We all know that when you’re in a room and one person yawns it will set off a series of yawns.  Now, according to a scientific team from Birkbeck College at the University of London, dogs can also “catch” a yawn.

The copying activity suggests that canines are capable of empathizing with people, say the researchers who recorded dogs’ behaviour in lab tests. Until now, only humans and their close primate relatives were thought to find yawning contagious.

Dr Senju and his team were questioning whether dogs could read the human yawn signal, which could support a finding that dogs have the ability to empathize. The team set up a study using 29 canines.

The team found that 21 out of 29 dogs yawned when the stranger in front of them yawned - on average, dogs yawned 1.9 times. By contrast, no dogs yawned during the non-yawning condition.

The researchers believe that these results are the first evidence that dogs have the capacity to empathise with humans; although the team could not rule out stress-induced yawning - they hope to in future studies.

That is good news.  Lisa and I figured  Bo, Copper, and Logan were yawning because they thought we were boring.  Perhaps, that isn’t so.

I was reading the news this morning when I came across this article about the RNL Bio Company in South Korea.

A woman in California paid $54,000 to RNL Bio to have her Pit Bull, Booger cloned.  Originally, the company was going to charge $162,000 but they came down in price to celebrate their first commercial deal for a dog.

This is a miracle,” said Bernann McKinney from Hollywood in California, hugging five clones of Booger at Seoul National University’s veterinary school today.

RNL Bio, the company that arranged the re-creation of Booger through his refrigerated ear tissue, hailed the event as the world’s first commercial cloning of a pet dog.

McKinney  stated “They are perfectly the same as their daddy. I am in heaven here. I am a happy person”.  She went on to recall an experience from years ago where Booger had saved her life by chasing off a mastiff who had attacked her.

There is no doubt in my mind how much McKinney loved Booger and that is why she chose to clone him.  However, the whole idea of cloning does bring up some very serious questions in my mind.  The first being, why would anyone name their dog Booger?  Second, what assurances do we have that we won’t be faced with a Pet Semetary situation?  And finally, with the thousands of homeless dogs that are out there in desperate need of homes,  what would happen to them if people just stopped adopting and chose to clone?  I realize the price of cloning is very expensive and unaffordable to most,  but it does make you think about the question.

But lest ye think that the cloning stops at our best friends…

“For my next project, I will consider cloning camels for rich people in the Middle East,” he said.

Hmmm…grandpa’s getting kind of old.  I wonder…

This post comes from Dogster member and friend Randi Sachs. She’s the guardian of one of our favorite dogs, Ripley. Ripley, come visit Dogster HQ again soon!

A few weeks ago we were at the vet for a routine visit, and I decided to take the plunge on this new doggie DNA test that can identify up to 134 breeds in a mixed-breed’s ancestry after analyzing a blood sample.

What it boils down to is that Ripley is considered to be a multi-generational “Outbred” dog. They could find barely any trace of any pedigreed breeds in her blood work, which means that she is the result of many generations of mutts breeding with each other.

The breed they found with highest confidence (although it was still only a trace of evidence) was German Shepherd! Otherwise, they found low-confidence traces of Golden Retriever, Chow Chow, Chinese Shar-Pei and Sealyham Terrier.

End result, Ripley is truly one of a kind… and she is not a Lab mix at all! She’s a super-mutt who possibly gets her intelligence and focus from her German Shepherd ancestry way back when.

Has your dog had a DNA test? What were the results?

This news makes me soooo want to visit Brisbane! Any place that has a mayor like this one must be filled with great people and pups!

If anyone knows how we can send well wishes to the Lord Mayor and the City Council please bark it in!

Thanks to ABC Brisbane for this good news.

Labor councillor slams university experiments on pound dogs

The Brisbane City Council is awaiting a report into the use of live dogs in veterinary research.

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PLEASE CROSSPOST!!!!!

Nine dogs in Raleigh, NC need to be rescued immediately!

Thanks to Lynn for barking this in. Please pass it on to anyone who could make the difference for these furbabies.

Hi All,
Laboratory Animal Resources at the Vet School has 9 dogs available to be adopted out immediately. These dogs have been offered before, and we had no takers.

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Way to go Republic of San Marino!!!!! Isn’t there some award someone can give them for making this major move into human evolution!?

Thanks to the good person who barked in this announcement from the AnimalRightsActivistsResources Yahoo Group.

The Republic of San Marino, an independent state within central Italy and a
member of the United Nations and the Council of Europe, has become the first
nation to formally abolish animal experimentation.

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Isn’t it time that Melbourne University join the rest of the civilized world and STOP using dogs for surgery practice?

Please be warned that this is a very upsetting article.

Thanks to LIVENEWS.com.au for this article.

Healthy dogs used for surgery training
Richard Maxton
13/04/2008

Veterinary students at Melbourne University are operating on healthy and sometimes pregnant dogs, then killing the animals.

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This is pathetic! I understand wanting to have a treasured furbaby supposedly returned to you but clones are NOT the original dog!

There are certain dogs who’ve been in my life that I would love to have back alive and healthy. But part of loving a dog or dogs is the knowledge that you will outlive them. Its a sad fact. Trying to bring a dog back via cloning is wrong on so many levels.

First, expecting a cloned dog to be the original dog is not fair to him or you. There are so many experiences you shared that built the bond between you that the clone has not experiences. Yes, the clone can look like your beloved furbaby but he or she is NOT the dog you love.

Second, there are so many needy dogs in shelters and with rescue groups that creating a clone seems wasteful. Unlike responsible breeding, cloning is not done to improve a specific breed. Dogs are cloned to serve the emotional needs of the humans.

Thanks to the Associated Press for this article.

Company offers to clone dogs for 5 highest bidders
By MARCUS WOHLSEN

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Northern California biotech company announced Wednesday that it will clone dogs for the five highest bidders in a series of online auctions. Some ethicists condemned the offer, fearing it could lead to human clones.

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Thanks to the Associated Press for this article.

Computer helps jailers understand dogs
By BETH MARLOWE

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli jails are using a custom-built computer program to interpret the barks of guard dogs and distinguish warnings of a breakout from everyday woofs, a prisons official said Monday.

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Well, doesn’t this just blow the top off that old lie from greyhound racers that they care about their dogs!

So let’s talk about greyhound racing. Isn’t it time civilized countries (like Britain and the US) get over it? Yes, greyhounds are gorgeous when they run but as any greyhound rescuer can tell you, the dogs have much more fun racing off track in weekend events where the track is a field and no money rides on their backs.

What’s the difference between puppy mills and these greyhound breeders that sell their dogs for any purpose whatsoever? Nothing?

Notice that this race miller used to be a pig breeder? With his level of concern for dogs I wouldn’t be surprized if he sold dogs for food to Asian countries that still allow that horrendous culinary practice.

Thanks to the Times Online for this article.

Greyhound breeder offers slow dogs to be killed for research
Daniel Foggo

The largest breeder of greyhounds in Britain is offering to sell healthy young dogs to be killed and dissected for research, an investigation has found.

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