A few thousand years ago, man played god and a dog was born. Ever since, man hasn’t stopped playing god. While there are many men who have created dogs in every imaginable shape and size, with every imaginable trait, deserving to be loved and admired, there are some that are embarrassing mistakes. Saying just that is probably enough, but I absolutely want to say more about the dog and the dog god! =)

I always assumed that dogs, like humans were a part of evolution, or that they evolved over time just as humans did. While that may be true, there’s more to it.

That we are human is a result of 85 million years of changes to the physical form and structure of a species. It has to do with “natural selection”, where in, a species naturally changes over a period of time, by retaining favorable traits and rejecting unfavorable ones to adapt to the changing environment. If ape became man it is because, at some point in time, ape had to become man in order to survive. That is the divine design! I say divine design, not to call attention to the role of god, but even if there is no god, the divine design is just that there is no intentional intervention.

Dogs on the other hand were a result of “artificial selection”. They are actually wolves that were selectively bred by humans in many different ways and for many different generations, and even interbred with other species like jackals and foxes, to suit our needs. Clearly, needs we have many! Even if it's with dogs!

What is most baffling is that more than half of the existing dog species today are only 150 years old. What is 150 years, in comparison with 3.7 billion years of life on earth! It is one of the world's newest species and most definitely the world's newest mammal.

Dogs are the biggest victims of eugenics, or the science of perfecting a species. Now, why they were put through it, is a long story and a very interesting one. I saw an amazing show on National Geographic called “The Science of Dogs” that explains just that and more.

The show has some of the most astonishing examples of how man created dogs that today serve as our companions, protectors, guides, hunters, crime fighters and entertainers. It introduces us to the science of creating a dog, of finding cures for diseases, of nurturing a species, of destroying a species. What more? It is about the history of classes and cultures. How something as uncomplicated as a dog can can have such a complicated saga to it is remarkable.

The show starts with an example of Dogo Argentino of Texas. The breed was designed over a period of 25 years with just one aim in mind – to find the recipe for the perfect dog that can attack and hold a wild boar weighing up to 400 pounds.
From the official website, here’s the formula that lead to the creation.

1) the Fighting Dog of Cordoba, to which he added blood from
2) the Pointer to give him a keen sense of smell which would be essential for the hunt.
3) The Boxer added vivacity and gentleness;
4) the Great Dane it's size;
5) the Bull Terrier, fearlessness;
6) the Bulldog gave it an ample chest and boldness;
7) the Irish Wolfhound brought it's instinct as a hunter of wild game;
8) the Dogue de Bordeaux contributed it's powerful jaws;
9) the Great Pyrenees it's white coat and
10) the Spanish Mastiff gave it's quota of power.

Another example from the show was the Sulimov, a trainable bomb-sniffing dog. A Soviet expert mated several breeds of hunting dogs with wild jackals to arrive at the Sulimov. Its sensitive nose can detect 12 different chemical compounds used in explosives and can even sniff out an explosive that’s a size of a small sand grain in a large airport with lots of activity. There are only 40 Sulimovs in this world, all of which are a protected property of the Soviet.

The show takes us back in time, to the Victorian era, in the mid 19th century, when the industrial revolution transformed our landscape. The industrial revolution was when the Railways came into being. There were major changes to the manufacturing and transportation industries. It was also the Age of Enlightenment, when systematic thinking influenced all areas of human activity. All the progress during this time gave rise to a large upper middle class society. People began to emphasize their status and class hierarchy became very important. Gardens and Architecture became signs of wealth and prestige. Fascinatingly, dogs too became a status symbol and about 320 species were instantly created. The pure breds we know today were in fact the ones that were created at this time. They conformed to set breed standards that were established so as to distinguish superior dogs from the inferior ones.

But, over time all the tinkering of genes came with a huge price. Today, one out of every four pure breds has some sort of serious genetic problem or the other. The shallow gene pool resulted in dogs with eye problems, deafness, heart problems and other ailments. Moreover, as man and dog share the same environment, the dogs have a lot of the same ailments that men do. They suffer for the same cancers and poxes that we do and it is all our fault.

Whatever the fate of dogs, all this has proved to be a blessing for man. Now research on dogs is helping man fight his own genetic problems and find cures for diseases. And in all likelihood, the cure will eventually help the dog as well.

There is no mammal on earth that exists in as many varieties as the dog. There are no cows with curly tails, or pigs with long legs. But, if you’ve ever wondered why, it is simply because dogs have the most malleable genes. Humans didn’t have to know this to breed dogs, dogs just happened to be most susceptible to modification.

Here is a fact t omarvel at. A two-pound Chihuahua and a 250-pound Mastiff share 99.8% of the same genes. It is just one small tweak to a single IGF-1 gene fo a dog that causes the changes in size, shape, personality and everything else that varies from breed to breed.

It is that single gene that makes a great dane different from a dalmatian, a poodle different from bull dog. It is that single gene that makes some dogs better at sniffing out cancer, and some capable of jumping 25 feet, some better at sniffing out explosives, some capable of running at 40 mph, some friendlier, some more aggressive, some with defects that make them chase their tales in circles until they throw up, some with spots on their bodies causing deafness… the list goes on.

Now, in creating dogs and dog breeds, and doing what we did, we have unknowingly protected a species and facilitated the process of evolution in a smooth way. In taming the animal, we have made it possible for it to survive with us in a way that no other mammal has been able to. But, all this does little for the actual wolf, whose natural habitat is rapidly facing destruction.

The final segment of the show focuses on the differences in the temperament of the wolf and a dog to show how much the human-canine interaction has altered the very nature of the species. The experiment show us how the dogs have become dependent on humans for survival. They look to humans for instructions or ideas on how to work things. When given an obstacle, they expect humans to help them with their problems. The wolf on the other hand, works independently. It may have a pack leader, but that pack leader is definitely not human!

All said and done, I don’t know what to make of this science project. In fact, we have gone way beyond judgement time. The dog is here to stay, whether it is good, bad or ugly. We can just marvel at the creation of a species and at the same time deride some of the terrible outcomes, and hope that progress will only lead us to the creation of a real Superdog and not a four-legged Frankenstien.

On a totally non-scientific note, I am wondering how we managed to generate so many stray dogs in this world! =)