Domesticated is such a lovely word. Cattle are domesticated, but you really don't want cattle and pigs inside the house and in fact, the "mini pig" movement has wreaked havoc on many a TV living-room couch.
The degree of flexibility in gene expression in dogs and dog-related creatures must play some part in this, to be able to shift behaviour inter-generationally so strongly. But I couldn't see a single instance of the word "epigenetics" in the wiki article. Hormone expression in female foxes might be one of those "if the switch doesn't turn off, it stays on" things, or "once the switch has turned off it can't turn on again" things, so that behaviour in early childhood preserves an open door which in the wild would shut off. You wouldn't need an epigenetic effect to achieve that if the swich behaviour is latent in the gene expression as-is, maybe over 1000 years it moves to favour a different state of hormesis/homeostasis (probably mis-using one, or both terms)
Also take note of the "breeding for aggression" side of the story. We do this all the time with pit-bull terriers and German Shephards and Rottweilers.
I often watch videos on the SaveAFox channel. They are wonderful creatures and can easily be interacted with, but they are not potty trained and will pee everywhere to mark their territory.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 20.1 ms ] threadThe degree of flexibility in gene expression in dogs and dog-related creatures must play some part in this, to be able to shift behaviour inter-generationally so strongly. But I couldn't see a single instance of the word "epigenetics" in the wiki article. Hormone expression in female foxes might be one of those "if the switch doesn't turn off, it stays on" things, or "once the switch has turned off it can't turn on again" things, so that behaviour in early childhood preserves an open door which in the wild would shut off. You wouldn't need an epigenetic effect to achieve that if the swich behaviour is latent in the gene expression as-is, maybe over 1000 years it moves to favour a different state of hormesis/homeostasis (probably mis-using one, or both terms)
Also take note of the "breeding for aggression" side of the story. We do this all the time with pit-bull terriers and German Shephards and Rottweilers.