Mankind's hubris knows no bounds
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From the show I saw, the early choice was between foxes that would immediately try to kill you versus foxes that would be willing to let you live. The floppy ears and curly tails happened very gradually in the process.
The "not selected" foxes were snarling and snapping and generally being nasty as hell.
There were other serious problems standing in the way of making them pets. Probably the worst is that they pee everywhere, and the pee is extremely foul smelling, so you can't keep them in the house, no matter how friendly they might be.
They also don't make cute or useful sound like a bark, or a purr, they make a really loud, very annoying wail, that gets on the nerves of even the most ardent fox lover.
Even after all these years of breeding, these serious issues remain, keeping them from becoming viable pets for the foreseeable future.
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This post did not contain any content.wrote on last edited by [email protected]
It's going to cost a fortune to feed that beast.
And he's going to hog the bed.
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So, the thing is, the genes for size don't add up or multiply, they overlap and the dominant ones win. If your goal is bigger then it's better to just pick the biggest ones from many litters and breed them, as is the origin of many of the large breeds listed.
Pictured here is Irish Wolfhound.
The first time I saw one of those was in person, and also the weirdest place. Was installing internet for a small business and they had a California king size bed in an office right behind the reception desk and this giant fucking dog was taking up the entire bed.
I hella want one so my huge ass could ride a dog like a horse. They are that big.
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The first time I saw one of those was in person, and also the weirdest place. Was installing internet for a small business and they had a California king size bed in an office right behind the reception desk and this giant fucking dog was taking up the entire bed.
I hella want one so my huge ass could ride a dog like a horse. They are that big.
TBH I kind of like small dogs. If trained with proper strictness and authority they're just as likely to attack babies and small animals as a big dog but far less capable of doing harm. I wouldn't trust dogs with their own litters, I barely trust people to be rational so I would never expect a dog to just "be good."
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TBH I kind of like small dogs. If trained with proper strictness and authority they're just as likely to attack babies and small animals as a big dog but far less capable of doing harm. I wouldn't trust dogs with their own litters, I barely trust people to be rational so I would never expect a dog to just "be good."
I would never expect a dog to just "be good."
Nobody should. They need to be taught what is good and bad just like a person. If you want a pet that can basically care for itself, get a cat.
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So, the thing is, the genes for size don't add up or multiply, they overlap and the dominant ones win. If your goal is bigger then it's better to just pick the biggest ones from many litters and breed them, as is the origin of many of the large breeds listed.
Pictured here is Irish Wolfhound.
While that is using a bit of forced perspective, they are big dogs.
I knew someone with one and it could lick the dirty plates in the sink without having to jump on, or even reach over, the counter.
I think he weighed just over 200 pounds.
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It's going to cost a fortune to feed that beast.
And he's going to hog the bed.
Don't forget walks.
That dog doesn't "get taken" for a walk, it'll take you for a walk. Or a drag.
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This post did not contain any content.wrote on last edited by [email protected]
This sounds like an attempt to recreate mollosoi dogs, just with extra steps.
I'm fairly confident that the examples given would result in a large (but not giant), smart, and people friendly dog that could still operate successfully without a handler. Not in the first generation, but eventually.
Tbh, don't even need wolves in the mix; they don't really bring much to the table, and you aren't going to maintain that look past three or four generations to begin with. Wolf-dogs that breed with each other don't hold on to a wolfish look for very many generations as it is, even when they're all mixed with the same dog breed. Hiding mixing in that many dog breeds, you're looking at what? 1/32 wolf by the time you have a breed that's no longer being crosses outside of established individuals from the project. Maybe it's 1/64th, I can't remember what it came out to when someone did the math on reddit about how many generations it would take to no longer be breeding half breeds at all, with a stable population for the project.
If you leave wolves out, you already have a more stable pool that you can select traits from for each succeeding generation. You just can't keep a wolf appearance without breeding wolves only, and even then you'd have to select each generation for that look to the exclusion of other traits.
Part of the reason dog breeds exist is those repeating chains of DNA that most (but not all, supposedly) canids have. Can't remember the right term for it, but the Russian foxes also rely on that quirk. When that's in play, you can breed for specific traits, but the more focused you get on one, or one small set, the more the others express themselves, hence the curly tails and floppy ears of the Russian "domesticated" foxes. You select for friendliness, you get "softer" looks. You select for looks, you get some combination of other traits (like the skittishness some smaller breeds are known for).
We already have a good idea of what traits breeding for size gets, and we have an idea of what breeding to visual standards gets when that standard is wolfish.
Edit: the Wiki summary for mollosoi dogs
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It's going to cost a fortune to feed that beast.
And he's going to hog the bed.
Probably also going to have serious heart problems.
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The first time I saw one of those was in person, and also the weirdest place. Was installing internet for a small business and they had a California king size bed in an office right behind the reception desk and this giant fucking dog was taking up the entire bed.
I hella want one so my huge ass could ride a dog like a horse. They are that big.
For anyone considering getting one: sadly the bigger the dog is, the shorter the lifespan usually. Irish wolfhounds are already old at around 6 years. Just be prepared
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The biggest dog I've ever met was a great dane that weighed 80kg (~176lbs). I'm short, but his back was on my waist-height, and his head was a lot bigger than mine. He was completely black too, so quite the startling sight running towards you, genuinely looked like some sort of hell hound lmao. He was very friendly though, we met him at a dog park.
The owner also told me they had to order custom harnesses for him, since nothing commercially made was big enough -
I would never expect a dog to just "be good."
Nobody should. They need to be taught what is good and bad just like a person. If you want a pet that can basically care for itself, get a cat.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]And don't expect them to be 'good'.
Wonderful, beautiful, perfect, precious. But not good.
