That is an interesting thought process. Captive animals like elephants, which are kept under human custody, when given a chance, readily revert back to wilderness. So the hypothesis that domestication too is reversible, is worth testing. Aggressiveness is a character more likely to be useful for hunting and in maintaining territory, much needed in the realities of wilderness than in the confines of domestication.

Very interesting question! I tend to agree with the above line of thinking that aggression does not necessarily negate domestication. When we think of the remaining populations of wolves, for example, the "wildness" tends to look more like "standoffishness" or staying away from human contact, not aggressive incidents. To my knowledge there aren't many instances of wild wolves aggressively attacking humans without cause. Historically we tend to think of domestication having come from wolves/dog ancestors becoming more comfortable around humans and beginning to approach them. I think increasing isolation would be the key to un-domestication.

I can think of a load of related questions about what appear to be some underlying assumptons bing made here - although I may be assuming too much myself :-)

Q 1 - are people breeding dogs for aggressive behaviour? Is it happening? I don't think I've seen any studies that have established that. Dog fighting has decreased - so the demand for breeding dogs that show dog/dog aggression might have decreased. "Guarding" breeds - bred to show behaviours we might or might not describe as aggressive - are they being actively bred for thos traits?

Q2 - are dogs being bred for temperament traits, for other reasons, that increase the chances aggressive behaviour might occur?

Q3 - with domestication were dogs bred to "remove" aggression? Or simply selected for, more or less, depending in the jobs the dogs were expected to fulfil?

I'm sure there are other questions ..but its a great idea to look at it.

Thank you everyone for your replies. It is definitely something I want to look into!

Though not in dog breeding line,as an Animal Science Geneticist, it is stated that aggressive behaviour is genetically controlled to a moderate degree. Aggressiveness is subject to change to some extent on domestication and further breeding,but can revert back when exposed to the wild.

This is a very interesting question, although i think that there are few other things to take into account. First of all, i would consider that with domestication of course the aggression was decreased but also the fear reactions towards us, so dogs were just more flexible not less aggressive per se. I mean, with decreased fear reactions, decrease aggressive behaviors came as well.

Also, i would always consider which kind of training and social experience are the dogs that you mention, facing. From my experience, abusive training, punishment, and bad socialization are more behind these behaviors rather than a "reversion of domestication". And again fear is involved, and we know that fear has a high hereditability rate :)

Very interesting, thanks for bringing it up :)

Hi @Lauren

Regarding your question, there is a very recent article you may want to check. It may give you some insights. Here is the link:

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2021.0813

Or alternately:

https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0813

-- Feel free to discuss --

Regards,

Alam

HI, I would definitely look toward the Baleav/Trut silver for experiments - the couple have spent many, many years looking at fox domestication and aggression. They started with a line of wild foxes and bred the tamest together and within four generations began to see a transition to domestication syndrome. They also bred FOR aggression. https://www.pnas.org/content/115/41/10398.

Hope this helps,

Helen