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A 33,000-year-old dog skull unearthed in a Siberian mountain cave presents some of the oldest known evidence of dog domestication and, together with an equally ancient find in a cave in Belgium, indicates that modern dogs may be descended from multiple ancestors…

An ancient dog skull, preserved in a cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia for 33,000 years, presents some of the oldest known evidence of dog domestication and, together with equally ancient dog remains from a cave in Belgium, indicates that domestication of dogs may have occurred repeatedly in different geographic locations rather than with a single domestication event.

In other words, man’s best friends may have originated from more than one ancient ancestor, contrary to what some DNA evidence previously has indicated.

“Both the Belgian find and the Siberian find are domesticated species based on morphological characteristics,” said Greg Hodgins, a researcher at the University of Arizona…

The Altai Mountain skull is extraordinarily well preserved, said Hodgins, enabling scientists to make multiple measurements of the skull, teeth and mandibles that might not be possible on less well-preserved remains. “The argument that it is domesticated is pretty solid,” said Hodgins. “What’s interesting is that it doesn’t appear to be an ancestor of modern dogs…”

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On a beach outing recently, my friends and I watched a yellow Labrador frolic in the waves and dig with abandon in the sand. Then, to our horror, he bounded toward us and stopped. We all knew what was coming.

The shake.

I thought of this moment, being splattered with sand and sea water from this dog’s frenzied shake, as I watched the latest slide show on the Lens blog. This simple but inspired photo shoot from photographer Carli Davidson captures dogs in mid-shake. The result is a hilarious portrayal of flying fur, flopping jowls and bulging eyes.

Check out all the photos on the Lens blog.

We always seem to have dogs who assure themselves the water in their dog bowl was clean and clear – by splashing it with one paw. One of the better reasons to have tile floors.

Redbelly the dog receiving award from local coppers

A mother imprisoned for lying to police about her pregnancy is battling for custody of the child she left in the yard of a neighbor shortly after his birth.

Nunu Sung is scheduled for parole in January after serving some of a three-year prison term imposed after she pleaded guilty in October 2010 to felony obstruction of justice. In exchange, prosecutors agreed they would not seek to terminate the woman’s parental rights.

However, prosecutors are now involved in terminating Sung’s parental rights to 2-year-old Joshua in favor of a Wheaton couple who are the child’s foster parents.

DuPage Circuit Judge Blanche Hill Fawell said…prosecutors may have erred in making the promise but were legally obligated to get involved in the parental termination proceedings. The judge said Sung’s only option is to file a post-conviction request to reopen her plea and sentence…

Sung’s attorneys said she hid her pregnancy because she was afraid she would be punished and scorned by her family…

A civil attorney appointed by Fawell as Joshua’s guardian filed paperwork to terminate Sung’s parental rights based largely on her abandoning the child…

The newborn was found in June 2009 by a Wheaton man who noticed the baby with its umbilical cord still attached after his dog spotted the child under a tree and barked. Prosecutors alleged the child might have died if he hadn’t been found.

“The baby, who was left outside on the cold, hard ground, had a body temperature in the low 80s and was hypothermic,” Assistant State’s Attorney Anne Therieau wrote earlier this year in court records. “But for a dog, who was let out in the morning hours, this baby would have died.”

Tough decision for lot of folks. I’d come down on the side of the wee’un who’s been living with folks who loved him from the gitgo. It’s nice that Joshua’s natural mother wants to retake the responsibility of raising him – but, she was equally ready to leave him to die.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Dog lovers with a pet allergy have a big problem when it comes to having a dog in the home. But the usual solution — getting a breed known to be hypoallergenic — may not be a safe bet. In fact, there may be no such thing as a low-allergy or allergy-free dog, according to a new report. The study found that the quantities of dog allergens in homes with supposedly hypoallergenic breeds are no different from those in homes with dogs widely considered non-hypoallergenic.

It is not even clear how a hypoallergenic breed earns the title. There is no single “official” list of them. Various breeds, often dogs that shed little hair, appear on lists posted on the Internet, and the American Kennel Club suggests 11 “hypoallergenic canine candidates,” including poodles, soft-coated wheaten terriers, schnauzers and the Portuguese water dog, made famous two years ago when the Obama family adopted one.

“I have no idea where this whole concept came from,” said Christine Cole Johnson, the senior author of the study, to be published online in The American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy. “It’s been around for a long time, and maybe people associated it with shedding. I think it’s just a legend…”

The numbers of dogs of each breed were not large enough to allow for analyses by individual breed, but the researchers compared quantities of allergens found in the samples using various categories of purebred and mixed-breed hypoallergenic and non-hypoallergenic dogs. No matter how they did the comparisons — even comparing dogs identified as hypoallergenic by the A.K.C. against all other dogs — they found no statistically significant differences in levels of the major dog allergen, Canis familiaris 1…

Dr. Cole, an epidemiologist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, said: “You can’t be assured that some breed is going to produce less allergen than another. Allergists, based on their experience, really think that it’s just individual dogs who have some variations based on genetics or behavior, who produce more allergens than others. But it’s not going to be a breed classification that predicts that.”

In our family, let’s face it, it’s the dog that makes the decision who gets adopted. Give us the right tail-wagging and “let’s go play outside together” look — we’re already locked in.

Thanks, Cinaedh -
Have a lovely – snowy – day in the GWN

Jeffrey Lindberg

Diabetes diagnoses are rising at an even faster rate among dogs and cats than their human companions, according to a national analysis of pet health.

The 2011 “State of Pet Health” report is based on data from more than 2.5 million dogs and cats that visited Banfield Pet Hospital facilities in 43 states.

“This kind of data has never been available before,” Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a veterinarian and chief medical officer for the Banfield Pet Hospital chain, based in Portland. “We want to share it with professionals and pet owners.”

Nationally, diabetes rates increased by nearly a third among dogs in the last four years and by 16 percent among cats. It is much more common among cats. By comparison, human diagnoses of diabetes rose 10 percent over the same period.

The surprisingly high incidence of diabetes, he said, stems in part from rising rates of obesity.

“We have increasing obesity in dogs and cats, just like in humans. It’s no mystery how that occurs: overfeeding and lack of exercise.”

Folks continue to feed their pets the same crappy food they eat themselves – and too much of it, just as they do to themselves. And skip on exercising their pets because, after all, you might have to accompany your critter on that walk, right?

A dog rescued off the Japanese coast floating on top of a house is on her way back to her owner Monday.

The dog wagged its tail and jumped up to a woman described by local media as a relative of the owner as she collected her to deliver back to her family for what promises to be a warm reunion.

It turns out the lucky dog’s name is “Ban,” and she was originally living in Kessenuma before being separated from her master after the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent fire that swept through the coastal village…

An employee at the Miyagi Animal Care Center told CNN by phone that the owner had been staying in a temporary relocation center in Sendai since being evacuated from Kessenuma.

The 50-year-old man reportedly recognized Ban after footage of the brown and black dog was shown being hugged by Japanese rescue workers while being unloaded from a boat in Shiogama Port this past Friday.

Japanese Coast Guard teams had spotted Ban during a helicopter patrol over debris fields nearly two kilometers off shore. When a patrol boat got the hungry and shivering dog, they found no identification on her other than a brown collar.

Best news I’ve read, today.

Regular readers of this blog know how I feel about the importance, positive effects of humans and their companion relationship with other animals. Fortunately – for our species – I think most people feel that way.

A dog that survived in a house swept away to sea three weeks ago by the devastating Japan tsunami was saved on Friday by a coast guard rescue team flying over an island of debris.

Local television showed an aerial view of a brown medium-sized dog trotting around the roof of the house — the only part of it floating above water — before disappearing inside through a broken section of the roof.

The coast guard rescuers, thinking there might also be people alive inside the house, lowered one of their team onto the roof. He tried to coax the dog out, but then went in after tearing a wider opening. He came out with the dog in his arms and they were transported back to safety by boat.

Domestic media said no people were found inside the house.

Sad and happy at the same time. Too bad the dog’s people weren’t found with him.

Southwestern Pennsylvania residents are rallying in support of a hometown victim of budget cuts — the local police dog.

Officials in Jefferson Hills cut the funding for the canine program that supported Fritz, who rode in a patrol car with a handler and visited schools in campaigns to combat drug abuse.

The canine program cost about $7,000 a year but the handler earned as much as $30,000 extra for having the dog, said Police Chief Jack Maple. The canine program shut down in December.

But residents started raising money to revive the canine program after last month’s closing, and dozens of Fritz supporters attended a council meeting this week to encourage officials to reinstate the 5-year-old German Shepherd…

A local convenience store has sold nearly 600 “Fritz Bones” — pictures of bones that customers can buy and hang on the walls of the store — for $1 apiece.

Proceeds will be given to the dog’s handler, who is caring for Fritz whether officials reinstate the program or not, said store owner Carrie Howard.

“We’re angry,” Howard said. “We’re not done with this.”

The town council has no end of excuses. No surprises there, either.

Pehaps they might experiment with laying off administrators and accountants.

A brisk half hour walk a day will keep you healthy – and sane – say researchers. Eight people reveal what walking means to them

Billy Bragg, musician

Walking my dog twice a day across the fields of Dorset around our house is better exercise than I could ever get in a gym – I don’t have to compete with everyone and though the route may be repetitious, the natural cycles of the countryside make every day different. What I wouldn’t get at a gym is me time, an escape from a crowded cluttered day and a chance to recalibrate my senses all the way to the far horizon. Walking is a time for contemplation and, on good days, inspiration.

Folks have started adding their own walks, feelings about daily walks in the comments after the article over at the Guardian. Or you can add ‘em here.

Regular readers here know from my notes and photos that I walk with our companions three or four – or more – times a day. We’re down to only one dog, right now, and Rally gets a little grumpy with me sometimes. She’s as old as me in dog years and probably just as creaky.