Why do some dogs have floppy ears?

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Why do certain breeds of dogs have floppy ears? One theory states that it is the result domestication and breeding for tameness. However, a friend of mine who happens to be an anthropology major regards this theory as a myth. He claims that there are breed of wolves with floppy ears. Hence the trait (floppy ears) has been passed in those dog breeds with floppy ears. Can somebody shed some light on this.
 
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codcodo said:
Why do certain breeds of dogs have floppy ears? One theory states that it is the result domestication and breeding for tameness. However, a friend of mine who happens to be an anthropology major regards this theory as a myth. He claims that there are breed of wolves with floppy ears. Hence the trait (floppy ears) has been passed in those dog breeds with floppy ears. Can somebody shed some light on this.
Can't say for sure, but domestication is done to cultivate traits that humans want the breed to have, and many things come along with this breeding including many forms of immaturity compared to the wolf. One of these kinds of immaturity is floppy ears. Another is less fear of humans.

Some breeding studies were done several decades ago in eastern europe on Silver Foxes. Try to read what you can find on this.
 
symbolipoint said:
Some breeding studies were done several decades ago in eastern europe on Silver Foxes. Try to read what you can find on this.
I tried. But my research suggests that floppy ears and silver foxes are mutually exclusive.
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I tried. But my research suggests that floppy ears and silver foxes are mutually exclusive.

You're probably correct. I did not realize that your focus is only on floppy ears of dogs. I was being more general and it was not clear to me that those foxes still had erect ears. Keep on searching and you will surely find something about floppy ears of domestic dogs.
 
You should ask your friend for some references or support for his theory.
The domestication of dogs has been very well studied and @symbolipoint's explanation is close to the scientific consensus.

A more interesting question to me is why some dogs have non-floppy ears.
Maybe due to later breeding with wolves?
 
Regarding domestifcation of foxes, this is the best I can find right now:


Not much is shown or mentioned about floppy ears - almost nothing. The documentary is still very interesting, at least regarding breeding studies on foxes. The goal was to breed for tameness, and after a few years, many behavior and coat quality changes also occurred.