Where did all the German Shepherd genes come from?

Almost every “village dog” shows a trace of German Shepherd in its DNA. A range of other “breeds” also show up infrequently including Saluki, Basenji, Doberman Pinscher, Pomeranian, Boxer, Collie, Harrier, Labrador Retriever, Dalmatian,  and others. Considering that all of todays human established breeds originally come from the early natural dogs or by mixing other breeds to get a type wanted it is not surprising to find some shared DNA and the more pariahs that are tested the more are likely to be found. Some also have the same haplogroups and haplotypes  that are found in some “pedigree Canaan dogs”. It would be surprising if that was not the case since the Canaan breed is simply a small group, or family, established by taking in some 30 of these pariahs and breeding them for sale then excluding the rest. “The “breed” can be distinguished in much the same way as a human family that has bred in a closed community could be identified from other humans in the same geographic area. Most dogs in todays breeds are as closely related as second cousins. It is rare to find a dog with no genetic structure linking it to other breeds.

When “pedigree” dogs or unknown dogs that turn out to fit the genetic profile of the “pure” breed are tested then any trace breed found does not get reported. When a new “pariah” is added to the “Canaan breed” kennel clubs only require that the offspring breed true for 3 generations with existing registered dogs. That is equivalent to going back as far as great grandparents, each of  which would show up as 12.5% of the dogs genetic makeup. Once a new pariah is introduced to the breeding program and its offspring “breed true” to and is registered and its DNA added to the breed profile then all the related dogs will of course also test as being “pure Canaan”. If the relative finder on Embark tested 100% pure Canaan dogs is used GSD’s do show up as here:

https://my.embarkvet.com/members/results/relatives

So how do we explain the presence of this connection.

From Grace Gartel: “Since we first started testing dogs at Embark (and even before then, during our village dog research), the Embark team noticed that most village dogs across the globe share some German Shepherd Dog DNA (when it is less than 5% of their DNA, they are a "trace breed"). To be honest, we're not yet sure exactly why this is, but it definitely is a real biological phenomenon and has been noted by other labs (see for example https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5492993/).
The average amount of relatedness varies across the globe, and the exact amount varies between village dogs from the same region. This could relate to German Shepherd Dogs traveling around the world in the World Wars and other times, but we are not certain of that at this time. As we work to understand village dog genetics and history better, we hope to unravel this mystery!”

The suggestion that GSD’s were introduced by military into the area seems unlikely to explain this. Many other dog breeds have also been introduced and there is no reason to believe GSD’s could have bred so widely with pariahs worldwide that close to all pariahs even in remote areas now have some GSD in them. A more likely explanation would be that it is simply a continuation of genetic strains dating back to ancient times and has remained as a stable pattern. 

4 of 67 village dogs from this region had a trace of Gray wolf in their genetic makeup, 2 from Israel, 1 from Jordan and 1 from Kuwait. No doubt there are others not tested and again this is further evidence of the ancient origin of our desert dogs.

Some potential genetic health issues have been found in pariahs. Apart from the more common degenerative myelopathy (DM), which has become a major issue in the pedigree breed due to inbreeding, others already spotted in lower numbers in the pariahs include von Willebrands type II , factor VII deficiency (a blood clotting deficiency) and “Collie eye” Without fully testing any new pariah intended to be added to the breed BEFORE using them breeders could well be creating future problems. Thousands of desert dog pariahs still survive but, sadly, efforts to eliminate them by “rescuing” them or by Trap Neuter and Release (TNR) or worse,  to shoot or poison them if “successful” could lead to the end of these natural dogs while we still have much to learn from them.

Dogs of ancient Egypt

Dogs have lived in Egypt for thousands of years and there are many artistic depictions of them. These include both carvings and paintings. Thousands of mummified dogs were placed in one tomb that has been known for some time but only recently properly studied. Many of these dogs may have been killed as part of a ritual but some had received better and more careful treatment and were likely to have been loved pets.

A number of distinctly different breeds were recognised. Rosellini attempted to put together a collection of the various dog types found and produced the following 2 plates. Most modern popular breeds have existed for a mere few hundred years but many people try to link them to Egyptian dogs for prestigious reasons but without factual proof. Today’s Pharaoh hound for example has been proven to be a modern mix designed to resemble the original. Africa’s Basenji is more likely to have descended from Egyptian types. Sighthounds were reserved for the elite people and their descendants have continued until today. Today’s Baladi dog in Egypt is another likely survivor from ancient times and is probably related to the desert pariah found throughout the middle-east and which has probably followed Bedouin and earlier hunter gatherers where ever they moved, throughout the Arabian peninsula and perhaps the ancient fertile crescent where man settled and grew crops. These desert dogs have survived in harsh conditions often without help from man and are the natural stock of today’s Canaan breed selected from these pariahs. The popular and intelligent (one has been shown to know over a thousand words) border collie, with known origins in the English/Scottish border area has also been claimed by some to have desert pariah connections.

Genetics of registered Canaan dogs versus pariahs.

Here is an interesting illustration of just what the difference is between the pure free living pariah dogs and the pure Canaan “breed” established by simply capturing pariahs and breeding them for sale.  Kiva is a dog I saw as a puppy in 2013 in Israel. Her parents were Janey, a freeborn bitch from Jordan, and Tsuk, a freeborn from Israel. She now lives in America. Based on that information only her gDNA results could be expected to show her as a “village dog”. However she comes out as a Canaan. Looking deeper gives the explanation. Unlike most established breeds that have long been totally closed, the Canaan breed still adds new dogs after they have gone through a kennel club process. In simple terms this is based on the new dog coming from the area i.e. not from other continents where similar looking pariahs exist, then by breeding through 3 generations with the offspring breeding true to the look. The 3^rd generation can then be registered as a Canaan with the kennel club. When it comes to DNA identification of any breed this is of course based on what kennel clubs deem to be the breed.  At least two maybe three dogs related to Kiva have been incorporated into the breed and have had their DNA checked by Embark so are therefore now part of the Canaan breed profile. At least one of these was descended from a brother of Janey.  Therefore Kiva now fits the updated Canaan profile.  Sadly many of Janey’s pups from her 3 litters were considered “aggressive” and were killed rather than spend the time needed to work on this. This is NOT the way to go if breeders honestly want to preserve this type of dog.  Starting at bringing in more new dogs they should be fully tested with state of the art methods (Embark being the only available one with pariahs in their database). This would firstly ensure that the dog is not a mixture. It would also ensure that no potential genetically associated health issue is added and could become a problem in future.  There is no simple “marker” that says a dog is a Canaan. The only “Canaan” that may be found living free is one related to the few that have been used to create the “breed” or have been added to them.   There is no reason why a pariah or village dog that tests as a pure Arabian or Middle Eastern village dog should not be added to the Canaan breed if it also has no genetic health issue. Ideally it would be preferable to concentrate on allowing these free living dogs to live where they are and as they have done for thousands of years without human interference, provided they are not in unsafe areas where they are at risk of being killed.

Of the pariahs I tested the close relatives were all from the same pack of dogs living together.