This is a simple request for clarification from those who may have an
abiding interest in this matter; to wit:
 
What is the difference between the training and domestication of an
organism, plant as well as animal?
 
Then after offering your informations on that,  please consider the
following:
 
I would like to contain these definitions to the considerations that define
the time at which the dog became a domestic animal from the trained wolf
from the wild wolf.  At which point in the evolution of the domestic dog
did it become "domestic?" Did it become "trained?" Did it become "unwild?"
Does "training" necessarily preceed "domestication," or does it follow, or
can it exist anywhere along the time scale of evolution of a mammal (or
plant)?
 
And further, the domestic cat, which is assumed to have evolved under
pressures of man at a time earlier than the ferret, and hence may be
considered "more domestic" than the ferret, why is it that the domestic cat
reverts to the feral state easily whereas the ferret is not known to revert
to the feral state?  (Do not consider the native American Black-footed
ferret in this discussion.)
 
Does the reversion to the feral state somehow indicate that the cat is
"less domestic" than is the ferret?  Then on the basis of the answer to
this question, does this reveal that in nature there are "degrees of
domestication?" If so, how can these "degrees of domestication" be
delimited?  And, if there are "degrees of domestication," does this beg
the question: at which point does an organism's domestication cease?
 
Let's hear your thoughts, opinions, and fixed biases with respect to
these questions.
 
We shall learn together and from each other, flamethrowers included.
 
Edward Lipinski,  Ferret Endowment for Research, Rehabilitation,
Education & Training Society, NW F. E. R. R. E. T. S., NW
Originator of the Sprictwort "Frettchen~vergnuegen and Research Developer
 
of limiting the size (number) of kits born of a given ferret, termed
"Litter Sizing."
[Posted in FML issue 2709]