Why aren't the different breeds of dogs different species?

Question

Dog breeds exist because humans basically forced them to evolve aka bred them. Now there are breeds that look VERY different from each other, yet they are still the same species. So how could the dog breeds evolve so much through the accelerated evolution that humans forced upon them but still all be the same species?

Yes, I KNOW they're all the same species, and I know the definition species. My question is WHY aren't they all different species? The ancestors of all the purebreds were all isolated from each other and forced to evolve by humans. They should theoretically have evolved to different species by now, but they aren't. If the theory of evolution is true, then all the different purebreds should be different species, but somehow they aren't. Why?

Answer 1

Ok, I misunderstood your question. You're asking why dog breeds are still able to reproduce with each other and haven't split into species, even though we have "forced evolution on them".

Dog breeds haven't had a speciation event for several reasons. First, evolution usually takes a very long time (at least for complex multicellular organisms like mammals). If we took two breeds and separated them for hundreds of thousands or millions of years, they would certainly be incapable of interbreeding. Man has domesticated dogs for, what, a few thousand years? There simply hasn't been enough time for mutations to accumulate to an extent where breeds become species. But you are right, we are driving evolution through artificial selection and accelerating this process, however, dog breeds are selected based on physical and behavioral traits, while divergence of two species requires "deeper" changes to genes that are more crucial to survival than coat color or retrieving instinct.

Also, you answer your own question: you understand that speciation requires reproductive isolation, but you also imply that dog breeds are able to (and DO) mate with each other. Since there is still a lot of gene shuffling going on, this maintains enough similarities to ensure compatibility among breeds, thereby preventing divergence of species.

Answer 2

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RE:
Why aren't the different breeds of dogs different species?
Dog breeds exist because humans basically forced them to evolve aka bred them. Now there are breeds that look VERY different from each other, yet they are still the same species. So how could the dog breeds evolve so much through the accelerated evolution that humans forced upon them but still...

Answer 3

Species is just a conceptual term, that's really rather arbitrary. We use it because it's useful and convenient to categorize organisms. There's no perfect definition of what a species is; the "interbreeding" definition suggested by Mayr is now used less and less since so many different species can interbreed, despite remaining in isolation from each other.

There is complete legitimacy in arguements that certain dog species should be reclassified as separate species (for starters, it's obvious that a Great Dane can't really reproduce easily with a Chihuahua).

Answer 4

Dogs may look different due to interbreeding and mutation over many years , just like humans have different races. They the same species if an organism is a able to interbreed and produce fertile off spring... eg horse and a donkey can breed and produce a mule but the mule is unable to produce offspring... therefore they are not the same species

Answer 5

The owner of the dog needs to know how to "operate" the dog, same way you can get into a car that's in perfect running order but if you don't know how to drive you won't have much luck making the car go anywhere. If the owner doesn't know how to maintain the training, the dog will soon become untrained again. Read more here https://tinyurl.im/n0M2r

People seem to think that once a dog is trained, that's it. Not true. You must reinforce the dog's training every single day in some way. It's best if the owner and the dog go together to get trained. As a professional trainer once said to me "We can train any dog in 2 days. It takes longer to train the owners

Answer 6

There are different races of people, but we're all one species.
Basically if two animals can reproduce and produce fertile offspring, then the parents are of the same species.

Answer 7

Individuals of 2 different species cannot breed with each other to produce viable offspring.

Dogs of any breed can mate and produce viable offspring with any other breed, so all dogs are of the same species.

Answer 8

You just answered your own question; if they were different species, then they couldn't interbreed. Since they can, they're the same species. As to how they came to be, you also answered your own question; they occurred due to human intervention, rather than through natural evolution.

Answer 9

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Answer 10

As a professional dog trainer for over 16 years, I have to tell you my strong opinion that you need these group classes for obedience training. http://OnlineDogTraining.enle.info/?PX0U

Other pet warehouses are there to get you to buy their products and hang around their strore. And their trainers are their employees...never forget they have an agenda. Most of the trainers have very little education--if they had actual training and skills they wouldn't be there making just over minimum wage--trust me on this. But even if they did have experience and talent...a group setting is a terrible place for learning to take place. It's distraction training and it is the LAST phase of training not the first. You wouldn't have your child try to do their homework in a toy store, would you? Of course not...the level of distraction would be too high! It's the same with dogs. Having said that, these classes can be an excellent way to socialize dogs...but not to train them. And while they appear to be cheaper than a professional trainer...you have to attend many more sessions to get the same results because of the poor learning environment--so you wind up spending MORE money for less training than you would with a professional. Save your money and go to someone who actually knows how to train dogs. OR, read books and try to train your dog yourself. There is nothing they train at a Petsmart or Petco that you can't do yourself with a couple of hours of reading.