im referring to the common 'hybrid' crosses sibes,gsd's mals etc none of those should have rear dew claws
Lawks!! My poor old boy Hal must have been VERY common then, 'cos he had double dew claws on both hind legs - and very handsome they were too. I have been told that when you shuffle up the genes and mate wolf with dog, this is what you frequently get, double dew claws. Wolves in the wild apparently do not have dew claws, but when mated back to domestic dogs, the shuffling of the cards causes dewclaws, frequently double.
...ok,im a good girl..im leaving this thread ;-) lol ok im not....just yet ;-) presumably your refering to this gnasher?...... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3602741.stm now i read it different to you, how i read it its a way to tell if its not pure wolf as it is a dog gene,not the other way round as you seem to, they were trying to differentiate between what they thought looked pure wolf but were infact not,not a way to tell if a say..husky cross is a wolf hybrid but hey thats the way i took it
I absolutely agree with you - it is the DOG gene, not the wolf gene, that is quite true. It is when you shuffle up the genes and put wolf back into the mix that you get the DOUBLE dew claws apparently. I thought I had made myself clear, but obviously not, sorry my fault
I don't think that is why Briards and PMDs have them.... (that is in BS I know) But I have seen them on Springers and collies as well.
And that was why I queried dew claws in the first place. Although the dog in question was stated to be 85% wolf. It did make me wonder as the usual breeds that are crossed into NI - as someone already said - don't have dew claws. But the dog in the ad photos did have quite prominent ones.
As I say, I am not into pedigrees so didn't know. All the pedigrees I had in the past always had had their dew claws removed Bang goes another wolf cross theory then!!
I think there may be a few others who have that in the BS - but I always recall it with Briards from the grooming....was a real pain!
Beaucerons are the ones that come to mind - it was how I identified one I saw in my local high street a few months ago! (OK so it turned out to be a first-cross, but it was extremely beauceron-y).
Just had a bit of a google. And it would appear that double dew claws are quite common in Shi Tzu's amongst other breeds!! Can't think of many breeds less wolfy quite frankly!!
Hal's were very wobbly, only attached by skin and fur. They never caused him any problems whatsoever, but when he was trying to stop you doing something, he would use them in what I would imagine was the use for which they were intended - to hang on to the rear end of herbivorous prey and bring them down! Slightly alarming, and it would hurt like hell!