"the original breeds of dogs". Now there's a phrase to ponder about.

I came across that one on another blog.

The blogger wrote this particular article with a bias in favor of the PETS Act. It's also worthwhile to note that the blogger doesn't live in the USA, but in India.

It was the last paragraph that took me...

The mechanical production of animals is a serious issue, doesn't matter what the purpose is. Just like cloning, it is playing with nature and the original breeds of dogs and cats which get degraded after prolonged unbridled breeding.

Just what are the original breeds of dogs?

The long and short of it, there is only one original breed that I can think of, the wolf. But the truth is that we don't have any evidence on how or where dogs originated. Our assumption is the wolf.

Studies show that ancient Egyptians had greyhounds. Another study showed that most of the dogs found in North America can be traced back to East Asian dogs dating as far back as 14,000 years ago.

But as far as we know, all dogs were the creation of Man. That is, we bred them using a process called "selective breeding", and selected certain offspring that carried favorable traits. It's assumed these traits had something to do with functional needs, like hunting and herding. As time moved on, dogs were bred for sporting purposes. Then, dog shows upped the ante, and tested the skills of many breeders.

For this reason, there is no such thing as the "original breeds of dogs". Either we don't know what they are, or they all came from the wolf.

Today, most dogs exist as companion animals. They're not necessarily needed for hunting, herding, or gaming. Some of the reasons why dogs end up in shelters, is because their owners have difficulty adapting them as companion animals. I can tell you that my beagle requires a lot of responsibility, because if allowed to walk out of the front door unleashed, she'll never come back.

That's perhaps one reason why we need breeders to develop innovative new breeds designed to adapt to our current needs. We live in smaller spaces, denser communities, travel a lot, leave home during the day, etc. We need new breeds designed to adapt to this. Moreover, people want dogs that don't shed hair, that are non-allergenic, and are easily house-trained. This is the purpose of breeders, to give us the dogs that we want.