What causes some dogs to be the "pick of the litter" and be born larger than other dogs?
Temperament is highly hereditary. Any animal breeder can tell you how important it is to breed for temperament. There will be a wide variance in offspring but overall they'll be better than a random coupling. You can see this also in experiments such as the Russian fox experiments when fearful or aggressive animals were culled and quickly what remained became friendly and domestic.
You may wonder why nonetheless there will still be more timid animals in a litter of two good temperaments but that's easily accounted for by recessive genes. So kind of roulette.
The pick of the litter has the best genetic lottery from both parents and ones with defects in physical appearance or temperament have gotten the crummier ones.
Same as how you may have a sibling who is either inferior or superior than you despite having the same parents and having grown up in the same environment.
Genetics, hormones, nutrition on fetal development, etc. Pregnancy takes a toll on a mother. It's a lot of work for the body and when you have a litter, thats more to go around. Runts get the shit end of the stick, be it from genetics or didn't get enough of what they needed in womb. Such as in dogs, their womb isn't circular like humans but more of a Y shape. Runts usually form the farthest away from the rest of the litter. It's possible the 'pick of the litter' is closer, but I'm just guessing.
The largest of the litter does not always mean its the 'pick of the litter'/has the best genes either. Knew a farm cat who had a litter and the biggest had a deformed foot but good god that kitten was so huge the mother had to get c-section just to get him out. They named him Tank and besides his fucked up leg, he was a boss.
The biggest dog as people are saying isn't always the pick of the litter, yes it may be seen as the healthiest but my current bitch is from agility stock, she has been slender since day one, her slight shoulders and long limbs make her the pick of the litter for agility. She also has the best hip score of the litter.
I also have bulldogs, they were selected based on marking, my dog with white faces were deemed the pick of the litter beause of the value they would have in China and Japan. The size was irrelevant.
Once you get a puppy home and feed it 4 times a day without a horde of brothers and sisters all trying to pile into the same bowl they quickly grow anyway.
>>1990800
water puppy syndrome
>>1990922
>tfw my brother's giant Rottweiler puppy was born with a heart problem and will die soon
baka lads
>>1990800
Bitch, you ain't knowin' 'bout genetics 'n' shit? Da fuq??
when I was a kid I went to a pet store and they had a deal on hamsters, buy one get one free.
then a month later I had 16 hamsters. My mom made me take them to the pet store I got the first two from and demand they take them off our hands, which they actually gladly did since I guess they were happy to get a free shipment of baby hamsters.
I kept the runt though, I knew she wouldn't have made it otherwise
>>1990899
In general and 'naturally', I think yes. The biggest of the litter is physically the strongest which often coincides with having a more dominant personality. Dominant personality + bigger size = The more you can overcome your competition. In puppy litters, that means you eat first and get your nutritious fill, while the 'runt' risks getting starved out and injured by its bigger, more aggressive littermates. Nature does not have the time for runts.
Of course this is dogs we are talking about so there are other factors to take in when deciding on a puppy. A shitty bred dog is still a shitty bred dog and being the healthiest out of a litter doesn't mean it isn't going to start to fall apart in 2 years.
>>1991466
i thought maybe it was some horomonal shit that happens in animal litters
