Biology Reference
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both behaviorally and physically. In the forward to “The Wild Canids”
( Fox, 1975 ), Conrad Lorenz adds a few of his observations on neoteny and
the problems of domestication:
The problems of domestication have been an obsession with me for many years.
On the one hand, I am convinced that man owes the life-long persistence of
his constitutive curiosity and explorative playfulness to a partial neoteny which
is indubitably a consequence of domestication. In a curiously analogous manner
does the domestic dog owe its permanent attachment to its master to a behavioral
neoteny that prevents it from ever wanting to be a pack leader? On the other
hand, domestication is apt to cause an equally alarming disintegration of
valuable behavioral traits and an equally alarming exaggeration of less
desirable ones.
Infantile characteristics in domestic animals are discussed by Price
(1984) , Lambooij and van Putten (1993) , Coppinger and Coppinger (1993) ,
Coppinger and Scheider (1993) , and Coppinger et al. (1987) . The shortened
muzzle in dogs and pigs is an example. Domestic animals have been selected
for a juvenile head shape, shortened muzzles, and other features ( Coppinger
and Smith, 1983 ). Furthermore, retaining juvenile traits makes animals more
tractable and easy to handle. The physical changes are also related to
changes in behavior.
Genetic studies point to the wolf as the ancestor of domestic dogs ( Isaac,
1970 ). During domestication, dogs retained many infant wolf behaviors.
For example, wolf pups bark and yap frequently, but adult wolves rarely
bark. Domestic dogs bark frequently ( Fox, 1975; Scott and Fuller, 1965 ).
Wolves have hard-wired instinctive behavior patterns that determine domi-
nance or submission in social relationships. In domestic dogs, the ancestral
social behavior patterns of the wolf are fragmented and incomplete. Frank
and Frank (1982) observed that the rigid social behavior of the wolf has
disintegrated into “an assortment of independent behavioral fragments.”
Malamutes raised with wolf pups fail to read the social behavior signals of
the wolf pups. Further comparisons found that the physical development
of motor skills is slower in the malamute. Goodwin et al. (1997) studied
10 different dog breeds, ranging from German shepherds and Siberian huskies
to bulldogs, cocker spaniels, and terriers. They found that breeds which
retained the greatest repertoire of wolf-like social behaviors were breeds that
physically resembled wolves, such as German shepherds and huskies. Barnett
et al.(1979) and Price (1984) both conclude that experience may also cause
animals to retain juvenile traits. Gould (1977) found that the effects of neoteny
are determined by changes in a few genes that determine the timing of differ-
ent developmental stages. On average, wolves are smarter than dogs on a test
involving spatial orientation and pulling rope. All the adult wolves passed the
most complex version of this test, but only five out of 40 German shepherds
could do it ( Hiestand, 2011 ).
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