# I wonder what happened to the Trackr clone puppies



## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

For those who don't know about them, here is a good summary:

Cloning Heroism For the Love of the Dog

And on YouTube
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=eBLdHGTcqes&desktop_uri=/watch?v=eBLdHGTcqes


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

I did find this. But the Team Trackr website is off-line.
Cloned dogs training for search and rescue - Malibu Times: News


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## KZoppa (Aug 14, 2010)

I remember reading about this a couple years ago. Never really thought more about it because it always weirded me out a bit. I understand the possible benefits to it but still strange.


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

KZoppa said:


> I remember reading about this a couple years ago. Never really thought more about it because it always weirded me out a bit. I understand the possible benefits to it but still strange.


Is it that much creepier than in vitro?


"How does SCNT differ from the natural way of making an embryo?


The fertilization of an egg by a sperm and the SCNT cloning method both result in the same thing: a dividing ball of cells, called an embryo. So what exactly is the difference between these methods?

An embryo is composed of cells that contain two complete sets of chromosomes. The difference between fertilization and SCNT lies in where those two sets originated.

In fertilization, the sperm and egg both contain one set of chromosomes. When the sperm and egg join, the resulting zygote ends up with two sets - one from the father (sperm) and one from the mother (egg).

In SCNT, the egg cell's single set of chromosomes is removed. It is replaced by the nucleus from a somatic cell, which already contains two complete sets of chromosomes. Therefore, in the resulting embryo, both sets of chromosomes come from the somatic cell."
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/tech/cloning/whatiscloning/


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## KZoppa (Aug 14, 2010)

Sunflowers said:


> Is it that much creepier than in vitro?
> 
> 
> "How does SCNT differ from the natural way of making an embryo?
> ...


 
Its not so much the scientific aspect of it actually. It's more to do with the fact that there are more and more people who would choose to clone their dog in the hopes that dog would be exactly like the one they lost. Then you have the disappointment when it's not. You can clone an animal but it's not just genetics that go into and have an impact. A lot of it is also nurture. How an animal is raised and handled has an effect. Plus, I'd be a little freaked having a dog around that looks so much like the one I lost. Obviously, there's subtle differences, as clearly seen in the picture in the link of the dogs. 

I'm also concerned about the health aspects. The original Trackr had DM. Unless they removed the genetic marker for DM, the clones are likely to develop DM as well. What of breeding these dogs? Are they able to be bred? What will that cause? 

I'll have to read the new link later as I'm on my tablet and it's trying to die on me but for me, there's a great many questions that go into this.


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