what would be the advantages (and disadvantages) of using a hypothetical breed of horse-sized (400 to 1000 kg) dogs instead of horses? you can assume that the breed is based off of something like a siberian husky or a malamute so that it can be useful
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>deleted reply
literally 1984
have a nice day immediately
>horse-sized (400 to 1000 kg) dogs
I believe the word you’re looking for is bear
Should rather use a Dire Wolf as your mount hypothetical.
Well the advantages I can see already is:
adaptable to much more different terrain
Can actively fight
Doesn't require feet protection unlike horseshoes for horses
more stamina = better distance runner
doesn't frighten and run away from fights (negated if the compared horse is a trained warhorse)
disadvantages would be:
carries less storage
slower during sprint bursts
can probably only carry one person
carnivore diet
What’s the meaningful difference between a dire wolf and a giant dog?
most giant dogs still don't reach the size of a dire wolf and a dire wolf is the largest (real) canine so you don't need a fictional horse-sized dog
Dire wolves in reality were only like 220 lbs max which is a big ass dog yes but there's gray wolves and wolf dog hybrids that have reached that size. I knew someone who had a wolf lab hybrid, that thing was massive, it had to be 7 feet long.
I suppose with several generations of breeding you could select for very large size and maybe get one that's 300 lbs which would be huge but still nowhere big enough to use as a draft animal unless your army is child soldiers.
Hm yeah, only real feasible way would be generational breeding to modify their spine and size. Still won't really be good enough like a horse. It would be comparing a motorcycle to a SUV.
how long would it take to get from 50 kg to 400 kg?
Right, you’d presumably need many, many generations of careful breeding to produce the gigadog, even starting from wolves or large dog breeds.
The extinct canine Epicyon produced individuals weight at least 370 lbs, but they've been extinct since about 5 million years ago.
>unless your army is child soldiers.
ugandan warlords gonna love this one!!!!
Women should not interact with dogs.
Imagine feeding a horse sized carnivore. What are you gonna hunt, brontosaurus?
the corpses of my enemies
Quads of a based warlord
As a mount it is doable. I can easily imagine giant labradors being literal yellow taxis for people. However prey drive could become an issue. Horses dont have the compulsion to chase things but instead runaway which is far safer. But we already have similar applications in real life with dog carts which, while not a mount, have been a mainstay of transportation in a lot of countries and cultures. You could even class dog sleds as glorified dog carriages without wheels.
excellent digits
fortune blesses you with 8888 slain foes
Didn't Spaniards use gigantic wardogs against the ~150cm tall natives?
If they were at the other side of the conflict they would have easily been able to mount them
As a rule of thumb, you need to be like 5x smaller than the animal you’re riding iirc. Considering that 80kg is massive for a dog, this could only work if they had toddlers as soldiers
Dogs are not obligate carnivores though
A dog the size of a horse would have to be.
Dogs do have 3 copies of the starch gene, but if you want good health and good athletic performance from a dog at least half its diet should be animal product and preferably more.
They are facultative carnivores
That means you can keep them alive with grains and supplement cope, possibly even a bunch of greenhouse/imported veggies appropriately processed but their guts have a low coefficient of fermentation and they barely derive any nutrition from plants compared to meat
Exactly like us.
Sled dogs are known for veering off course to munch on rabbits, cats, and if never socialized, small dogs (convince a foxhound chihuahuas aren't food tier challenge) especially given the amount of wolf and sighthound real mushers throw into their bloodlines to try and win races these days
Unironically they can eat ze bugs. Cheap to farm and high in protein to make a big and strong doggy
Bad idea because then they get used to the taste of human flesh
Not a problem if you're an orc or some shit. Your flesh wouldn't have the same taste as human flesh, so just hunt humans. If he does attempt to attack you, kick him or lash him lol
you just let him run off and hunt for himself