i'd say chicauaus (sp?) and dobermans look pretty different to wolves in the blink of eye in evolutionary terms...
if humans dies out tmr, the dingoes in Australia would speciate away from other dogs and wolves very quickly
evolution doesn't let you jump from a to b without an intermediate stage, but some things may still happen very quickly, especially if there is a positive feedback loop
as for the debate between gradual and puntuated equilibria, it's on going and nobody in the debate doubts evolution itself