Reply To: "Carolina dogs" in reference panel?

[Jennifer]

How do researchers handle this when sampling village/pariah dogs? For example, if you’re collecting DNA from, say, Indian Pariah Dogs, how do you “ensure” you’re only sampling “pure” ones, and not mixes of IPD with recently arrived strays of foreign ancestry, or even just plain ol’ mutts?

I gather from articles I’ve read that Brisbin at least sometimes approves dogs for the CD studbook based solely on looking at photos and completed questionnaires from owners who mailed in that information, and at some other times, based solely on meeting and observing a dog someone adopted from a shelter somewhere. Maybe not the most scientific way to do it, especially in a time when, as Stephanie mentioned, there’s an increasing amount of romanticized public interest in these dogs. (For awhile there, there was an eyebrow-raisingly improbable number of “Carolina Dogs” and “Carolina Dog mixes” being posted to Petfinder–basically, “Well, it’s tawny, prick-eared and shorthaired, so let’s call it a CD”–but I notice they’ve recently quietly dropped CDs from their breeds list altogether, which makes me wonder if someone of influence complained.) But what else is Brisbin supposed to do? He knows better than anyone else what the real thing can look like, they need genetic diversity to build a breed, and wild-caught CDs are hard to come by and could even themselves turn out to be mutts anyway.