Page 115 - JRT Magazine - 2023 Issue 2

Insights from 1000 cloned dogs

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15097-7

Animal cloning began with the birth of Dolly same donor, indicating a non-genetic effect.
the Sheep 25 years ago. Since then, over 1500 These differences point to epigenetic and cellular
dogs, representing approximately 20% of the reprogramming effects of somatic cell nuclear
American Kennel Club’s recognized breeds, have transfer. It is a relatively low number of phenotypic
now been cloned, making the dog one of the most variations, however, and no abnormalities
successfully cloned mammals. related to longevity of healthy-born clones have
been identified. Future potential applications of
Phenotypic variations have been observed in animal cloning continue to have the potential for
these clones, with differences between donors reproductive rescue of endangered and extinct
and their clones, and between clones from the species.

Why do dogs head-tilt?

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-021-01571-8

Head tilts were analyzed in 40 dogs
during object-label knowledge tests
while listening to humans requesting
verbally to fetch a familiar toy.
Results indicated that only dogs
that had learned the name of the
objects tilted their heads frequently.
The side of the tilt was stable across
several months and various tests,
suggesting a relationship between
head-tilting and the processing of
relevant, meaningful stimuli.

The direction of the head-tilts was
individually consistent across the different
studies, revealing that the direction of
the tilt should be considered as a stable
individual trait, similar to observations of
paw preference in dogs.

Previous studies have shown that dogs
consistently turn their head slightly to the
left during the presentation of a familiar spoken through neuroimaging the existence of a brain
command, while a right bias was observed specialization in dogs for processing speech with
in response to manipulated, meaningless a right-hemisphere bias for praise words.
stimuli. Other researchers have confirmed

A Worldwide Magazine for the Jack Russell Terrier / Russell Terrier • Issue 2/2023 | 115