Canis lupus hominis

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged black pug, brindle pug, fawn pug, history of the pug, pug, silver pug | 8 Comments

8 Responses

1. on February 3, 2009 at 2:06 am ms ann thrope

   Interesting to say the least. I wish archeologists were more intra-disciplinary and the Press more informed, and shared info between subsets with each other, because I would love to know what else was found in those middens in the Gobi, like textiles and pottery. The Taklamakan desert has turned up a very controversial conundrum for the Chinese that they sat on for decades, because it indicated that western China had extensive settlements of Celtic peoples along what later evolved into the Silk Road. Today’s Uigars, a few of which have been held at Gitmo for years for no good reason, are partial descendants of those original Celts, co-mingled with later Turkic tribes.
   Why is this relevant to dogs? Because exchanges of salable goods which have always included dogs have gone on since we first discovered adolescent wolves were following us and eating our messy ape leavings.
   While the Pug may possibly have a long ancestry as a short haired landrace of the Tibetan terrier et alia, today’s example of the Breed wouldn’t be able to survive it’s supposed ancestral environment. If it has breathing problems in non desertified areas, imagine what the Gobi would do it.

   
   
   • on February 3, 2009 at 2:18 am retrieverman

     The shorter muzzle and smaller size were adaptations to make people like them better, and maybe get better food than trash and feces. However, we’ve gone way too far to make them brachycephalic in the recent centuries.

     Archaeology is very Balkanized as a discipline. My own disciplines — political science and history– are at war with each other. One of them is very much into generalized theory, while the other does nuances. I’ve become sort of a political historian in my profession, which means I catch it from both.

     I just read an interesting book that you might like, if you like sort of non-conventional histories: http://www.amazon.com/Farfarers-Before-Norse-Farley-Mowat/dp/1883642566

     Archaeologists and historians will never accept this theory, but it makes about as much sense as any of them. If it’s true, then Newfoundland was very much a European country for several centuries before the English and French colonized it.

     
     
2. on February 3, 2009 at 2:41 am ms ann thrope

   Of course NFLD was! It was well known in Europe long before Columbus especially amongst the European cod and haddock fishermen.
   Oh my, yes. Poly Sci and History would lead to some interesting and intense battles!
   I love Farley Mowat in spite of the fact that I think he does stretch things “a bit” in order to write a good tale, which he does! I will never forget the paragraph when he describes the subordinate wolf nailing the husky bitch in “Never Cry Wolf”. True or not, the image he conjures up is perfect! I will add that one to my Amazon Wish List.
   I have no claim to anything except amateur status, but for years I had a small business in both producing textiles by hand, both with a spinning wheel and a loom, and got sidetracked into both the history of textiles in the US and the origins of same from the beginning. Now my small sight hounds with their extremely thin coats get to wear winter clothes of my creation. LOL.
   However, I have always resented the lack of crossover/information sharing between disciplines. “Hey, I discovered a small,short nosed well preserved dog/horse/goat/sheep mummy at my dig near Khotan. Those of you who study ??? remains, what can you tell me about it?” Bah! Doesn’t seem to happen!

   
   
   • on February 3, 2009 at 3:20 am retrieverman

     That scene with the husky is the best description of canine copulation in all literature.

     The Alban book is creative nonfiction. Historical analysis of all sorts, some biology, and then literature depicting scenes in the Ancient world. He thinks that the Albania that the Norse always wrote about in the New World was actually Newfoundland. And the prefix “Alb” means the pre-Indo-European people that Indo-European people replaced. They were driven into the Mountains and into the far reaches of Britain. “Alps” and “Alba” are just a few terms that refer to these people.

     I get side-tracked writing about dogs. Very few historians of any professional sort look at dogs, and if they did, I’m sure some of these dog origin stories will go to the wayside. The only total bull crap story about dog origins that I know has been totally debunked by any historical analysis is the old Russian circus dog story about the golden retriever’s origins. Then the 1st Baron Tweedmouth’s nephew published an article with the full kennel records of his uncle’s kennels. No Russian dogs at all in it. In fact, there isn’t any hard evidence that the bloodhound was used an outcross, even though the nephew mentions it, because he claims to remember the big goldens of his childhood (which were of Newfoundland type not bloodhound type) were bloodhound crosses. The only paper that could prove it was conveniently lost, according to the nephew’s testimony. Whenever I see that bloodhound cross in any literature, I hold it with a great deal of skepticism. Why would anyone cross in a breed that has very low trainability into a performance bred dog that is required to have super high biddability?

     In academia, your track for tenure and career advancement are largely determined by how much of a niche you can create. Sharing with other disciplines leads to an erosion of the niche, so it does get very Balkanized in this publish or perish world.

     
     
3. on February 3, 2009 at 4:01 am ms ann thrope

   “Why would anyone cross in a breed that has very low trainability into a performance bred dog that is required to have super high biddability?”
   I don’t get that either about the supposed “Russian Dogs”, or that I understand the evolution of the ‘Show Golden’ unto a blonde version of a BMD right down to body type and skull shape, totally leaving behind it’s roots as a working retriever.
   Here’s one for you. This is from the AKC Agility Invitationals this past December. While as a former AG competitor and a lover of the sport who believes strongly all dogs and owners regardless of breed or not breed should give the sport a try, when I look at this video, I just scratch my head. While it’s a nice clean run, it’s not competitive. She’s lucky her dog is agile enough to jump 16″, as it is clearly working hard to make the height. It is just not currently designed to take part in the sport through no fault of it’s own, as it surely shows the will to do it’s best. I bet it’s 19th or 18th century ancestors would have done a much better job as they would have been far less extreme.
   http://www.akc.org/events/agility/invitational/2008/video.cfm

   
   
4. on June 7, 2009 at 11:05 am Akilla

   This black puppy pug looks just like me! Could be that she’s my long lost sister?

   
   
5. on March 20, 2010 at 9:06 am rachel

   hey your dog is so cute , were looking forward to getting a black pug. by the way was it easy to train her/him. our pug died and she always sticked her toung out like your dog. thanks

   
   
   • on March 20, 2010 at 9:11 am retrieverman

     That’s not my dog.

     It was taken from a google images search.

     
     

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