Turtle Sniffing Dogs

This video shows turtle dogs, which are retrievers bred and trained to hunt turtles.

• How do dogs inherit different traits?

• Why are these dogs different from other breeds?
• What technologies can humans use to influence the inheritance of traits in dogs?

Students could:

• Discuss observations/characteristics of the dog.
• View photos of dogs in pairs to compare and contrast features.
• Discuss the variety of features observed.
• Review Punnett Squares.
• Research technologies for selective breeding, in their search students could pick a breed of dog and describe the potential health problems that the breed has when humans are selecting for certain traits.

• PBS | Nature: Selective Breeding Problems: This resource highlights the problems that can be encountered when we selectively breed dogs.
• PBS LearningMedia | Nature: Historic Relationships Between Dogs and Humans: This video explains the special relationship between dogs and humans throughout history. 
• Verge | World’s First Domesticated Foxes: Foxes in Russia were selectively bred for “friendliness” to show how we have domesticated dogs.