WHAT IS A DOG?

 "What is a dog" is the title of a book written by Raymond and Lorna Coppinger that I would highly recommend to all. 

What Is a Dog?, Coppinger, Coppinger, Beck (uchicago.edu)

When published in 2016 their best guestimate was that there could be a billion dogs in the world. Just as the human population grows it is likely that so too has the dog population since then. Most dogs in the world remain the free living "village" dogs, or what WHO refers to as "unrestrained" dogs. It is estimated that 85% of dogs are not the inbred pets most people know but these free-living dogs. Few people of the "western" or "developed" countries understand this simply because the only dogs they have experience of are these human controlled artificial "breeds" or mixed "mongrels" that have come from breeds. Of Canis species in the world some 95% are dogs. At the time of writing this I have seen people commenting on the village or Baladi dogs of Egypt saying that they must come from dogs originally dumped. No, they do not! The complete opposite is true. Humans did not create dogs. To state that reinforces a total lack of factual knowledge of these dogs. Most of the Baladi dog groups on FB, however well meaning, also fail to get the full story correct, and that includes a thesis I have seen about "Baladi" dogs that earned the writer a university degree. People like that simply cannot get their heads around the fact that dogs have never needed to be told by people how to produce puppies. It really does not matter what local names people use for these dogs, there are many, Baladi, wadi, desert, to mention a few. As with any language there are also different words used in some countries but not others, "Baladi" is such an example and is not found in many Arabic dictionaries outside of Egypt. Dogs are a domestic animal, as are pigeons, chickens house sparrows and many others. This is different to "domesticated" that refers to a wild animal that has been selectively bred to live in a domestic situation. Here is an interesting link to worldwide dog populations although not all countries are shown. 

Dog Population by Country 2024 - Worldostats

Coefficient of Inbreeding (COI)

 COI as measured genetically by Embark shows that while pedigree Canaan dogs overall are still somewhat better than that for all breeds, village dogs left to choose their own partners have much less in breeding. In pedigree dogs there may well be measurably more inbreeding in dogs from particular breeders who like to create their own "line" of dogs. An inbreeding coefficient of 0 indicates a dog that comes from two unrelated parents; 6.25 is equivalent to mating of first cousins; 12.5 equates to the genetic equivalent of a dog produced from a grandfather to granddaughter mating; 25 would equate to the genetic equivalent of a dog produced from a father to daughter mating. Data and graphs from Embark.