Assuming all the dogs in the world died or otherwise vanished, could the wolf be domesticated again today?

Question

I know the motivation would be there. Many of us would want to recreate the dog. But would it actually be possible, do you think, to do so given the conditions, social, economic, geographic, environmental, etc. of the modern world?

jonmcn49 - Well yes you are right. Whatever would kill the dogs would likely affect the wolves as well. I only set up that scenario so someone who needs to prove how much they know wouldn't answer with, "Why would we want to turn wolves into dogs when we already have more dogs than we can deal with?"

Answer 1

Yes of course you could, it would probably take another 15,000 years of domestication to reach the same diversity dogs are at now but it could be done easily. In fact dogs are wolves at the molecular level, they are also classified as a subspecies of wolf. Not to mention the fact that it would be easier to re-domesticate feral pariah dogs like Dingos etc.... all they are is domesticated dogs that went back to the wild. I know it is possible... I know people who have formed friendships with wild wolves (not captive) and although it would take some time we could easily domesticate wolves and wild dogs and eventually re-create the domestic dog as we know it. As was previously mentioned it has already been done with foxes.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tame_Silver_Fox

Excerpt from Wikipedia... Speed of domestication
Current research indicates that domestication, or the attributes of a domesticated animal, can occur much more quickly[17] than previously believed. Domestication of a wild dog may occur within one or two human generations with deliberate selective breeding. It is also now generally believed that initial domestication was through mutual desire. Wild canines who scavenged around human habitations received more food than their more skittish or fearful counterparts. Canines who attacked people or their children were likely killed or driven away, while those more friendly animals survived. Canines would have been beneficial by chasing away other vermin or scavengers. With their sharp senses, they would also be valuable as an alarm against marauding predators. The relationship is theorized to have developed in this way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog#Ancestry_and_history_of_domestication

In terms of their molecular biology, dogs are wolves (Canis lupus) and the wide variation in their adult morphology probably results from simple changes in developmental rates and timing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_domestic_dog

PS Whats wrong with people?? It would take no genetic engineering, just a few generations of selective breeding...dogs are already wolves its not that far of a leap....

Answer 2

You could set up a artificial selection " manufactory :, so to speak. What we now know about genetics and breeding would facilitate the process. Remember where the dog comes from. I am sure you could find the proper wolf material for artificial selection, after all, hetrozygotes are viable now.

PS Think of the pressure of dog owners to make it happen. Though what ever wiped out dogs would probably affect wolves.

Answer 3

The wolf wouldn't be domesticated, but dogs could be re-created by selectively breeding wolves for acceptance of people. It would take more than a hundred years, more than twenty generations, before you had something you'd want to unleash, so to speak, and your first "product" would be very wolflike; say, a husky, or a light-colored German shepherd.

I'm sorry to say that getting a Dachshund would take much longer. Those short legs are a mutation.

Answer 4

A while ago a scientist conducted an experiment. He selectively bred the most docile foxes from a bunch that he had. After several generations of this selective breeding, he noticed something very startling. Some of the foxes ears began to fold over and look a lot like dog ears. The foxes also began to bark like dogs. These were not dogs, but they began to exhibit some traits we associate with dogs.

I do not think, if dogs were to become extinct, that we could ever make wolves into dogs. I do think that we could breed and train wolves to become like dogs, however.

Answer 5

Thats a particularly well query. If the entire puppies dissipered, vanished I could get one more wolf and make a puppy out of it, or check out. I consider It could be viable. Since puppies got here from the wolf, it could be viable. You could simply need to bred, after which handfed the dogs, and get them connected. It could take ALOT of time.

Answer 6

Of course they can.
It would just take a few genetic engineers here and there, a couple gene splicing and there you have it, the perfect genetically modified wolf turned into a dog in no time.

Answer 7

yes but in order for there to be as many species of dogs as there are today, it would take many thousands if not millions of years

Answer 8

I could see that happening.