# Motherfucking idiots in my apartment building **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 9, 2004, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motherfucking-idiots-in-my-apartment-building/254282 "2004-07-09T14:26:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motherfucking-idiots-in-my-apartment-building/254282/181 "2004-07-22T03:59:06Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > When someone wants to breed a herding dog, they don’t say, “Let’s find a dog that shows very little interest in retrieving a ball, and breed it with a dog that shows very little interest in protecting its lair, and by suppressing these traits, all that’ll be left is the herding instinct.” > > No: they find dogs that express the herding instinct **more** than the other dogs, and breed them together. > > Breeding is very often not a process of suppressing undesired characteristics: it is very often a process of emphasizing desired characteristics. I’m saying that by emphasizing desired characteristics, undesired ones get supressed. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motherfucking-idiots-in-my-apartment-building/254282/182 "2004-07-22T12:55:44Z")
> [@Jeff Olsen](#): > > I’m saying that by emphasizing desired characteristics, undesired ones get supressed. Hmm…maybe. If I want a really good herding dog, I may not care so much whether the dog is good around children, or whether it loves to hunt rats, or whether it’s much of a retriever, or whether it likes to swim. I’m not sure why a dog that was good at breeding would necessarily be worse than its ancestors at any of these behaviors. Behavior doesn’t seem to me like a zero-sum game, in which an animal only has a set amount of “points” to spend on different behaviors. It’s 3d6, not point buy, for the real dorks out there :). Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motherfucking-idiots-in-my-apartment-building/254282/183 "2004-07-22T14:09:58Z")
Look at the Poms that I mentioned earlier, they were originally bred from Iclandic sled dogs but selective breeding turned them into little poofy lapdogs. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motherfucking-idiots-in-my-apartment-building/254282/184 "2004-07-22T14:29:59Z")
> [@Jeff Olsen](#): > > Look at the Poms that I mentioned earlier, they were originally bred from Iclandic sled dogs but selective breeding turned them into little poofy lapdogs. We may just be arguing a semantic point–I’m not sure. But my guess is that when they were breeding the Poms, even though they didn’t particularly desire dogs that **hated** pulling sleds, sledpulling wasn’t a desired trait for them; nonetheless, I’m guessing that they didn’t seek out the dogs in which the pulling instinct was most suppressed and breed them with one another. Rather, they sought out dogs in which desired characteristics were most expressed, and bred them with one another regardless of whether the traits they didn’t care about were expressed. But like I said, this may be a purely semantic point. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motherfucking-idiots-in-my-apartment-building/254282/185 "2004-07-22T16:13:24Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > I’m guessing that they didn’t seek out the dogs in which the pulling instinct was most suppressed and breed them with one another. Rather, they sought out dogs in which desired characteristics were most expressed, and bred them with one another regardless of whether the traits they didn’t care about were expressed. Right. The suppression of traits essentially a side effect. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motherfucking-idiots-in-my-apartment-building/254282/186 "2004-07-22T16:33:26Z")
> [@Jeff Olsen](#): > > Right. The suppression of traits essentially a side effect. I think we’re just using different words for the same idea, then. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motherfucking-idiots-in-my-apartment-building/254282/187 "2004-07-22T16:44:10Z")
Glad we could clear that up. Now if we could get **lissener** to realize he’s on the wrong tack. I fear he’s about to be besieged by thespians from several productions of _The Wizard of Oz_, all wondering where their scarecrows went. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/motherfucking-idiots-in-my-apartment-building/254282.md?page=9)