So what you’re saying is that wolves made “fetch” happen. Gretchen is going to be pissed.
In most domestication situations humans weren’t the ones directing the domestication. Just kind of adapted to them. Like with cereals that mutated to not disperse because humans were carrying them around and dispersing for them. Reduced neophoboia and reduced dispersal drive, the key things for wolf domestication, just came about from wolves eating human settlement trash and breeding with the others that would stick around instead of doing the natural thing and dispersing to new territory. For the most part adult wolves do not tolerate their sexually mature offspring sticking around their territory (and the mature offspring do not tolerate their parents). That’s why you can go and raise a wolf pup just fine today, but don’t expect it to turn into a dog.
So dogs (wolves) invented fetch and we’ve been buying into their scam of taking care of them this whole time!?!? Jk. I wish I had a dog to play fetch with. What is your favorite breed? Mine is Alaskan Husky. I had a neighbor with one growing up.
And they picked the species with the best throwing ability.
I’m pretty sure dogs and cats are both in cahoots in our domestication.
I’m a sucker for pit bulls. I was afraid of them when I was a kid, but my brother got one in college and she (Cuddles) was the sweetest dog I’ve ever interacted with. I try to ignore breed for the most part when I’m adopting dogs, but in my area “mutt” basically means 50+% pit bull, so I’ve had a few pitties now and they have all been amazing friends
I love a good mutt, but Boston Terriers are just fucking hilarious. So much personality crammed into a little body.
Don’t rule out the possibility of autistic people realizing it was simpler to communicate, hunt, play, and share warmth with wolves than with other humans.
So, in theory, we could have groups of wolves playing baseball out there if we can teach them how to bat.
Finally the Air-Bud / Air-Wolf crossover episode we’ve all been waiting for.
Not going to lie, but I’d watch even a crappy version of air-bud BC about wolves letting a person (Bud) play fetch with them
keep writting, i’m interested
Or we could create some sort of like dog cyborg that has a bat backpack.
Then they only have to be trained to stand in the correct locations and run on the appropriate calls, which could be communicated to them by their handlers on the bat backpack.
By Jove, I think we’ve got it.
It’s so cool how humans domesticated animals by making good trades with them, and then we proceeded to get the best of said trades because we’re smarter!
Then many generations after that, the wolf has become the chihuahua, and both species are far worse off by it
If i throw a bag with food in it, my dog will fetch it exactly once. demand the food inside, and if i put more in, and throw it again, she looks at me like i’m an idiot and walks away.
The domestication process is endless fascinating to me.
From what I’ve heard dogs being used as livestock may have led to the specific role they have today. Still insane to think people tried to eat wolves though lol
Why is that insane? We have culinary theory now, but before?
It’s dead, made of meat-food, and you have a group to feed.
