Unser Haushund: Eine Spitzmaus im Wolfspelz? - Wolf-Ekkehard ...

ig eyes, and floppy ears.136Coppinger has raised guarding and herding dogs together from babyhood. They show littledifference in behavior until puberty. Herders then develop the standard traits of adulthood — borderCollies begin to stalk, while retrievers and pointers live up to their names. But the guarders develop nonew patterns and simply retain their youthful traits. Thus, a valuable set of features can be recruitedtogether because they already exist as the normal form and behavior of juvenile dogs. Patterns ofgrowth are rich reservoirs, not sterile strictures.Worauf Gould die folgenden positiven und negativen Seiten des Neotenie-Themas aus historischer Sicht anspricht (p. 395):"One tradition of argument identifies neoteny with all that is good and kind — "Except ye beconverted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Yet I resist anyfacile transference between natural realities and human hopes if only because the dark side of social utilityshould teach us caution in proposing analogies.Neoteny certainly has its dark side in social misconstruction. Konrad Lorenz, who, to put it as kindly aspossible, made his life in Nazi Germany more comfortable by tailoring his views on animal behavior to theprevailing orthodoxy, often argued during the early 1940s that civilization is the analogue ofdomestication. Domestic animals are often neotenous; neotenous animals retain the flexibility of youth anddo not develop the instinctive and healthy aversion that mature creatures feel toward deformed andunworthy members of their race. Since humans have therefore lost this instinctive power to reject thegenetically harmful, Lorenz defended Nazi racial and marriage laws as a mirror of nature's mature ways.Still, I cannot help noting, since dogs are descended from wolves, and humans really are neotenous inboth form and behavior (without justifying Lorenz's fatuous and hateful reveries), that the neoteny of sheepguardingdogs does fulfill, in a limited sense, one of the oldest and most beautiful of all prophecies:"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb … and a little child shall lead them."”Soweit die Ausführungen Goulds. Fahren wir mit dem Wikipedia-Text zu denverschiedenen Hunderassen unter dem Neotenie-Aspekt fort:"Gun dog breeds used in hunting—that is, pointers, setters, spaniels, and retrievers—have anintermediate degree of paedomorphism; they are at the point where they share in the pack's huntingbehavior, but are still in a junior role, not participating in the actual attack. They identify potential preyand freeze into immobility, for instance, but then refrain from stalking the prey as an adult predatorwould do; this results in the "pointing" behavior for which such dogs are bred. Similarly, they seize dead orwounded prey and bring it back to the "pack", even though they did not attack it themselves, that is,"retrieving" behavior. Their physical characteristics are closer to that of the mature wild canine than thesheepdog breeds, but they typically do not have erect ears, etc.Scenthounds maintain an intermediate body type and behavior pattern that causes them to actuallypursue prey by tracking their scent, but tend to refrain from actual individual attacks in favor of vocallysummoning the pack leaders (in this case, humans) to do the job. They often have a characteristicvocalization called a bay. Some examples are the Beagle, Bloodhound, Basset Hound, Coonhound,Dachshund, Fox Hound, Otter Hound, and Harrier.Sighthounds, who pursue and attack perceived prey on sight, maintain the mature canine size and somefeatures, such as narrow chest and lean bodies, but have largely lost the erect ears of the wolf and thickdouble layered coats. Some examples are the Afghan Hound, Borzoi, Saluki, Sloughi, Pharaoh Hound,Azawakh, Whippet, and Greyhound.Den Verlust der thick double layered coats bei mehreren Rassen möchte ichbesonders unterstreichen (Verlustmutation!). Zu den folgenden letzten dreiGruppen wird nichts mehr zum Thema Verhalten und Neotenie gesagt (alsmorphologische Merkmale könnte man jedoch zu den Mastiffs und zum Teil auchfür die Bulldoggen wieder short faces, big eyes, and floppy ears aufführen):Mastiff-types are large dogs, both tall and massive with barrel-like chests, large bones, and thick skulls.They have traditionally been bred for war, protection, and guardian work.Bulldog-types are medium sized dogs bred for combat against both wild and domesticated animals. Thesedogs have a massive, square skull and large bones with an extremely muscular build and broad shoulders.