The origin of the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) began with the domestication of the gray wolf

(Canis lupus) several tens of thousands of years ago. Wolf pups were taken at an early age and tamed by humans. Sometimes orphaned wolf pups were adopted and nursed alongside human babies. Once these early adoptees started breeding among themselves, a new generation of tame "wolf-life" domesticated animals, which would become like dogs over generations of time Sometimes wolves would want the food at human campsites. The social and least fearful dogs were the ones who were kept around the human living areas, helping to breed those traits that are still recognized in dogs today. The characteristic "flight distance" was crucial to change wild wolf to the ancestors of modern dog. It represents how close an animal will allow humans or anything dangerous to get before it runs away. Animals with shorter flight distances will linger, and feed, when humans are close by; this behavioral trait would have been passed on to successive generations, and increased, creating animals that are increasingly more comfortable around humans. Wolves separated into two populationsthe village-oriented scavengers and the packs of hunters. would diverge over time and become more different. Before DNA was used, researchers were divided into two schools of thought: Most supposed that these early dogs were descendants of tamed wolves, which interbred and evolved into a domesticated species. Other scientists, while believing wolves were the chief contributor, suspected that jackals or coyotes contributed to the dog's ancestry. Carles Vil, who has conducted the most extensive study to date, has shown that DNA evidence has ruled out any ancestor canine species except the wolf . Vil's team analyzed 162 different examples of wolf DNA from 27 populations in Europe, Asia, and North America. These results were compared with DNA from 140 individual dogs from 67 breeds gathered from around the world. Using blood or hair samples, DNA was extracted and genetic distance for mitochondrial DNA was estimated between individuals Foxes: Experimental evidence As an experiment in the domestication of wolves, the "farm fox" experiment of Russian scientist Dmitry Belyaev attempted to reenact how domestication may have occurred.[25] Researchers, working with wild silver foxes selectively bred over 35 generations and 40 years for the sole trait of friendliness to humans, created more doglike animals. The "domestic elite" foxes are much more friendly to humans and actually seek human attention, but they also show new physical traits that parallel the selection for tameness, even though the physical traits were not originally selected for. They include spotted or black-and-white coats, floppy ears, tails that curl over their backs, the barking vocalization and earlier sexual maturity. . More striking is that their socialization period has greatly increased. Instead of developing a fear response at 6 weeks of age, the domesticated foxes don't show it until 9 weeks of age or later. The whimpering and tail wagging is a holdover from

puppyhood, as are the foreshortened face and muzzle. Even the new coat colours can be explained by the altered timing of development. One researcher found that the migration of certain melanocytes (which determine colour) was delayed, resulting in a black and white 'star' pattern." Specialization: As humans migrated around the planet, a variety of dog forms migrated with them. The agricultural revolution and subsequent urban revolution led to an increase in the dog population and a demand for specialization. These circumstances would provide the opportunity for selective breeding to create specialized types of working dogs and pets.

Compared to wolves, many adult dog breeds retain such juvenile characteristics as soft fuzzy fur, round torsos, large heads and eyes, ears that hang down rather than stand erect, etc.; characteristics which are shared by most juvenile mammals, and therefore generally elicit some degree of protective and nurturing behavior cross-species from most adult mammals, including humans, who term such characteristics "cute" or "appealing

The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in human history. Dogs were domesticated from gray wolves about 15,000 years ago.[6] Their value to early human settlements led to them quickly becoming ubiquitous across world cultures. Dogs perform many roles for people, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and military, companionship, and, more recently, aiding handicapped individuals.

Through selective breeding by humans, the dog has developed into hundreds of varied breeds, and shows more behavioral and morphological variation than any other land mammal.[8] Dogs have a variety of colors and coats and sizes and heights and shapes Domestic dogs inherited complex behaviors from their wolf ancestors, being pack hunters with complex body language. These sophisticated forms of social cognition and communication may account for their trainability, playfulness, and ability to fit into human households and social situations, and these attributes have given dogs a relationship with humans that has enabled them to become one of the most successful species on the planet today

, it is agreed that human interaction played a significant role in shaping the subspecies.[24] Shortly after domestication, dogs became ubiquitous in human populations, and spread throughout the world Helpful a long time ago: Shortly after domestication, dogs became ubiquitous in human populations, and spread throughout the world. Emigrants from Siberia likely crossed the Bering Strait with dogs in their company, and some experts[who?] suggest the use of sled dogs may have been critical to the success of the waves that entered North America roughly 12,000 years ago,[citation needed] although the earliest archaeological evidence of dog-like canids in North America dates from about 9,000 years ago.[25] Dogs were an important part of life for the Athabascan population in North America, and were their only domesticated animal. Dogs also carried much of the load in the migration of the Apache and Navajo tribes 1,400 years ago. Use of dogs as pack animals in these cultures often persisted after the introduction of the horse to North America.[26][page needed] Repeat: It is not known whether humans domesticated the wolf as such to initiate dog's divergence from its ancestors, or whether dog's evolutionary path had already taken a different course prior to domestication. For example, it is hypothesized that some wolves gathered around the campsites of paleolithic camps to scavenge refuse, and associated evolutionary pressure developed that favored those who were less frightened by, and keener in approaching, humans.

Early roles: Wolves, and their dog descendants, would have derived significant benefits from living in human campsmore safety, more reliable food, lesser caloric needs, and more chance to breed Humans would also have derived enormous benefit from the dogs associated with their camps.[39] For instance, dogs would have improved sanitation by cleaning up food scraps.[39] Dogs may have provided warmth, as referred to in the Australian Aboriginal expression three dog night (an exceptionally cold night), and they would have alerted the camp to the presence of predators or strangers, using their acute hearing to provide an early warning.[39] Anthropologists believe the most significant benefit would have been the use of dogs' sensitive sense of smell to assist with the hunt.[39] The relationship between the presence of a dog and success in the hunt is often mentioned as a primary reason for the domestication of the wolf, and a 2004 study of hunter groups with and without a dog gives quantitative support to the hypothesis that the benefits of cooperative hunting was an important factor in wolf domestication The cohabitation of dogs and humans would have greatly improved the chances of survival for early human groups, and the domestication of dogs may have been one of the key forces that led to human success As pets

LAST 50s/60s Keeping dogs as companions has had a long history Pet dog populations grew significantly after WWII in the 50's and 60's dogs were kept outdoors more often than today "in the doghouse" acted as a guard, children's playmate, or walking companion (functional roles) From the 1980's there have been changes in the role of the pet dog, such as emotional support of the owners People and dogs have become increasingly integrated and implicated in each other's lives There have been many products available to transform a pet dog into an ideal companion: from dog perfumes, couture, furniture and housing, to dog groomers, therapists, trainers and care-takers, dog cafes, spas, parks and beaches, and dog hotels, airlines and cemeteries.[47] While dog training as an organized activity can be traced back to the 18th century, in the last decades of the 20th century it became a high profile issue as many normal dog behaviors such as barking, jumping up, digging, rolling in dung, fighting, and urine marking became increasingly incompatible with the new role of a pet dog.[48] Dog training books, classes and television programs proliferated as the process of commodifying the pet dog continued Dogs are now part of the family Dogs have lived and worked with humans in so many roles that they have earned the unique nickname, "man's best friend",[53] a phrase used in other languages as well. They have been bred for herding livestock,[54] hunting (e.g. pointers and hounds),[55] rodent control,[3] guarding, helping fishermen with nets, detection dogs, and pulling loads, in addition to their roles as companions.[3] Service dogs such as guide dogs, utility dogs, assistance dogs, hearing dogs, and psychological therapy dogs provide assistance to individuals with physical or mental disabilities.[56][57] Some dogs owned by epileptics have been shown to alert their handler when the handler shows signs of an impending seizure, sometimes well in advance of onset, allowing the owner to seek safety, medication, or medical care

With the beginnings of agriculture around 12,000 years ago, humans began making use of dogs in various ways, resulting in physical differences between dogs and their wolf ancestors Dog history is really the history of the partnership between dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and humans. That partnership is based on human needs for help with herding and hunting Dogs get companionship, protection and shelter, and a reliable food source out of the deal.

Studies using Mitochondrial DNA suggests that wolves and dogs split into different species around 100,000 years ago not sure if humans were main factors or not came from grey wolves native to the middle east

After the last ice-age (15,000 years ago) people began to live in one place for the first time. The appearances of these villages were fairly rapid and coincidental with the fossil evidence of dogs as we know them When they lived in one spot for a long period of time, they created waste. Leftovers. Attracted wolves. Flight distance: how close an animal will allow humans to get before it runs away. animals with shorter flight distances will linger. Taking puppies theory: Artificial selection suggests that early man was successful in taking wild wolf puppies: breeding them and eventually training them to perform tasks such as hunting and providing protection from other predators. These tame wolves selectively bred to more tame wolves eventually creating over thousands of years a new population now referred to as dogs. We know following the Ice Age, ending approximately fourteen-thousand years ago, Mesolithic societies began to gather for the first time in permanent settlementscoincidental with the first fossil evidence of dogs as we know them. This created a niche for tamer wolves to domesticate themselves. Driven by a new and easily accessible food source, these tamer wolves may have been genetically predisposed having a lower threshold of flight distance thus enabling them a selective advantage in the new niche over the wilder ones (Coppinger, 2001). The domestic dog has transformed into a more docile and affectionate animal than the wolf. diet consists of more than meat Other notable differences are that dogs tend to mature physically and sexually much more readily than wolvesdogs become sexually mature around 7 and 10 months and wolves reach sexual maturity at approximately 22 months. Additionally, dogs will readily mate with multiple partners, have biannual breeding cycles, and male dogs are fertile year round. Wolves tend to be more selective and monogamous, having annual breeding cycles and at times other than during the breeding cycle the males testes atrophy rendering the wolf infertile (Lindsay, 2000). . It is also now generally believed that initial domestication was not attained deliberately by human intervention but through natural selection: wild canines who scavenged around human habitation received more food than their more skittish counterparts; those who

attacked people or their children were probably killed or driven away, while those more tolerant animals survived, and so on.

15,000 to 11,000 BC: - Dogs domesticated as Ice Age glaciers retreat. Many believe dogs essentially domesticated themselves by scavenging near human camps. Humans then bred them to bark in warning and for smaller puppyish muzzles, which are indicative of reduced aggression compared to wolves. It is not surprising that dogs were trained to work alongside men, because they are social animals that respond to positive and negative stimuli and respect a hierarchical structure, which humans can easily dominate. In addition, many of the natural hunting traits that dogs instinctively possess - the use of smell to detect and track prey, and the chase of food quarry are typical of the working uses made of dogs throughout history.

Greyhound/BREEDS: The greyhound (or gazehounds or gase hounds, as they were known because they hunted by sight and relied on speed to catch their quarry) is generally regarded as being the earliest pure-bred type of dog. This is based on records from Ancient Egypt. The word greyhound is believed to be a corruption of "Greek hound" because the Ancient Greeks used to hunt hare with these dogs and also had other hounds for boar and deer hunting. The early greyhounds were large with upright ears like Pharoah Hounds and Ibezan Hounds and they were transported with Phoenician traders. It is known that the Phoenecians traded for tin in Cornwall as early as the 4th Century and it is likely that they brought dogs with them. Greyhounds have always been used for coursing and in 1776 a code was written for the sport. Whippets are relatively recent variety. Other breeds depicted in early Egyptian images are Saluki -type hounds on the walls of the tomb of Rekhma Ra (1400BC), the Afghan and the Basenji. These recordings suggest that dog breeding was probably occurring nearly 4000 years ago in 2000 BC. By the time of Christ, 2000 years ago, Gratius Faliscus, a Roman poet, listed 22 breeds of hunting dog of which only one originated in Italy - the rest were imported from other countries. Unfortunately, no images survive to illustrate these different breeds. Toy lap-dogs were also popular as companions in Pre-Christian times, and dwarf legged dogs (not dissimilar to the Basset Hound) were recorded in Ancient Egypt and China where they were used for falconry. Pre-600 BC the Ancient Greeks and Romans hunted boar with a larger, heavier dog called a Molossus, and this dog was very similar in stature to a Mastiff. Assyrian Mastiffs were used to hunt lion and for use in war by Assur-banipal in 625 BC. Two types of Molossus were evident by the time of Aristotle - one used for hunting, the other for herding and guarding livestock. In Rome Mastiff-type dogs were used in gladiatorial fights with wild animals and in Britain and other countries descendants of these types of dogs were later used for Bull, Bear, Lion and even Horse baiting as well as dog fights-

e.g. bulldogs, bull terriers. The Alpine Mastiff ( a long-haired variety) was the predecessor to the St Bernard. In Russia the Borzoi and Russian Wolfhound were used for hunting and coursing which is well documented in texts dating from the mid-17th Century. The early ancestors of these breeds were from the Mediterranean regions In Britain greyhound-like dogs such as the Wolfhound and Deerhound were certainly some of the earliest breeds. A gift of Wolfhounds was sent to Rome for Consul Quintus Aurelius Symacchus in 391 BC for a circus. In Germany the Great Dane used to be called the Great Boarhound reflecting it's origins from the Molossus. The monks of the Hospice of St Bernard first bred the St Bernard in the mid-17th Century as working dogs to help carry loads, as a guide, and for finding paths in the snow. Larger dogs such as Newfoundlands were used to pull carts and were called draught dogs. Newfoundlands were also used to carry lines from shore to ship, and today swimming is still part of the working test for the breed. In France hunting dogs were predominantly scent hounds such as St Hubert hounds created by St Hubert - the patron saint of hunting. The black variety of this breed was the predecessor to the modern day Blood Hound, and the white variety was very popular in the Middle Ages and called a Talbot hound - and this was a predecessor to Southern Hound and, later, to the modern day Foxhound. France was also the home of dwarf shortlegged dogs - Basset Hounds In Spain the Spanish Pointer was the main hunting dog, and this was probably the predecessor for other Pointers. Dingos were companions of the Aborigines who introduced them into Australia in the late Palaeolithic times, and they subsequently became a feral animal, also the Maori's introduced domesticated dogs to New Zealand. Spaniels are mentioned in Ireland in Laws written in 17 AD and they were used throughout the Middle Ages for falconry. Spaniels were divided into land spaniels (later Springer and Cocker Spaniels) and water Spaniels (including the Irish Water Spaniel but also others - including Poodles). In the mid-17th Century water spaniels were clipped like modern day Poodles - to facilitate swimming.

Archaeological and hieroglyphic evidence shows that distinctive dog breeds existed 3,000 to 5,000 years ago. The spitz breeds and the sight hounds are believed to be the oldest breeds of dogs, whereas the terriers are among the newest breeds.3 Most purebred dogs in existence today have some type of working dog as part of their origin.3 The ancient Romans were the first culture to breed dogs systematically and to record the

functions for which each dog was used.3 The Romans had five early types of dogs: mastiffs, spitz types, greyhounds, pointers, and sheepdogs. Although they did not develop each of these breed types, they did refine them. Many more dog breeds were developed in the Middle Ages when the aristocracy was being established and hunting was of great importance as a symbol of power and status. These dogs were also bred according to their ability to work, not necessarily for their looks. Breeding records were not detailed, and breed standards did not exist.3

Competitive dog shows evolving in the late 1800s added constraints other than working ability to breeding programs.3 At that time, breed standards were established and individual breed looks evolved. This change in focus from ability to looks also started to cause many of the genetic problems seen in purebred dogs today. By concentrating the gene pool, uniformity is achieved in appearance, but any defects in an individual breed are also concentrated. Many of today's breeds come from a foundation stock of only a few animals (sometimes as few as two), necessitating inbreeding and further concentrating any genetic problems. However, because many of these dogs are bred for companionship only, function is not an issue, and humans must try to treat the problems that might otherwise be eliminated through natural selection. Unfortunately, not all problems caused by poor breeding can be solved. Purebred dogs (e.g., pugs, Pekingese) do not need to be able to breed on their own, and they do not need to be able to whelp on their own. Human intervention and selective breeding have overcome Darwin's principles. Selective breeding: Dogs were first domesticated when humans still lived in a hunter-gatherer society; most likely, humans were directly competing with wolves for the same food sources. By domesticating dogs, humans gained certain advantages. Early dogs were probably used primarily for their ability to hunt cooperatively in the tracking and retrieving of game.2 Different groups: As human society evolved into an agrarian model, dogs were used as sentinels (because of their bark alarm) and as herders and guards of other domestic species. Selective breeding was done to develop specific types of dogs for specific jobs.2 By singling out specific behaviors to be diminished or intensified, humans have bred dogs that behave in ways that are useful to human society. Dogs naturally follow the predatory sequence: they find, stalk, chase, catch, kill, dissect, and ingest their prey.2 Through selective breeding, humans have intensified single behaviors in specific breeds of dog; for example, pointers and setters specialize in finding prey; scent hounds, in stalking; sight hounds, in chasing; retrievers, in catching; and terriers, in killing. The impulses to dissect and ingest prey have been diminished because humans want "their" game intact. Over these millennia, domesticated dogs have developed into distinct types, or groups, such as livestock guardian dogs, hunting dogs, and sighthounds. To maintain these

distinctions, humans have intentionally mated dogs with certain characteristics to encourage those characteristics in the offspring.

Dog breeding: Early dog breeding was functional in design. Mimicing evolutionary natural selection, dogs were bred to purpose. They served different functions, such as hunting, racing etc. From Function To Appearance However, this emphasis completely changed in Victorian times. Dog breeding changed from being something of importance and functional into a sport. Functionalism was replaced by aesthetic beauty and dogs were no longer bred for purpose but rather for appearance. The new breeding fashionistas needed something to display their own importance. The first dog shows were held in the 1850s and were a success.

WEEDING OUT AGGRESSIVE WOLVES: Puppy rescue would not have been an isolated case but would have happened in many different groups of human hunters over our thousands of years of evolution and history. Selective breeding would have been automatic. Keeping a wolf that became overly aggressive towards the humans, or of little practical use, would have been both pointless and dangerous - such a wolf would have been killed. Only the remaining Wolves, with desirable traits, would have been selected to breed. Eventually the traits of each group of tame

The True Cost Of Dog Shows The first official dog shows were held in the 1850s and were an instant success. It is dog shows that are perhaps the single greatest threat to dog breeds as they force dogs to conform to cosmetic notions of beauty to the detriment of the animals health and wellbeing. Breeding as we know it today is a fairly recent invention. For the most part, it wasn't until the 19th century that people began to keep records of canine bloodlines and to classify dogs into specific breeds rather than generic types such as hunting dog, hound, herding dog, or lap dog. Breeders ranged from noblemen creating a better retriever to shepherds refining herding ability for their particular livestock.

END: Today, we live with more than 400 dog breeds recognized by kennel clubs around the world, which govern dog shows, field trials, hunt tests, herding tests, and other measures of quality and working ability. While many of those dogs still perform the work for

which they've been bred for centuries or even millennia, the majority of them live with us as companions, perhaps the most important job of all.