Tavi's Blogs

We went to Hollywood ... the one in Florida with the Circle Park and the little stores we can't go in, not the one where they make the movies ... and there were some people out with these puppies.  There were two goldies, a golden lab, a border collie and an australian shepard and they all had little jackets on that said "service puppy in training".  They said there were from South East Guide Dogs and they were getting the puppies used to being around crowds and going into stores and stuff.

Anyway, they saw us and wanted to play and we wanted to play with them, but we weren't allowed because they were "in training" and they can't do that when their real guide dogs.

But I was wondering, do guide dogs/service dogs get to do fun things too, or are they always working?  I mean, I know there are times when we have to behave, like when I'm in harness I can't goof off, but we get a lot of goof off time too.  So do service dogs get goof off time or are they always working.

We went to a baseball game once and all the doggies were getting treats and everything and hot dogs and there was a service dog, but my mom had to ask if she could give him a treat and he didn't get any hot dogs at all, and that just seemed kind of sad.

I hope they get to play too, and that they just aren't working all of the time.

We have to go see the doctor later this week for our shots.  I hate having needles stuck in me, even if I do get a treat afterward. 

Anyway, a friend mailed this to me.  It came with a picture but I checked on Snopes and it said the picture was probably faked and it was the wrong kind of dog anyway.  The information is right:

Hercules: The World's Biggest Dog Ever According to Guinness World Records.

Hercules was recently awarded the honorable distinction of Worlds Biggest Dog by Guinness World Records.  Hercules is an English Mastiff and who has a 38 inch neck and weighs 282 pounds.  With "paws the size of softballs"(reports the Boston Herald), the three-year-old monster is far larger and heavier than his breed's standard 200 lb. limit.  Hercules' owner, Mr. Flynn, says that Hercules weight is natural and not induced by a bizarre diet: "I fed him normal food and he just "grew".
 
Kell: Slightly Smaller, But the World's Heaviest Dog.

Hercules' sheer volume may have won him the Largest Dog world record, but the Heaviest Dog title still rests with Kell who weighed in at 286 pounds in August of 1999.  This English Mastiff, however, only has a 32-inch neck; far less than Hercules' 38-incher.  Think about that for a second though . . . . 32 inches is a standard waist size for a man!  Proud owner, Tom Scott, said Kell is two years old and is expected to continue to grow for the next two years.  Kell needs to be fed 100 lbs. of beef every week, and drinks gallons of goats' milk to stay healthy.

I hope these dogs pay better attention when they are walking on a leash than I do, because they could really take their owners for a drag!!!!

This very interesting article was on the internet this morning.  I always wondered, since all dogs come from wolves, how there could be so many different kinds of them.

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON - From the towering Great Dane to the feisty little Chihuahua, all dogs are brothers under the skin. Now, researchers have uncovered a reason why the animals wearing that skin vary so much in size.
 
Dogs have the largest variation in body size of any land animal, so researchers led by Elaine A. Ostrander of the National Human Genome Research Institute decided to look into the reasons why.

They found a section of genes that controls small size in dogs and reported their results in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

Learning how growth is controlled can improve the understanding of cancer and other diseases caused by growth gone awry, Ostrander said in a telephone interview.

And the research adds to the basic study of variations, perhaps improving knowledge of the differences between people, she added.

K. Gordon Lark of the University of Utah, a co-author of the report, pointed out that dogs have 200 to 300 diseases in common with people, including high blood pressure, autoimmune diseases and cancer.

"They also share our environment, so if there is an environmental influence that can trigger disease," dogs will be going through the same process, he said in a telephone interview.

"So, if we can solve this in dogs, that's a fantastic jump ahead," Lark said.

Keith E. Murphy, principal investigator at the Canine Genetics Laboratory of Texas A&M University, said, "What you've got here is the first piece of that puzzle."

"That's very important and you're looking at almost a sort of cascade effect, if you will, and we would hope that these findings, maybe you can extend to diseases ... maybe even cancer," said Murphy, who was not part of the research team.

Lark's Portuguese water dog, Georgie, had died and he was seeking a new one. Hearing he was a geneticist, the breeder urged him to work on dog genes.

So he began the Georgie project, studying the genes of the Portuguese water dog, a breed that comes in a wide range of sizes from 25 pounds to 75 pounds.

Ostrander and colleagues then extended that to a range of large and small breeds and the researchers located a section of DNA that varied between large and small breeds in most cases.

Known as a regulatory sequence, the difference is on dog chromosome 15 next to a previously known gene named IGF1, for insulin-like growth factor 1. The hormone controlled by the IGF1 gene helps mammals — including people — grow from birth to adolescence.

In small dog breeds a mutation in the sequence next to the gene kept them from growing larger, the researchers said.

"We know this is only part of the story, but it's a necessary part of the story," said Ostrander, who noted there some exceptions, with the small-dog sequence appearing in larger dogs.

Other yet-unidentified genetic factors cause the exceptions, said Kevin Chase of the University of Utah, another co-author.

Overall, 21 researchers studied 3,241 dogs from 143 breeds, ranging from bichon frise, Chihuahua, Maltese, Pomeranian, toy poodle, pug and Pekingese to Saint Bernard, Newfoundland, mastiff, Great Dane, Irish wolfhound and standard poodle.

Dogs are descended from wolves, having been domesticated 12,000 to 15,000 years ago. Selective breeding has produced the many different types of dogs that exist today.

Judging from ancient artwork, small breeds were developed quite early, Lark said.

A study of several hundred modern wolves didn't find any with the small-dog marker, he said, but it is possible there were small wolves in ancient times.

"If you're a primitive man you would adopt the small wolf, not the big one," he said. And for a small wolf, life would have been easier hanging around people looking for scraps than competing with larger wolves in the wild.

And, he added, unlike today when dogs are mainly companions, in the past there was plenty of work for small dogs to do — they hunted rats and other vermin, did some herding and could be excellent watchdogs.

Jeff Sossaman of the American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation said researchers there are "really excited" about the findings.

"The canine model is a perfect model for humans because we share 85 percent of our genetic makeup. So, when we find the gene on the canine side, you can directly collate that with the human," said Sossaman, who was not part of the research group.

The research was funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Science Foundation, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Judith Chiara Charitable Trust, Mars Inc. and the Nestle Purina Co.

Thu Apr 5, 6:04 PM ET