Which breed was the first dog to be cloned, in 2005?

The Afghan Hound was the first dog breed to be cloned, in 2005.

The cloned puppy was named Snuppy, a blend of Seoul National University and “puppy.” South Korean researchers led by Woo Suk Hwang created him using an ear-cell nucleus from a three-year-old male Afghan Hound. Snuppy was born on April 24, 2005, after the team transferred more than 1,000 embryos into surrogate dogs.

Dog cloning was especially difficult because canine eggs mature and can be collected only during a narrow part of the reproductive cycle. Of 123 surrogate mothers, only two puppies were born; one died shortly after birth, leaving Snuppy as the surviving first clone.

A common mix-up is confusing the breed of the genetic donor with the breed of the surrogate mother. Snuppy’s surrogate was a Labrador Retriever, but his genetic source was an Afghan Hound. Later research confirmed that Snuppy was genuinely genetically cloned, despite unrelated controversies surrounding Hwang’s stem-cell research. In 2008, Snuppy also became involved in the first known successful breeding between cloned dogs.