That we’ll probably do it very, very badly.

With recent advances in genetic engineering technology, such as CRISPR, making people get excited about the prospect of human genetic engineering again, it’s worth pondering just how badly humans have messed up simple dog breeding over the last century.

From Science and Dogs:

100 Years of Breed “Improvement”

Caen Elegans / 2012/09/29 …

The German Shepherd Dog is also a breed that is routinely mentioned when people talk about ruined breeds; maybe because they used to be awesome. In Dogs of All Nations [1915], the GSD is described as a medium-sized dog (25 kg /55 lb), this is a far cry from the angulated, barrel-chested, sloping back, ataxic, 85-pounders (38 kg) we are used to seeing in the conformation ring. There was a time when the GSD could clear a 2.5 meter (8.5 ft) wall; that time is long gone.

This history does not make me optimistic about genetically engineering humans.

A lot of people try to draw a distinction between Bad Governmental Eugenics and Good Free Market Eugenics, but the results of the last 100 years of Free Market Dog Eugenics haven’t been encouraging.