What IS the difference between wolves and dogs and other canids, really?

[dropzone]

@Qadgop_the_Mercotan

I have also read that the process of domestication (at least with dogs and foxes) often results in a tendency towards urinary incontinence along with the desirable traits.

Hey! My canids are generally housebroken, urinarilly (as long as I keep them out of my room) and only crap in the kitchen if I sleep late. And keep them out of my room.

@Derleth

Right. Humans and dogs co-evolved, and dogs certainly wouldn’t exist without humans (and I’m not sure humans would exist in entirely the same way without dogs)…

Nah. We’d’ve been dead meat tens of thousands years ago if it weren’t for those craptastic monsters. (looking for a cite)

@senoy

All that I know is that if you start calling dogs dumb, regardless of how true that is or how much evidence you may have, all of the ‘dog parents’ of the world are going to have your head. That’s not a hill worth dying on.

Not remotely true! Dumbfuck doesn’t seem to be offended, though he’s too stupid to recognize an insult, and the Stupid Fucking Dogs don’t seem to care. And I guarantee their mothers would agree.

@Sailboat

Don’t know, but I believe it was Jon Franklin in The Wolf in the Parlor: How the Dog Came to Share Your Brain who noted that at the time we began living with dogs,* the volume of the brain decreased about 10% in both dogs [relative to wolves] and humans. From this, he speculated that we humans “farmed out” some of our sensory, guarding and hunting tasks to dogs, permitting us to spend less energy on brain development, and dogs let us make decisions and help find food and shelter, permitting them to spend less energy on their brain development. Specialization and all that.

It’s called “delegation.” We’re the managers and took over that role from their mothers, though I’ve delegated that to my smarter bitches. Dogs are too stupid to command, or even to survive, and i assume alpha she-wolves would agree.