Breeding All Dogs...

[Curtisio]

As I understand it humans started breeding dogs for specific jobs in Egyptian times

Cockers were first bred in the middle of the last millennium, but this all seems a lot quicker than evolution and natural selection could do the job

Can anyone explain, how over a few hundred years with selective breeding, you can come up with a completely different breed of dog, and where do you start?

Also, how before Darwin’s theories, did people over two millennia or even 500 years ago get the idea how to change breeds when they thought everything was created by one god or another...

...bit deep, sorry.

[Curtisio]

Well...  all the breeders on COL and nobody knows the origins of breeding or how it works  

oh well! back to the internet to find the answer

[Jane S]

Sorry guys I didn't see your post yesterday but this sort of question can't be answered simply - there are various theories on how different breeds of dog evolved & when this process started with modern studies disagreeing with past studies (as always ) If you're interested in a modern look at how dogs evolved, try & get hold of the Coppinger book "Dogs : A Startling New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior & Evolution". I warn you it's a heavy book (I haven't read all of it yet) but v interesting.

Jane

[Curtisio]

Thanks Jane...

I'll see if the library has a copy... I doubt it, if not thats definitely on order, because I just can't get my head around it...

[Curtisio]

OH! no...[/size] there another bloke who disagrees with Coppinger - two books to read  

[Jane S]

OH! no...[/size] there another bloke who disagrees with Coppinger - two books to read 

[snapback]130096[/snapback]

I'm sure there's more than one

Jane

[Cayley]

In short (sort of) it's a case of selective breeding, choosing dogs with certain characteristics and breeding them together, sometimes parents to there own progeny . Nothing like talking about insest on a Friday is there   . I think the dogs with webbed feet have gone a bit to far though   .
I had to do an essay about canine evolution, the first dogs were around 15,000 years ago if I remeber correctly.

[Penel]

Eh ? lots of gundogs have webbed feet  on purpose !!!!

[Cayley]

Eh ? lots of gundogs have webbed feet  on purpose !!!!

[snapback]130182[/snapback]

I know of some breeds with webbed feet, I was just joking about the webbed paws being linked to inbreeding.

[Penel]

Ahh sorry didn't get it that you were joking !!!!!  If only interbreeding just caused webbed feet...our pedigree dogs would be in a far better state than they are healthwise.