Sort of mostly right. You can't artificially inseminate with an embryo though, only semen.
What was interesting about the experiment is that while they only selected for tameness, a lot of the characteristics you see in modern dogs arose. For instance, piebald fur, curly fur, curly tails, floppy ears, shortened snout, etc. Basically what was happening was that by selecting for tameness, they were both selecting for a lengthier juvenile period and more paedomorphic traits.
So this answered the question of how humans managed to select for traits in domesticated dogs that don't appear in wolves. How do you select for piebald color if it isn't present in the initial gene pool? Or a curly tail? Well, those variations are a consequence of domestication.
For instance, only in domesticated animals do you see that characteristic white forehead star, and they made that discovery of what was happening from these animals. As an animal grows, cells containing melanin migrate throughout the body. But if you length the juvenile period and make them move more slowly, some die before they reach their final destination. The white star on the forehead, seen in these foxes as well as horses, cows, and others, is because the melanin containing cells reach there last, and they don't quite make it.
I studied this in a course on canine psychology and you are exactly right that they were selecting only for tameness and that it helped answer the question of why we see certain traits in domesticated dogs.
It was a tongue-in-cheek comment. "Inseminate" means "to introduce semen into the reproductive tract of a female." You implant embryos, not inseminate.
What was interesting about the experiment is that while they only selected for tameness, a lot of the characteristics you see in modern dogs arose. For instance, piebald fur, curly fur, curly tails, floppy ears, shortened snout, etc. Basically what was happening was that by selecting for tameness, they were both selecting for a lengthier juvenile period and more paedomorphic traits.
So this answered the question of how humans managed to select for traits in domesticated dogs that don't appear in wolves. How do you select for piebald color if it isn't present in the initial gene pool? Or a curly tail? Well, those variations are a consequence of domestication.
For instance, only in domesticated animals do you see that characteristic white forehead star, and they made that discovery of what was happening from these animals. As an animal grows, cells containing melanin migrate throughout the body. But if you length the juvenile period and make them move more slowly, some die before they reach their final destination. The white star on the forehead, seen in these foxes as well as horses, cows, and others, is because the melanin containing cells reach there last, and they don't quite make it.