The news yesterday that a South Korean scientist successfully cloned an Afghan Hound has many people thinking. Today, an article in Wired Magazine wonders if dog cloning has any applications with dog breeding contests...

According to a representative for Genetic Savings and Clone, a pet-cloning company in Sausalito, California, the demand for cloned show animals exists.

"Although they could go to a breeder and get a fairly similar pet, they want the most similar pet possible," said Ben Carlson, a spokesman for the company. "They want a later-born identical twin, so they come to us."

Many in the dog breeding circles seem to disagree, arguing that cloned animals have no place in dog shows. But then again, that's based on the assumption that traditions never change.

But there's a funny thing about traditions; they never stay the same.

Now that scientists have completed the dog genome, it stands to reason that perfecting the dog cloning process could create a lucrative industry in supplying perfect dogs to a variety of applications: bomb-sniffers, hunting, herding, dog-racing, guide-dogs, guard-dogs, and police-dogs. Professional breeders can even acquire a set of cloned dogs tailored for families, and produce a large supply of puppies.

If we ever see a world where cloned dogs are common place, it stands to reason the AKC will accomodate these dogs and create a special registry for them, simply out of the need to track them and their offspring, particularly if mated with "natural" AKC registered dogs. And that's when cloned dogs will find their way into shows. How that dynamic will affect the shows is anyone's guess.