to ask you to share what makes you, you. But first, let’s look at genetics in other species.

Here’s an inarguable genetic fact. Dogs instinctively gravitate to humans. Cats, cows, horses do not. Only the dog comes to a human who has no food.

Instinct prompts a horse or a bird to take flight when it hears the weeds rustle, so obviously, behavioral traits are as genetic as physical features. While you’re pondering that simple truth, think about how the dog changed human evolution and who YOU are today. Then tell us at TheDogPress.com or on our facebook page below but first consider this…

#1 The wolf/dog helped rather dumb, unimaginative humanoids move from vegetarianism (plants don’t run and are just there for the picking) to becoming omnivorous (eats both vegetation and meat), thus increasing brain power and our ability to out-think plant eaters.

Here is simple science. Meat eaters have to be smarter than grass eaters or they would starve and it is meat protein that feeds the brain.

#2, As exampled above, the most significant thing about dogs is that they love humans to a degree unequaled by any other animal.

In giving absolute devotion and loyalty, the primitive canine laid the groundwork for what we now know as “family.” Think about that. The wolf pack is the human concept of “society” which in all Canidae (There are 34 species of Canidae but best known are domestic dogs, dingoes, coyotes, foxes, jackals and wolves) is unwavering love and loyalty.

In every species from mammals to insects, genetics control courtship and food-seeking behavior. That said, lower life forms have smaller brains, thus reduced self-preservation awareness. The Creator planned it that way so predators wouldn’t starve to death…

Scientists tell us there are only 3 major human groups; Negroid (black), Caucasoid (white) Mongoloid (yellow). This editor and many genealogists find that erroneous as it leaves out one of the oldest ethnicities, the native Brown-skins of South and North America, i.e. Latinos and Native Americans.

As lay-geneticists, you would also think of fun-loving Italians, fighting Irish, scientifically gifted Germans, staunch British and Chinese philosophers. Here is an example of what we would like you to share (below) with NetPlaces Network subscribers.

My mother was English and Romanian gypsy. Both are travelers and I too am a story-teller with “itchy feet.”

My paternal grandmother was never mentioned but the photo below of her astride an “Indian pony” says it all. It may be fashionable today to claim Native American genes but that is a recent “me, me” phenomenon.

My father’s sister was a “high-flying WAC.” Elaine Johnson is in the history books as one of the first 3 female fighter pilots in the newly-formed Women’s Air Corp. My Aunt Elaine was "tan" with straight glossy-black hair, the opposite of my father in phenotype but very much Native American in genotype.

My father’s brother was a “mountain mule” breeder. NC was/is a logging state that depended on mules to haul timber. I mention this because mules are a unique genetic hybrid, more on that later…

In genotype and phenotype, Uncle Jessy was like my Aunt Elaine, black hair, brown-skin, unconventional and adventuresome. She explored the skies, he explored equine genetics.

So, do you know your own genotype as well as you know your dog’s pedigree? Please share your personality, preferences, customs, and/or a 2-generation lineage (parents and grandparents) and up to 4 photos on our facebook page OR alternatively, send your Family Genetics directly to Response@TheDogPress.com

TheDogPress.com EST 2002 © March 2022 https://www.thedogpress.com/editorials/canine-genetics-human-heritage-b22A032.asp

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