Actually I’m quite convinced they ARE NOT like other dogs.
The reason is, the whole thing has been done - kind of - in reverse.
Scientists in Russia tried the opposite, in the case of some type of fox that lives there. The reasons were selfish - the fox has a very luxuriant coat which makes very costly fur coats.
So they started trying to domesticate them by primarily picking the most human adapted animals from the litters and breeding them.
They ended up having a very successful program, and had fully domesticated foxes virtually identical to domesticated dogs.
Seven generations was all it took.
The wolf and the dog are now considered genetically identical by the scientists who know about such things.
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Hyenas might take eight. |
The reasons, by the way, had absolutely nothing to do with fur coats. It was a Soviet breeding program exactly as you described, and it is “almost” still in existence, which is to say a number of researchers have essentially adopted the foxes, some of which they sell. Apparently they are docile and affectionate!