Pedigree Potential.
1. If you're one of the millions of Americans who owns a rescue dog, you may be curious about what breed your best friend is. Increasingly, pet owners are buying DNA testing kits to try to figure out their dog's ancestry. But the promise of these kits may be getting ahead of the science, according to some geneticists and animal researchers. "It's hard to know how accurate they are," says Lisa Moses, a veterinarian and a researcher with Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics. "Different test companies use different methodologies as far as we know." (via National Public Radio)
2. Election Day usually brings good dogs everywhere to polling stations across Britain. But this time the tradition took a more inclusive turn, featuring reindeer, horses and even a giant tortoise named Yoda. Although dogs clearly held a solid majority Thursday, dominating social media with Santa hats and festive collars, sightings of unexpected animals also delighted many voters. By Thursday afternoon, the #dogsatpollingstations hashtag had been used more than 45,000 times on Twitter, with thousands sharing photos of their pawlitical furry friends standing outside local polling stations. (via The Washington Post)
3. This year when Ford Motor Co. went outside the company for the first time in 70 years to hire a chief financial officer, he came with an impressive pedigree — a resume that included top jobs at Amazon and Snap Inc. He also came with a pedigreed sidekick: a chief furry officer. Wander past Tim Stone’s office on any given day and lying at his feet is his lively, 7-year-old Australian shepherd, Finley, who has his own name badge and sly “CFO” title bestowed by his owner. Finley is more than just a good boy. He is the C-suite mascot for a pilot program offered to 1,300 office employees at Ford allowing them to bring their dogs to work. It’s part of a larger effort by Ford to attract hard-to-get tech talent to the Motor City. (via Bloomberg)
4. Have you ever looked at a bee, goldfish, or even your dog, and wished you could see through their eyes? Now you may be able to. Researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia and Exeter University in the United Kingdom have devised a visual framework that allows users to experience their world through the eyes of other animals. Scientists spent four years developing the new software, which is compatible with computers and smartphones. Try it: You can submit photos to the software, which converts them and reveals how the complex vision systems of different animals would see them. (via Popular Mechanics)
5. The SoftBank Vision Fund has sold its nearly 50% stake in Wag, the troubled dog-walking start-up, back to the company at a loss, according to two people briefed on the deal, in a further sign of turmoil for the Japanese investment powerhouse that has bet big and lost big on the technologies of the future. Wag’s troubles have been particularly pronounced. After its investment, the Vision Fund brought in Hilary Schneider, former chief executive of LifeLock, to lead an aggressive expansion. But it lost ground to Rover, its top competitor. Reports of lost dogs and internal struggles hurt business. (via Wall Street Journal & New York Times)
6. At Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.’s new animal-nutrition lab in Decatur, Illinois, food scientists aren’t coming up with the next generation of rations for the world’s pigs, cows or chickens. They’re making dog cookies. Just-baked bone-shaped treats containing ancient grains including quinoa, buckwheat and chia sit on a lab counter that looks more like a large kitchen island. Dog treats may seem like a strange bet for one of the world’s largest traders of crops such as corn, wheat and soybeans. But the $91 billion pet-food market is growing so rapidly it will be almost as big as the chocolate confectionery market by 2024, according to data from Euromonitor International Ltd. (via Bloomberg)
7. A small brown spaniel mix named Lambsy, rescued from the slums of Cyprus, is at the center of one of the most contentious civil cases in Connecticut. A New York dog rescue agency, Abandoned Angels Cocker Spaniel Recue Inc., claims a Darien woman, Cheryl Baity, adopted the dog under false pretenses and is demanding it back. Meanwhile, Baity has fled with the dog to New Hampshire claiming she feels threatened by the rescue agency. (via Connecticut Post)
8. Chewy.com broke its sales record on Black Friday, and Cyber Monday was the "single biggest shopping day in our company's history," CEO Sumit Singh said on the group's third-quarter earnings call this week. The retailer cashed in on pet parents' demand for gifts by opening an online Holiday Shop stocked with an expanded range of seasonal pet toys, treats, costumes, and clothing. When Chewy went public in June, part of its pitch to investors was the growing trend of "pet humanization." More than 90% of dog owners and 86% of cat owners consider their pets to be part of their family, according to Packaged Facts, a market-research firm. (via Business Insider)
Dog Photo of the Week
By Tianhang Zhang, dog photographer. @inpetphoto_tianhangzhang
Dog Video of the Week