cycas Posted July 5, 2007 Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 This is apparently what is coming out of breeding whippets to be faster and faster. Here's a news story about the mutation. http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/12/fro...dogs.php?page=1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheryl33 Posted July 5, 2007 Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 i'm sorry but i think that photo editted a bit. no way that is a real dog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cycas Posted July 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 (edited) Nother photo here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/12/science/...nyt&emc=rss It's a mutation apparently - though I must say I didn't believe it either when I saw the pic! Edited July 5, 2007 by cycas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tegk68 Posted July 5, 2007 Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 This story is covered by the New York Times too HERE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JACKYSIAN Posted July 5, 2007 Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 OMG Thats just horrific! Poor dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irons Posted July 5, 2007 Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 No that can not be for real surely poor poor dogs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ranirottie Posted July 5, 2007 Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 that's gross if its true! talk about pumped up with steroids,it looks like a canine body builder! x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nettie Posted July 5, 2007 Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 They aren't pumped with steroids, its a mutant gene which gives them what they call 'double muscles' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fee Posted July 5, 2007 Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 (edited) "Bully" whippets have been around for a while in racing litters. The dog in the picture seems to be used a lot in illustrations, I suspect because she is a very extreme example (and also lives with a 'normal' whippet, which makes a nice photographic comparison). I've met someone who has two "bully" whippets, and they were nothing like as muscled or grotesque as the dog in the picture - though they didn't look much like whippets either. If I'd had to guess I'd have put them down as staffy/whippet x. Edited as I've just found an illistration - if you look at the dog in Figure 1, bottom right, that is a much more typical 'bully whippet. The two top right pictures are the same dog as in the photographs above. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlere...i?artid=1877876 Edited July 5, 2007 by Fee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celeste Posted July 5, 2007 Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 Thats just mental it wouldn't necessarily follow that because a dog was more heavily muscled it would run faster, there's something to do with long and short muscles that dictates how fast an animal is and also good conformation, i very much doubt that these bully Whippets would have the bend and stretch needed to race Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cycas Posted July 5, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 No, the bully whippets are not very fast themselves, they are what happens if you interbreed extra fast dogs. There is a special superfast gene in whippets, apparently: if a dog has one copy of the gene it makes him incredibly quick, but if he has 2 copies of the gene (presumably because he inherited it from both sides of the family) it all goes pearshaped and he ends up with that weird double muscle effect that looks like he's on steroids. Nice to hear they aren't all quite so overdeveloped, thanks Fee! I assume it's similar to the merle effect gene in collies, where you aren't supposed to breed double merles as they suffer health problems. Though in whippets as they are all quite quick, I assume it is harder to work out which dogs have the super gene. One of the news stories above mentions culling bully whippets in order to breed more 'superfast' whippets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simikins Posted July 5, 2007 Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 Says it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amanda72 Posted July 5, 2007 Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 (edited) i'm sorry but i think that photo editted a bit. no way that is a real dog I think so too, but have just read the other threads on here, and it is true Poor pooches, so I gather they couldn't be entered into races then? sorry a bit thick... Edited July 5, 2007 by amanda72 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raiye Posted July 5, 2007 Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 Not too brushed up on genetics but that is just awful! Genetic stuff They say its been seen in cattle before and gives links to the k9 whippet forum for more evidence. I seriously thought April Fools had come early How much of these kind of mutations will we have to see before we learn to leave well alone It will be 3 eyed Simpson style fish next! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supafrisk Posted July 5, 2007 Report Share Posted July 5, 2007 (edited) Didn't Ooky say Tracey was a bully/whippet? Giss a chance, missis, she only landed at 11.30 and we were doing things with blood till lunch time.Very all of those things. She actually IS quite ugly in an uglybeautiful way (think EBTs). She was given up as a potential race dog because she is "too bully" - I think by that they meant solid. She looks like an Italian Greyhound crossed with Arnie. Gimme 20 mins and I will upload pics. Gimme 20 mins and I will upload pics. No, shes gorgeous but not at all Ooky. Much too young for starters and not at all broken. Would fit in well at the House of Squigg, though Found it... 160 pages later Edited July 5, 2007 by supafrisk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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