I want to clon my dog :/

I've had several dogs since I was a kid and have also been around friends and families dogs and I've never had a dog so well behaved and so loving and with such a strong bond with me.  He's been my only company for many many years.

He's an apple head Chihuahua that I rescued from the humane society when he was 3 yrs old.  At first he was very shy and scared, cried at nights and was afraid of people but after a while we bonded and I take him with me everywhere.  Everyone loves him.  I also have two female Chihuahuas but their personalities and behaviors are so different, they never learned to be nice and calm and potty trained like he is.

He's 10 now and I get saddened thinking that he will last probably 15 years tops and I can't breed him because he was neutered before I adopted him.

So, can I clon him?  Is there any company or lab that will do this for a fee?  Is it terribly expensive?  Am I crazy for wanting to do this?

[Ghilly]

You're not crazy for wanting to clone him, but there are several very important facts you need to know before you consider it.

The main thing that you have to keep in mind when thinking about cloning a pet is that the animal will be identical to the one it was cloned from ONLY in the genetic sense.  True enough, it will LOOK just like the other one, but what you have to remember is that no matter HOW hard you try, you can NEVER duplicate the events that happened in the original dog's life to develop the clone's personality.  Absolutely EVERYTHING that happens to us in our lifetimes is responsible for the development of our personalities.  And unless absolutely everything in the clone's life is EXACTLY as it was in the original's life, they are not going to be the same animal mentally.  And it's the mentality and personality that you have grown to love, much moreso than the outward appearance.

When people say that clones are exact duplicates of their originators, it is very misleading to those who don't understand the scientific ins and outs of it.  As I said, genetically the two will be identical.  However that is where all similarities end, and when cloning was developed, the whole point behind it was to be able to exactly replicate superlative individuals of whatever species or breed they are from.  Livestock from exceptionally robust, healthy lines would be cloned to ensure whole herds of robust, healthy individuals.  Dogs who come as close to meeting their written breed standards as is possible would be cloned in the hopes of having other "perfect" dogs to show and breed.  Personalities, however, while determined TO A POINT by nature, are, first and foremost, determined by nurture.  Your chihuahua proves that.  He got off to a HORRIBLE start in life and was afraid of everything and everyone until you got him and turned his little world around.  

Now, this is not to say that if you were to clone your dog, you would get a dog with a terrible personality, because you in all probability would not.  However, it's the way you treated your chi that developed the wonderful bond you have with him, not anything genetic.  And cloned animals, while all identical to their originators PHYSICALLY, are each their own "person" MENTALLY.  It's for this same reason that identical twins can have to completely different personalities.  While they are raised together, each one has different things going on it its life that shapes that twin's personality.  Perhaps one has a classroom full of very sweet classmates that they get along with wonderfully.  The other one might have a bully in their homeroom that makes their life at school a living nightmare, and that twin is going to have a completely different outlook on life and will deal with it in their own way.  Clones are no different.

So before you decide to part with the thousands (or even tens of thousands) of dollars that it would cost you to clone your pet, consider all of this.  Every dog person in the world has that one "heart dog" that they would love to go from one end of their life to the other with, and try as they might, they can never duplicate it.  They aren't supposed to be able to duplicate it because every individual, be they animal or human, is just that; an individual.  And if the clone DOESN'T have the same personality, you will be doubly disappointed because it will look exactly like your current little friend, so it will be all the more frustrating when it doesn't act like him as well.  You may want to read as much as you can about cloning and the personalities of cloned individuals before deciding to undertake something like this.

Ghilly