It might even be inevitable. Even humans display “domestication syndrome” in comparison with our closest primate relatives, and bonobos also seem to have changed in analogous ways when they became more sociable.
Williams syndrome is a rare condition in humans that causes them to have particular facial features, a very friendly and extroverted personality, and some intellectual disability. It occurs when a certain chunk of genes are deleted in development.
Dogs have an equivalent region in their DNA, and friendliness in dogs and wolves seems to correspond to which variant they have for one of the relevant genes. So our domestication efforts are kind of like breeding the closest thing we can manage to a disability into them.
It might even be inevitable. Even humans display “domestication syndrome” in comparison with our closest primate relatives, and bonobos also seem to have changed in analogous ways when they became more sociable.
Williams syndrome is a rare condition in humans that causes them to have particular facial features, a very friendly and extroverted personality, and some intellectual disability. It occurs when a certain chunk of genes are deleted in development.
Dogs have an equivalent region in their DNA, and friendliness in dogs and wolves seems to correspond to which variant they have for one of the relevant genes. So our domestication efforts are kind of like breeding the closest thing we can manage to a disability into them.
https://www.aip.org/inside-science/rare-human-syndrome-may-explain-why-dogs-are-so-friendly