# Is this two-headed dog real?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-two-headed-dog-real/693430
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 18, 2014, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-two-headed-dog-real/693430 "2014-07-18T06:22:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2014, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-two-headed-dog-real/693430/1 "2014-07-18T06:22:23Z")
Just saw this story about a [two-headed dog](http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/soviet-scientists-made-this-two-headed-dog) on reddit. The Soviets grafted half a puppy onto the neck of another dog. There’s a video halfway down the page. It only lived a few days, apparently, but in the meantime they could both be fed, share the body, etc. Seemed like something out of a cheesy horror movie, but the video looked pretty real.
Am I being swooshed? Do people still make animals like that? Does it ever happen in nature?
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2014, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-two-headed-dog-real/693430/2 "2014-07-18T06:41:49Z")
Yes, it was real. I remember this from the late 50s. I don’t know what it was supposed to prove, if anything.
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### Author:  [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2014, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-two-headed-dog-real/693430/3 "2014-07-18T06:45:56Z")
It was most assuredly real. Wikipedia article on [Vladimir Demikhov](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Demikhov)
Not too many two headed conjoined twin dogs on a google search, but there are a set of very famous two headed conjoined human twins, [Abigail and Brittany Hensel.](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2195220/Conjoined-twins-Abigail-Brittany-Hensel-offer-glimpse-extraordinary-world.html)
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-two-headed-dog-real/693430/4 "2014-07-18T17:19:45Z")
Thank you.
And wow, those twins are amazing. They seem like really cool girls. I hope I have the good fortune of meeting them sometime in this life, however unlikely that is.
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### Author:  [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2014, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-two-headed-dog-real/693430/5 "2014-07-18T18:27:08Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> I don’t know what it was supposed to prove, if anything.
Why did I click on that. That’s just…what the hell. Is this where they got the idea for Human Centipede?!
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-two-headed-dog-real/693430/6 "2014-07-18T18:48:21Z")
I suppose it has some bearing on transplant surgeries. After all, kidney and liver transplants are usually “additive,” putting an additional organ in beside the failed/weak ones.
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### Author:  [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2014, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-two-headed-dog-real/693430/7 "2014-07-19T09:32:58Z")
Note that all of the dog grafting experiments performed by Demikhov failed quite quickly, as the animals died due to rejection or infection. But arguably they were early steps in the direction of transplant surgery.