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Thought about posting this to r/nostupidquestions, but I kind of have half of the answer but not the other half. I started wondering about this when I saw a video of a baby with a dog much larger than her.
I know humans bred dogs from wolves to be companions/working animals while cats (probably) adopted us for the mice around our grain stores.
What I don’t know is: 1. Why are dogs such a wide range of sizes and appearances? Most dogs can technically reproduce either each other, which I know is one of the criteria for a species. Is there a physiological reason? Is there an inherent reason big dogs are often calmer than small dogs, or are they mostly bred that way so they don’t hurt people?
- In the same vein, what’s stopping humans from breeding a domestic cat that’s the size of a pitbull? The largest domestic cat I’ve ever seen was a Maine coon, which was about 15-20 lbs. I also know some people keep smaller big cats and hybrids as pets, which I personally feel is irresponsible because of their needs and temperament. Would it be possible to ethically breed a house cat that was the size of a big cat, but with a calmer temperament?
Hopefully I’ve explained my thinking well enough. Thank you in advance.
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The point is inappropriately hyperactive rather than just hyperactive. Some of the most hyper dogs are working dogs, particularly herding and hunting, dogs like spaniels or collies. They're wired to the fucking moon. They were bred to work all day every day. If they're given a job to do they're great and burn a lot of that energy out. As pets they can be absolute nightmares. A lot of people think it's the physical activity that they need. In part they're right. What's often missing is the mental activity if a job to do. Physical activity alone only ends up with a very fit dog that was genetically predisposed to being fit and in the go already.