Canine Genetics Research

01/15/2026

Great work by our own postdoc Tori Rudolph and undergraduate Anna Ramey!

Scientists are just beginning to understand the signals that determine the length of dogs’ ears.

04/11/2025

We are actively recruiting border collies, collies, and shelties affected with VCLE (vesicular cutaneous lupus erythematosus) for a genetic study! We are also looking for healthy border collies to participate!

03/21/2025

11/24/2020

Check out this article to learn more about the findings from our lance canine research and how the genetic test can be used by breeders!

11/05/2020

Attention breeders of TOY, MEDIUM, and GIANT BREEDS! Our friend and fellow researcher Dr. Mike Vaughan is conducting a study on puppy growth and is looking for breeders who would be interested in participating. Below is a message from Dr. Vaughan with more details on his study:

Hi! My name is Mike Vaughan. I’m a retired molecular biologist, and I’m a dog lover. I’m conducting a study to answer the following question: how fast do the puppies of toy, mid-sized, and giant breeds grow, on a daily basis, from birth until they approach their full size?

I’m seeking breeders of toy breeds, mid-size breeds, and giant breeds who will help me answer this by taking weights of individual puppies from birth out to an age when their growth slows down. Many breeders make a practice of weighing puppies at birth and every day or two afterwards for at least a week or two, to check that they are growing normally. I hope those breeders will be willing to continue taking weights every day or two for the first four weeks and then at least once a week for the next weeks, until they find new homes for the pups. The breeders will then need to ask the new owners to continue weighing the pups, carefully, once a week for the next months, out to the time growth slows.

Toy breed puppies begin to mature earlier than larger ones, so the weekly weighing of toy breeds will only need to continue until they are about six months old. Puppies of mid-size breeds will need to be weighed weekly until they are about eight months old, and pups of giant breeds will need weekly weighing until they are about 10 – 11 months old.

The weighing will need to be done accurately. Hopefully, breeders who go to the trouble of weighing their puppies have good scales. However, many new puppy owners will not have accurate scales and the know-how to use them for squirming pups, so I hope breeders will assist the owners in getting their veterinarians to cooperate by weighing their pups “for science”.

If you are a dog breeder who would be willing to help me by recording weights of two or more puppies in your next litter, please contact me at [email protected]

Thank you!

09/25/2020

Variants in two genes may be associated with small body size and dental anomaly in dogs. In PNAS: http://ow.ly/4z5350BxciQ

09/25/2020

Check out this news article summarizing some of the work from our lance canine paper!

Clemson grad student Sydney Abrams and her mentor Leigh Anne Clark have identified new genetic factors contributing to small body size in dogs.

09/23/2020

Our research on lance canines in Shetland sheepdogs is now published! We discovered that lance canines correlate with smaller body size and identified a region on chromosome 9 associated with reduced size/lance canine risk in Shelties! Thank you to all who contributed samples for this study!

Through the study of a dental anomaly we identified a locus strongly associated with body size in the Shetland Sheepdog. Within this locus are variants in two genes: a substitution in FtsJ RNA 2′-O-Methyltransferase 3 ( FTSJ3 ) and a splice donor insertion in Growth Hormone 1 ( GH1 ). We demonstra...