It's a dog's life for cloned puppy Snuppy

THE world's first cloned dog, Snuppy, celebrated a low-key first birthday yesterday. It was in marked contrast to the publicity surrounding the Afghan hound when he was first shown to the world's press last year.

An academic paper describing its creation was later published in the scientific journal 'Nature'. But Snuppy, became embroiled in controversy when it became known that its creator, Hwang Woo-suk, faked ground-breaking stem cell research. The dog's creation is the only one of Hwang's achievements that is still recognised.

Snuppy weighed 530g and was 12cm tall at birth. He now weighs 29kg and measures 80cm. Even though the dog is only a year old, he is said to be 22 years old in human terms. Prof Kim Min-kyu, of Seoul National University's Veterinary College, said the plan was to clone a female dog and see whether she and Snuppy, which is male, can reproduce.

I know this is a very controversial issue. However, I for one have always wanted to clone Quinn and Riley. I can't stand the thought of EVER losing them. Quinn is such a quality dog and Riley is well, just my little baby that makes me laugh on a day to day basis.

Now, a cloned dog doesn't mean it will act just like the dog you are cloning. All dogs develop by their experiences. Although I would love for Quinn2 and Riley2 to be exactly like Quinn and Riley, I am fully aware they wouldn't be, because there would definitely be some things I would do differently with them. All in all, it would just be the idea that some part of Quinn and Riley are around me at all times.

I love my dogs, can you tell?

Tags: Cloning, dogs, dog training, Trainer