In July 2018 there was a piece in Nature (a real scientific journal) warning about pet DNA testing which was getting out of hand and is unregulated.
The 3 1/2 years since that piece was published is, in DNA testing terms, a generation: the technology has advanced a lot. But I'd still take the results with a good pinch of salt.
The popular notion that DNA testing on people can accurately identify their 'ethnicity' is overblown and oversold. See this piece - again it's two years old and science advances by the minute, but I think caution is still useful.
Meet Emma
-
- Posts: 5419
- Joined: Sat Dec 19, 2015 4:16 am
- Location: Louisville KY as of July 2018
-
- Posts: 4050
- Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2016 5:35 pm
- Location: Near Bear, Delaware
Re: Meet Emma
What did Emma do after she killed the rabbit? More than 50 years ago I was gifted by my wife with a 9 week old Brittany Spaniel (they were still called that and much smaller back then) We were living on the edge of an abandoned farm in Michigan. When the Brit (named Jennie) was about 3 months old she killed a rabbit and very proudly brought and presented it to my wife.
Some breeds do that. Some individual dogs do that. Jennie killed a rat in our small backyard when we were living two blocks off Newark Mainstreet, Delaware. It is much easier to train the dog to do behavior you like, when you can find a way to tie that behavior to something the dog does instinctively. So you have a rough road. Chasing rabbits and killing them was the primary task for which the Whippet was developed.
snailgate
Some breeds do that. Some individual dogs do that. Jennie killed a rat in our small backyard when we were living two blocks off Newark Mainstreet, Delaware. It is much easier to train the dog to do behavior you like, when you can find a way to tie that behavior to something the dog does instinctively. So you have a rough road. Chasing rabbits and killing them was the primary task for which the Whippet was developed.
snailgate
Re: Meet Emma
She listened to the Ride of the Valkyries?What did Emma do after she killed the rabbit?
-
- Posts: 4050
- Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2016 5:35 pm
- Location: Near Bear, Delaware
Re: Meet Emma
My last dog, a German Wire Haired Pointer, could not catch and kill a rabbit if her life depended on it. She did kill a skunk once and many ground hogs.
She would point doves sitting on a utility wire. But rabbits totally baffled her. I could watch one run in front of her and then into underbrush and she would wander about hopelessly. After abut 10 years, I am seriously thinking about another dog. After considering German Pinscher, Border Terrier, Springer Spaniel, I think I have settled on an American Cocker Spaniel. My grandfather had a blond one but that does not enter into the decision process, at least not consciously
snailgate
She would point doves sitting on a utility wire. But rabbits totally baffled her. I could watch one run in front of her and then into underbrush and she would wander about hopelessly. After abut 10 years, I am seriously thinking about another dog. After considering German Pinscher, Border Terrier, Springer Spaniel, I think I have settled on an American Cocker Spaniel. My grandfather had a blond one but that does not enter into the decision process, at least not consciously
snailgate