We do indeed Sam, but the 2% difference in DNA is a massive one, and accounts for the distinctive differences both physiologically and psychologically. You can see quite clearly that apes and man are closely related, but nowhere near as closely related as dogs and wolves - which are the same species.

To get back on track, I've just noticed that the poll results are getting much closer. the No's have it ... just at the moment !

Do you have a source for your information; re: dogs being 99.8% similar to wolves? I have read percentages for wolf/dog relatedness before, but they were not 99.8%.

Somewhere yes - it won't be difficult to find. I will do a google search. But when the Smithsonian Institute reclassified dogs as Canis Lupus Familiaris, I believe it was from the scientific papers that OH researched that we sourced the data. I'll have a look, but OH is on the prowl and will go mad if he knows that I'm playing !!

Back soon.

Oh I know I totally agree with you there is no comparison between dogs and wolves to us and chimpanzee's.

Just found this :

"Dogs and wolves share 99.8% of their mitochondrial DNA (Wayne, R.K. Molecular Evolution of the Dog Family). Dogs are so much like wolves physiologically that they are frequently used in wolf studies as a physiological model for wolf body processes (Mech, L.D. 2003: Wolves: Behavior, Ecology & Conservation). "

I'm going to follow up the R K Wayne study.

Here we go : it's a bit complicated, but I can just about work it out :

"Dogs may be derived from several different ancestral gray wolf populations, and many dog breeds and wild wolf populations must be analysed in order to tease apart the genetic sources of the domestic dog gene pool. A limited mtDNA restriction fragment analysis of seven dog breeds and 26 gray wolf populations from different locations around the world has shown that the genotypes of dogs and wolves are either identical or differ by the loss or gain of only one or two restriction sites22. The domestic dog is an extremely close relative of the gray wolf, differing from it by at most 0.2% of mtDNA sequence15,22,23.

Thanks Sam ! I blushed when I read about some dogs chasing for fun. I'm afraid Hal and now Tai chase because they want to kill, and when they kill, they then eat what they have killed. I hasten to add this is small rodents, rabbits and once that poor leveret. Some breeds have very high prey drives, and Tai is no exception. He will kill livestock - on his second day with us, he killed one of next door's chickens. Not his fault, we were walking round the field, they were out, having escaped from their garden, and were hiding in the hedge. We had no idea they were there, as we passed them, they all started running around like the headless chickens one of them was shortly to become ! Very embarrassing, but after a few strict lessons, we can now walk off lead past the chickens and get him to completely ignore them. However, if he thinks we have lost attention, he would have them like a shot, so we have to be very vigilant.

Tai is well fed with raw meat, bones and veg. He doesn't need to kill to eat, but still he does, just like a cat will hunt and kill despite the fact it is well fed. It is natural, we just have to make absolutely sure that he doesn't kill livestock by keeping him on the lead around sheep, cattle etc.

I can see the wolf in the dog, of course...in the same way I see the horse in the zebra, and Cro-magnon in the homo sapiens and the cheetah in the domestic tabby. To me, it`s plain daft to dismiss thousands of years of selective breeding. Do you not believe in Darwinism? Do you not see that animals evolve and change?

My greyhound doesn't just chase for fun either - she has killed a goose, next doors cat unfortunately and she catches rabbits - its a natural instinct.