Dog Domestication - Who, What, How, When & Where?

People often wonder how we got the dogs we have today

. There are over 400 breeds in the world, from the huge Great Danes and Mastiffs to the tiny Chihuahuas. How can they possibly have all come from the same source? How could they all be descended from the wolf? And, whatever made the wolf want to throw in his lot with humans in the first place?

If you've ever seen a wolf up close then you know that they are very large animals. They weigh around 120 pounds and have large, strong bones. Their front legs are about the size of human forearms in circumference. The most well-known wolf is the "Gray Wolf" but they can be black or a mixture of gray with blond and brown fur. Their eyes can be a yellow-green rather than the brown seen in most dogs' eyes. They seem very unlike our modern, domesticated dogs. Yet they are the ancestors of the little dog sleeping in your lap. How did this happen?

According to recent discoveries the earliest domesticated dogs may date from around 31,700 years ago. (That date could be pushed back even farther if more discoveries are made.) This early dog was found in a cave in Belgium. Scientists say that his remains suggest he probably resembled a Siberian Husky, only larger. He was probably the size of a large shepherd. His diet consisted of horse, musk ox and reindeer, the same food as the people he lived with. They were good hunters so he may have lived on the food they gave him.

Scientists theorize that this early dog was domesticated when hunters may have killed a female wolf and brought home her cubs - or found orphan pups. Studies with foxes have shown that it only takes about 10 generations of breeding in captivity for physical changes to occur, such as drop ears and a change in coat color patterns. Wolf pups could have begun to change in a similar period of time into what we think of now as dogs. But it would have taken much longer for wolves to change in terms of thinking, feeling and temperament.

These wolf-dogs could have helped early man with hunting, as watch dogs, as trackers, as pack dogs, and could even have taken part in rituals. Who knows when they began to serve as pets? At a cave in France there are footprints that date back 26,000 years. Beside them are paw prints showing that a child and dog walked together through the dark cave with a child holding a torch. Was the dog a pet? Was he protecting the child? We may never know.

There's another popular theory about how dogs became domesticated. Other scientists theorize that dogs domesticated themselves by scavenging human garbage. Wherever humans went they left trash and food which attracted wolves - bones, meat chunks, skins. Scavenging is easier than hunting. The bolder wolves that were not afraid of humans came closer to find more food. It was only a matter of time before humans and wolves began to interact. The physical change in wolves, toward dogs, happened as they began living with human all the time and depending on them for meals.

Of course, it's possible that both theories are correct, or a mixture of the two. Genetic studies have shown that all of the dogs in the world today descend from a few wolves in East Asia. The oldest dog breeds we have are from this area: the Chow Chow, the Shar Pei, the Akita, the Shiba Inu, and the Basenji (in Africa). This indicates that dogs were domesticated very early in this part of the world. The Siberian Husky and the Alaskan Malamute are also very ancient breeds. The Saluki and the Afghan Hound are very old breeds from the Middle East. It's difficult to say if these dogs were developed in different places at different times or if they were all developed in Asia and migrated with humans.

Wolves may have been domesticated at different times by humans. There are several very rare dogs in different parts of the world that may have been domesticated by humans at some point but which are now largely wild dogs. The process of wolves becoming dogs may have happened more than once, perhaps in different ways. Today we have dogs from all over the world and they carry the genetic heritage of the wolf, in whatever way that transformation took place. Dogs have proven themselves to be our most valuable ally since they first began sharing their lives with us so many thousands of years ago. There is no closer bond in the animal kingdom than that between dogs and humans. In whatever way their domestication occurred it was the best deal that humans ever made.

by: Tristan Andrews

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