How are dogs so trusting in the world we live in?

Their brains have been scrambeled by generations of in breeding. For example if you give a wolf a secure wooden box full of meat it breaks the box. Give it to a dog and it just looks at you with pleeding eyes unsure what to do.

Sometimes, but most certainly not always Peter.

My point is if you took humans and subjected them to generations of breeding to make them dossile and pliable you might find they were rather trusting too ... and probably brain damaged by medical standards.

Martin said:

produces the physical changes seen in many domestic dogs when compared to their grey wolf ancestors.

Well naturally !  Quite literally !!

Sorry if I have miscommunicated my understandings of this matter.

I have (and surely there can be no doubt that) my quote from you above is de facto truth.

Foxes are foxes, members of the Canidae, the same family as wolves and dogs. The red, bushy-tailed animals that rich people used to hunt on horseback, the same animals who raid suburban waste bins. The take home message is that selecting for docility and friendliness in a wild animal produces changes in physical characteristics as well. These physical characteristics produced in foxes remarkably mimic those seen in the domestication of the grey wolf when humans turned the grey wolf into the dog. All dogs are descendants of grey wolves. Many dogs have, compared to grey wolves, shortened jaws/snouts, variegated coat colours and patterns, floppy ears and curled tails (think huskies). The surprising thing is that selecting for behavioural traits, and only behavioural traits, produces the physical changes seen in many domestic dogs when compared to their grey wolf ancestors.

In reverse, the domesticated physical characteristics in modern dogs can be viewed as evidence that their ancestors were selectively bred, not for these physical features, but for friendliness to humans. Hence dogs being trusting of humans, even when perhaps the should not. They have been selectively bred to trust humans and are now genetically programmed to be so.

Martin said:

Sound familiar?

Yes.  I understand what breeding means.

In the particular experiment you mention with those foxes, I can't imagine or visualise the type of animal that you describe?  Did they become monkeys? - it's the "curled tail" that is putting me off ?!  Novel coat?!  Pokimen?

Nope - Number computes as zero.

This keeps happening.

Reset button defective.

PS - Even with the very best "selective breeding" programme that you can envisage, the litters/off-spring will still regularly surprise and confuse the logic and aims of selective breeding.  I've met Lions who are mice and ants that are crocodiles.  Its the simple wonders that I like.

PPS - Please put me out of my misery regarding your animal please.

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There was a multi-generational experiment with foxes. They were selectively bred solely on the grounds of being friendly towards and handleable by humans. Within a few generations, these foxes, selected only on their disposition, developed shorter jaws, novel coat colours and patterns, less erect ears and curled tails. Sound familiar?

Hmmmmm....With every human, and with every dog, I NEVER choose to judge by the cover.....personally.  Moreover, your proposed "rule of thumb" above, certainly doesn't correspond with my experience of dogs IRL.  The character and behaviour of a dog does not correspond to its appearance, although it's physical prowess DOES normally correspond in the way you suggest.

Hmmmmm....With every human, and with every dog, I NEVER choose to judge by the cover.....personally.  Moreover, your proposed "rule of thumb" above, certainly doesn't correspond with my experience of dogs IRL.  The character and behaviour of a dog does not correspond to its appearance, although it's physical prowess DOES normally correspond in the way you suggest.