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Humans have been selectively breeding dogs for a long time. Why do we do it? What are the positive and negative impacts of selective breeding and why do they occur?

I am writing an independent project on the subject >should selective breeding in dogs be allowed<, although I can think of many negatives to artificial selection, from a loss of genetic diversity to health problems for supposedly "pedigree dogs" I am finding it hard to find positives other than for the development of breeds. I am especially looking for scientific research/papers/books on this theme of selective breeding in order to find enough scientific information to write a balanced 3000 word essay. I hope this clears up the confusion surrounding the question, I was just looking for help, I did not realise my question would be graded!

b.adams99
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    What is your question? You are actually asking for a textbook. Please add some details to narrow down to the actual issue. – WYSIWYG Jun 15 '16 at 19:28
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    Welcome to Biology.SE. Why are we performing selective breeding in dogs? is more a question of sociology and human culture than biology. good and bad. The terms "good" and "bad" are subject to personal interpretation and it is therefore impossible to give a scientific answer to this question. For these reasons, I am voting to close as off-topic. – Remi.b Jun 16 '16 at 09:52
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    I think if '(both good and bad)' was removed it could be answerable. It does sound like a homework question to me (although of course that doesn't in itself mean it should be closed). I think the biggest problem is there's no evidence of research by the OP before posting. – arboviral Jun 16 '16 at 16:29

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Selective breeding, or artificial selection, by its very definition is the selection of desirable traits over less desirable ones. Individuals more like the desired phenotype are allowed to reproduce while others are not. Therefore, the reason a breed is selected in a certain way may be because of certain aesthetic characteristics, or speed, or hunting ability etc. For example, Schnauzers might have their beards/moustaches because for many generations breeders have wanted to accentuate this feature.

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Artificial selection often causes problems because of inbreeding (an increase in homozygosity) and poorly imposed selection (only the desirable trait is considered, not other bad traits). This is why many dog breeds have associated diseases or health problems.

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rg255
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  • The question is of poor quality and it is impossible to offer a good answer to it (IMO). You did a good job at offering some pieces of info that may help the OP though (+1) – Remi.b Jun 16 '16 at 09:54
  • there's obvious weaknesses in the question (even after my edits, I wanted to make the question clearer, but the issues of opinion remain because I didn't want to interfere with the OP's intent), there's really not much needed to answer such a question - why do we select for desirable traits? .. because selecting for undesirable traits would be stupid. Hopefully it gives the OP somewhere to start reading about it. – rg255 Jun 16 '16 at 10:00