What if Dragons were real and tameable

[Splashee 28,537]

Dragons are real. At least they are around my duck pool (dragonflies and drake's!)

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

That would be so cute but you wouldn’t want them around anything super flammable 😬

[DubWolf 16,622]

15 hours ago, ExplosionMare said:

That would be so cute but you wouldn’t want them around anything super flammable 😬

But you’re exPLOAAAASHUN Mare  

[ZiggWheelsManning 7,373]

Ready those flying beasts for battle  

[Dreambiscuit 8,024]

If dragons were real they would not be tamable. Trust me, there is no such thing as a tamable predator. Look at Siegfried and Roy with their ‘tamed’ white tigers. One day these tigers, raised in captivity and trained from birth, attacked and did some serious damage. Animals, especially predatory ones, have instincts that can’t be tamed because it runs contrary to their natural genetic coding. But in the spirit of the original question, I STILL wouldn’t want a dragon around, tame or otherwise, no matter how cool it would be to have a flying dragon out in the stable. What if your pet dragon suddenly had the urge to sneeze? Goodbye stable! Yeah…no.

[Fluttershutter 2,122]

That would be awesome and I would want one.

Of course airplanes would still exist. Cars exist along with horses.

On 2023-10-01 at 2:58 AM, Dreambiscuit said:

If dragons were real they would not be tamable. Trust me, there is no such thing as a tamable predator. Look at Siegfried and Roy with their ‘tamed’ white tigers. One day these tigers, raised in captivity and trained from birth, attacked and did some serious damage. Animals, especially predatory ones, have instincts that can’t be tamed because it runs contrary to their natural genetic coding. But in the spirit of the original question, I STILL wouldn’t want a dragon around, tame or otherwise, no matter how cool it would be to have a flying dragon out in the stable. What if your pet dragon suddenly had the urge to sneeze? Goodbye stable! Yeah…no.

What about dogs? A lot of predators live with humans, statistically things are going to happen once in a while.

[Samurai Equine 45,954]

If dragons were real AND tamable...

I am sure that there would definitely be a learning period. We'd learn if there are multiple breeds or not. We'd be hunting them before we learned how sustainable they can be as pets or service animals, and we'd hunt them down for a variety of reasons too. Though ultimately, I wouldn't be surprised if dragons in a modern setting would be limited to ranches, preserves, and places that specialize in keeping dragons. Thought some might try, there is a reason why you don't see horses or donkeys being kept in at any random person's home. They might be tamable, but they still require specialized care and a certain level of experience.

What I'd be most interested in seeing is how the world would change because of dragons.  Forget about riding or owning one. How would homes, clothing, and/or environmental control practices change just because dragons exist? In some neighborhoods, you might not mind if there's a random cat, dog, deer, or other virtually harmless animal running around, but it's different when you're talking about a giant firebreather. I even wonder what humans would teach their kids in order to protect themselves from stray or random dragons.

12 hours ago, Dreambiscuit said:

If dragons were real they would not be tamable. Trust me, there is no such thing as a tamable predator. Look at Siegfried and Roy with their ‘tamed’ white tigers. One day these tigers, raised in captivity and trained from birth, attacked and did some serious damage. Animals, especially predatory ones, have instincts that can’t be tamed because it runs contrary to their natural genetic coding. But in the spirit of the original question, I STILL wouldn’t want a dragon around, tame or otherwise, no matter how cool it would be to have a flying dragon out in the stable. What if your pet dragon suddenly had the urge to sneeze? Goodbye stable! Yeah…no.

I get what you are saying and I am glad you're explaining your reasons, but let's try to give some leeway and go with the idea of actually tamable dragons, since that's the whole point of this topic.  For example, a tamable dragon might be one that doesn't eat (or doesn't exclusively eat) meat, can be taught to not use its fire breath unless on command, can be trained to do tricks or to maintain a calm demeanor, they might be equally if not more afraid of us that we are of them, etc. A multitude of attitudes that we see in house pets; which can also be dangerous to humans, depending on environment and how they are treated, or if they just exhibit a random remnant of their wild ancestry. A fiery sneeze, like you mentioned, is not proof of predatory behavior. And even so, that goes back to what I mentioned before. I'd like to see how buildings and other things are made in order to accommodate such things. I doubt humans with GENERATIONS of experience would knowingly put a firebreather in a flammable house.  Who knows, maybe there might be a very humane operation that could safely remove a dragon's fire-breathing organ without harming the creature.

I think that the only thing that would truly prevent a dragon from being tamable or suitable for most homes is if they eventually have a moment where they violently snap. You brought up the Siegfried and Roy tigers, which is a good point to bring up, BTW!  History is filled with examples of animals that seem like they are tamable if raised in captivity and don't usually show signs of aggression, yet humans get too relaxed around them and end up paying for it simply because you can't fully remove them from their wild nature. So if an otherwise tame or calm dragon could still snap and attack if you don't know the warning sings to look out for, that would indeed be a huge problem. However, at that point, I don't think you could call them "tamable" anymore.  There might be some crazy humans that insist they are, because there will always be hopeless humans who try to prove the world wrong, but the rest of the world would know better.

[Dreambiscuit 8,024]

On 2023-10-01 at 9:40 AM, Fluttershutter said:

What about dogs? A lot of predators live with humans, statistically things are going to happen once in a while.

Granted, but when a dog bites you go to the ER and get a few stitches and a lollipop before they send you home. But if a dragon decides to go berserk, entire towns suddenly cease to exist. But in some cases, depending on the town, that could be a good thing, so…I can roll with that.  

On 2023-10-01 at 3:40 PM, Samurai Oni said:

I get what you are saying and I am glad you're explaining your reasons, but let's try to give some leeway and go with the idea of actually tamable dragons, since that's the whole point of this topic.  For example, a tamable dragon might be one that doesn't eat (or doesn't exclusively eat) meat, can be taught to not use its fire breath unless on command, can be trained to do tricks or to maintain a calm demeanor, they might be equally if not more afraid of us that we are of them, etc. A multitude of attitudes that we see in house pets; which can also be dangerous to humans, depending on environment and how they are treated, or if they just exhibit a random remnant of their wild ancestry. A fiery sneeze, like you mentioned, is not proof of predatory behavior. And even so, that goes back to what I mentioned before. I'd like to see how buildings and other things are made in order to accommodate such things. I doubt humans with GENERATIONS of experience would knowingly put a firebreather in a flammable house.  Who knows, maybe there might be a very humane operation that could safely remove a dragon's fire-breathing organ without harming the creature.

I think that the only thing that would truly prevent a dragon from being tamable or suitable for most homes is if they eventually have a moment where they violently snap. You brought up the Siegfried and Roy tigers, which is a good point to bring up, BTW!  History is filled with examples of animals that seem like they are tamable if raised in captivity and don't usually show signs of aggression, yet humans get too relaxed around them and end up paying for it simply because you can't fully remove them from their wild nature. So if an otherwise tame or calm dragon could still snap and attack if you don't know the warning sings to look out for, that would indeed be a huge problem. However, at that point, I don't think you could call them "tamable" anymore.  There might be some crazy humans that insist they are, because there will always be hopeless humans who try to prove the world wrong, but the rest of the world would know better.

 In the spirit of the topic I’d say it would be seriously awesome to have a dragon. And yes, fire-proof buildings and clothing would be more mainstream if dragons were a common domesticated animal. And a big plus would be that I’d no longer have to be annoyed by barking dogs in the neighborhood keeping me up all night. They’d all just…disappear. By morning they’d be nothing more than a burp from a satisfied dragon. Clearly there could be abuse of power if dragons were available to everyone. They’d probably never become mainstream because predators generally aren’t considered a good risk. Hence, not many people walk down the street with a lion on a leash, even a tame one. Dragons would likely be very expensive as they would have many desirable capabilities and would also require a lot of upkeep. I doubt they’d be considered practical enough to become common. Military use, and private use in a highly regulated area or airspace would likely be the case in many situations. Any animal with that much power would be regulated and taxed beyond all usefulness, unfortunately.

[ZiggWheelsManning 7,373]

Don't worry @Dreambiscuit, you, I and @TheRockARooster would make confident dragon tamers  

[EpicEnergy 22,089]

Then I'd need to get a ton of fire resistance stuff cause things about to get really heated.