Originally Posted by MoJo

Following contained information found at:

http://actionnooz.com/ethics/meet-we...double-muscle/



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Many of you may remember an earlier report we covered about the amazing toddler, Liam Hoekstra, with superstrength and superspeed. Just like the buff combination of Superman and his best friend Krypto, it seems the super-kid we reported about may have a pet who can keep up with him. Meet Wendy, the bully Whippet.
Much like young Liam, along with the ridiculously buff Belgian Blue cattle, Wendy has a muscular mutation that results in extremely bulked muscles. This condition is known as myostatin related muscle hypertrophy, or more simply, double-muscle.
Through a two base-pair deletion in the whippet myostatin gene (MSTN), and a subsequent rejection of myostatin by muscle cells, Wendy has very fast muscle growth and repair, at levels where she has quickly grown up to hulking proportions.
The increased muscle mass, along with metabolism and extremely low levels of body fats, can translate to impressive super-feats, including marked increases in speed, agility and power.
As documented by quantitative assay, whippets with this mutation seem to be consistently superior in racing events to their “wild-type” counterparts.
As you may already be thinking, a dog with genetically documented and known super-speed? Clearly this does and will raise major ethical concern in terms of dog breeding, as it may also within humans as we continue to learn and master the workings of our own genome.
Double muscle is still a condition under recent scientific scrutiny and testing, only having been adequately surveyed in humans since the year 2000.
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This is Wendy from Vancouver B.C. Canada:



Wendy beside a normal WhippetNote, the normal Whippet is a male, while Wendy is female)



Here is another Bully Whippet named MAC at 10 weeks old:


Here is MAC at a Year old:


MAC at 1 1/2 years old:



Here is some VERY interesting Info:




I have also found several other Bully Whippets on forums,(Example is MAC above) where owners have images of their whippet in stages of growth. I one year, they look normal, just a bit heavier, and at a year and a half they are BLAM.. HUGE!

I wish Hayabusa would have been this type of 'mistake' during breeding! LOL.. I would like to have someone joke about how 'scary' she looks then!

Here is more linked information for people who are interested.:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/12/sc...bed8d7&ei=5070

http://genetics.plosjournals.org/arc...030079.eor.pdf

Originally Posted by Janimal

That is a very interesting article..... I do prefer normal whippets.

Strangely enough Mac belongs to someone I know......Ive only spoken to her on another forum...but she did actualy live not that far from me....and now lives in Norway.

I have seen lots of pictures of Mac and he looks a smashing dog and is extremely fit and lives a very healthy life too.

Originally Posted by skunkstripe

I'd be curious about their health otherwise. This is not based on any specific knowledge of genetics, more a gut feeling that when Mother Nature comes up with a mutation that bizarre, often something else will be "off".