The N tional Dog Training Academy The Silver Fox Study The N tional Dog Training Academy

How Tameness Developed in a Controlled Study To get an idea about how tameness or domestication can be bred as a trait into wild animals take a look at the following slides about the Silver Fox Study - Belyaev's Foxes.

The Silver Fox Study – Belyaev’s Foxes Taming the Foxes The foxes were bred in Fur Farms They were not tame and were kept in cages In the 1950’s a team of Russian scientists began selectively breeding Only the tamest foxes over generations were used Initially very few foxes would tolerate handling, even for food reward Breeding continued only from those that would tolerate handling www.aadogtraining.co.uk e. sandra@aadogtraining.co.uk

Taming became easier A few generations later some foxes would actively seek human contact & 35 generations later the tamed foxes, started behaving dog like – wagging tails, whimpering for attention some were taken and kept as pets they became less anxious and stressed as they were now used to human contact As the time length before becoming frightened, increased, so the taming became easier.

Period of Trust Most mammals have an initial period of being trusting and inquisitive. This is usually at the time when they are protected by their parents. In farm foxes this period is usually 6 weeks but as the foxes became more tame the period extended to 9 weeks. This extra 3 weeks allowed time for the foxes to build trust being handled by the humans.

Tameness not Domestication Bradshaw (2011:55) suggests that tameness is not the same as a fully Domesticated animals. He goes on to say how the study does show that selective breeding for tameness can be rapid and could offer an explanation of the first stage of domestication of the wolf. How the foxes developed to show dog like behaviour, Bradshaw suggests is evidence that the dog is not descended exclusively from the wolf.