Why dogs look like their owners

They say dogs look like their owners. Now scientists may have come up with an explanation - humans share three-quarters of our genes with canines.

The two species have in common more than 650million of the chemical units which make up DNA. Dr Craig Venter, a US expert who led the team which unlocked the human genetic code - or genome - used a male standard poodle as his source to map the canine genome. He said: 'In little more than a decade genomics has advanced greatly and we now have approximately 150 complete genomes including the human, mouse and fruit fly.' Scientists at the Institute for Genomic Research in Maryland hope the study will identify genes which cause diseases common to humans and dogs.