Dogs and Humans: An Ancient Bond

In the very earliest period of man's habitation of this world, he made a friend and companion of some sort of aboriginal representative of our modern dog. In return for its aid in protecting him from wilder animals, and in guarding his sheep and goats, he gave it a share of his food, a corner in his dwelling, and grew to trust it and care for it. Probably the animal was originally little else than an unusually gentle jackal, or an ailing wolf driven by its companions from the wild marauding pack to seek shelter in alien surroundings.

There are a few places on earth where no traces of an indigenous dog family can be found --New the Polynesian Islands, New Zealand, the eastern islands of the Malayan Archipelago, Madagascar and the West Indian Islands. Almost everywhere else, an indigenous dog family can be identified.

Not until we take a look at the records of the higher civilizations of Egypt and Assyria do we find mention of distinct varieties of the canine form. In ancient Oriental regions, such as Mongolia, dogs remained wild and untamed, prowling in packs like wolves, as they still do in many places.

One basic fact that makes it hard to believe that today's dogs all share a common ancestry is, simply, how different one breed is from another! Consider the St. Bernard, the Tan Terrier, the German Shepard, Siberian Husky, the Pomeranian and so on. It is perplexing to think how these breeds, differing vastly in size, appearance and temperament, could have one origin. The same, of course, could be said of horses. In both cases, breeders are familiar with the laws of selection and how easy it is to produce a variety in type and size.

In order properly to understand this question it is necessary first to consider the identity of structure in the wolf and the dog. This identity of structure may best be studied in a comparison of the osseous system, or skeletons, of the two animals, which so closely resemble each other that their transposition would not easily be detected.

The spine of a dog has seven vertebrae in the neck, thirteen in the back, seven in the loins, three sacral and twenty to twenty-two in the tail. As for ribs, both the dog and wolf have thirteen pair --nine true and four false. They both have the same number of teeth --forty-two, and the same number of toes --five front and four hind. In many cases, a general outward description of either one could serve the other.

The habits of dogs and wolves are more similar than you might realize. Wolves are famous for their howl, but when kept with dogs, they will adapt barking. The wolf is, of course, a carnivore, but he can also eat vegetables and will nibble grass when ill. During hunting, a pack of wolves will divide in sections, one directly following the trail of the quarry, the other cutting off its retreat. This strategy is also exhibited by teams of sporting dogs when hunting.

A further important point of resemblance between the canis lupus and the canis familiaris lies in the fact that the period of gestation in both species is sixty-three days. There are from three to nine cubs in a wolf's litter, and these are blind for twenty-one days. They are suckled for two months, but at the end of that time they are able to eat half-digested flesh disgorged for them by their dam or even their sire.

The dogs and wolves native to almost all regions closely resemble each other in size, coloration, form and habit, a fact too widespread to be simply coincidental. An observer in 1829, Sir John Richardson, commented that the only difference he could see between the wolves of North America and the domestic dog of the Indians was the greater size and strength of the wolf.

It has been suggested that the one incontrovertible argument against the lupine relationship of the dog is the fact that all domestic dogs bark, while all wild canidae express their feelings only by howls. But the difficulty here is not so great as it seems, since we know that jackals, wild dogs, and wolf pups reared by bitches readily acquire the habit. On the other hand, domestic dogs allowed to run wild forget how to bark. The presence or absence of the habit of barking cannot, then, be regarded as an argument in deciding the question concerning the origin of the dog.

We might consider Darwin's belief that domestic dogs descended from several species of wolf from places as diverse as Europe, India and North Africa, as well as several species of jackal, and possibly from one or more species now extinct. This suggestion that our modern dogs had such a diverse ancestry could be the truest explanation we will find.

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Bob Evanston writes and researches on many topics pertaining to animals and pets. You can get more information on animal care and some useful resources on training your dog
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