Teeth and breeds...

2 year old pit bull has smooth canines. 6 month old pit/retriever mix won't sit still long enough for me to get my finger in her mouth to feel it well.

houndlove

So far I've only checked Marlowe, who does have the serrations.  But can we review real quick what we're looking for with the "ridges"?

 

The ridges should be present in all dogs.  Older dogs will probably have well worn ridges.

The serrations are really what I'm interested in.  My theory is that these serrations are likely a recessive type gene in canis familiaris.  Yet the evidence is that there's no real pattern as to which dogs are having them and which one's aren't. I find it interesting that bunches of purebred dogs would not have them yet mixed breeds would. 

I also held a strong belief that sighthounds would have a higher incidence of these serrations, as would hounds in general.  It seems  that this is somewhat true. 

These serrations are used to help a wild dog "hamstring" larger prey, as serrations are force multipliers and they also increase surface area while minimizing effort exerted, enabling a dog to sever tendon and ligament tissue with more than just jaw strength. 

Xerxes

So just rub your fingertip on the back edge of the canine teeth of your dogs, see if that ridge is there.  Thanks!

i haven't read this whole post, but i will say that thanks to your brilliant suggestion, i am now missing three fingertips...i would suggest this only be tried by professional stunt people...;)

 LOL!  I should have posted a disclaimer on that one!  Sorry!

Xerxes

iggypop

Seems like sighthounds decended from a seperate ancestor than other breeds of dogs (not being elitist, each group of dogs decended from something!) and the more primitive the sighthound the more it has retained it's connection to that common ancestor. Now it could be that Pharoah hounds (being a primitive type hound) and coyotes have something more in common with each other genetically or it could simply be that Pharoah hounds have just retained some primitive aspects of wild dogs.

 

 That's what I'm considering,    Nature doesn't expend excess energy wantonly.  If a particular trait isn't used, it tends to become extinct or to at least become recessive.  We've heard that some of the mixed breeds have had serrations.  But a good amount of purebreds don't.  I'm not all that familiar with genetics, perhaps Brookcove will read this thread and contribute her immense knowledge. 

Did the sighthounds evolve separately from the non-sighthounds?  I know that there is a type of evolution that discusses this but I forget the name.  (convergent evolution maybe?)  But since the sighthounds are from the African/Mid-Eastern area perhaps rather than wolves they diverged from Wild African dogs?  If that's the case then why would they not differentiate in species than the common pariah dogs that begat the breeds we know today?  If there's any kind of answer, it might be in the teeth.  And this is what I find curious.

So apologize from me to your dogs for the indignity of sticking your fingers in their mouths.  Give them an extra hug and know that I'm still trying to sort this all out.
 

I think that is the general theory, that sighthounds came from wild african dogs or possibly jackals, which, btw, dogs and jackals can still mate and produce offspring to this day. The Egyptian god Anubis is considered by some to be a cross with a jackal and a domestic dog. I think that herding dogs may have actually been the first group of dogs or a group of dogs that developed around the same time as sighthounds and from similar ancestors as sighthounds. I may be stretching this and my knowledge on the subject is shoddy. I do know that Sighthounds, Herding breeds and Spitz type breeds are among the oldest known breeds all retaining characteristics of their wild ancestors respectively. I would think that the more primitive sighthound breeds like the, sloughi, azawakh, Pharoah hound and cirencos would probably have quite a bit in common, including the ridges on the teeth. While the greyhounds, whippets and IGs, though still sighthounds, have had their genes tampered with so much through the centuries that their blood isn't quite as pure. (apparently the English had a good time using the IG to create several of their homegrown breeds as well as the Germans and they consequently mixed some of their whippets and terriers and MinPins into IG bloodlines. This is another thing I've thought about, is the purity of breeds in some regions of the world being stronger than others. I'm sure there are pockets of IGs in the mediterranean for example that are far closer in type to the original toy sighthound than the English or American IG) Have you thought about asking some breeders of the lesser known hounds to check for ridges?

I think I felt my brain melt from this post. But it is highly interesting!
Maze is a black lab/border collie/shepard/?  and she only has a ridge but no serrations on her canines. And she says she wants a new squeaky for letting me play with her teeth. Lol