Reply To: mutts vs pure breeds

[rachel long]

The idea of mutts not being able to develop stronger and smarter dogs over time with the lack of natural selection is a very good point in my opinion. I do think there might be some influence of friendliness increasing in mutts, as only the most loving dogs find homes and are more likely to live to produce puppies. In today’s society, it seems the degree of friendliness could play in a role in survival (though so often that is still not good enough).
I think it is kind of interesting and sad to think that while hybrid vigor will definitely still play a role in creating awesome mutts, human interaction will still lead to dogs with undesirable traits, purebred or mixed, producing offspring with issues that could lower their quality of life.