Evolutionary Theory Explains Diversity

Being that I work nights at a veterinary clinic, I have access to the inner workings of the Veterinary Information Network. Alas, I was unable to track down anything on the crossbreeding of very small and very large dogs. I will try to remember to ask the doctors about this matter.I did encounter a little discussion at VIN, about the interbreeding of dogs and coyotes. Yes they do. The reference given? Wikipedia.

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Breeding experiments in Germany with poodles, coyotes, and later on with the resulting dog-coyote hybrids showed that unlike wolfdogs, coydogs show a decrease in fertility, significant communication problems as well as an increase of genetic diseases after three generations of interbreeding.

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Coyotes have also been known on occasion to mate with wolves, though this is less common than with dogs due to the wolf's hostility to the coyote. The offspring, known as a coywolf, is generally intermediate in size to both parents, being larger than a pure coyote, but smaller than a pure wolf. A study showed that of 100 coyotes collected in Maine, 22 had half or more wolf ancestry, and one was 89 percent wolf. A theory has been proposed that the large eastern coyotes in Canada are actually hybrids of the smaller western coyotes and wolves that met and mated decades ago as the coyotes moved toward New England from their earlier western ranges.[20] The Red Wolf is thought by certain scientists to be in fact a wolf/coyote hybrid rather than a unique species.

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A Coyote-German Shepherd hybridMooseEdited by Minnemooseus, : Add quotes from Wikipedia.