Dogs are the most popular pet on the planet and have been apart of humans’ lives for
thousands of years.
How did this come to be you might ask?
Let’s get into this.
When we think of the dog we think of our loyal companions so was it just as simple as ancient
humans offering up some food to hungry wolves and they became friends?
At first, this was the hypothesis but nope this isn’t how it happened at least as far
as we know today as no one has a time machine to verify this.
Back in the late Pleistocene era you know the one with all this big furry creatures,
surviving among them in Northern Europe and Asia was the megafaunal wolf.
Now I use the word surviving because despite the megafaunal wolf being larger and stronger
than any of the wolves today with a stronger jaw and teeth they were up against some serious
brutes in the wilderness.
To survive they evolved to be strong and dense and hunted in numbers and took cues from the
most dominant of the pack.
They would take on animals much larger than themselves which would provide a buffet for
all of them for days.
Wooly mammoths, straight-tusked elephants, homotherium or the sabretooth tiger, cave
lions, cave hyenas, cave bears yes everyone lived in a cave apparently, steppe bison and
aurochs or these giant wild bulls were probably their more ideal of these targets.
Other beasts like the irish elk, woolly rhino and elasmotherium were possibly on the menu
too but they were much better suited to fight off the megafaunal wolves.
Now something happened throughout these years that killed off all these massive beasts,
call it changing climate, humans becoming proficient at hunting them….
feel free to state your case in the comments.
As the animals of the late Pleistocene era started to vanish the bulky megafaunal wolf
started to evolve two ways.
One was into the gray wolf the other into the dog.
Fossil specimens of the megafaunal wolf shows us that they were much more specialized than
gray wolves at hunting and consuming relatively large prey, the gray wolf evolved to be lighter
and faster to be able to hunt smaller, quicker prey to survive.
As for dogs they also split off from megafaunal wolves but in a different way 30 to 33,000
years ago.
After all the giant beasts were wiped off the planet, wolves being an apex predator
that didn’t have to fight with much in nature for their meal.
The only real threat to them was humans, now if you jump to a quick conclusion you might
think wolves and humans fought.. a lot..
This might not be the case though.
Sure they had their battles but the megafaunal wolf was smart and found a better way to exist.
Up until this point they would hunt in packs and use howls and sounds to communicate with
other members of the pack to capture larger prey.
Many predators out there will use speed to take down their prey like the cheetah attacking
an impala or an eagle surprising a squirrel but this isn’t how this ancient wolf operated.
They use the same hunting tactics as humans from long ago.
Despite humans living in nearly inhospitable conditions like the savannas of Africa we
would use our ability to perspire while running to outlast animals in a hunt.
A tribe of hunters would essentially marathon run after an animal slowly to the point where
they drop of sheer exhaustion.
A pack of these wolves would hunt in the same manner.
Now the initial theory was that humans fed some hungry wolves, the wolves came to trust
the humans and became their loyal companions but this theory which was a commonly agreed
upon at one point is well wrong.
What is more likely is that wolves domesticated themselves.
A wolf learned that hanging around humans meant that an easy scavenged meal would present
itself at some point every day.
Being able to crush and eat the bones as well as meat scrap leftovers from humans, wolves
learned over time humans would provide that easy meal and the most friendly of the wolves
would get a closer and closer connection with the humans and thus more food and eventually
companionship and protection.
These megafaunal wolves evolved into the ancient form of dogs and with new research, it shows
that it looks quite possible that dogs were domesticated twice in both europe and in eastern
asia.
When people started migrating from eastern asia to europe they brought along their dogs
who mated with the western dogs of europe and created what became the main line of dogs.
If we look at the ancestry of the ancient dogs of europe over 90% of their genes come
from the ancient asian dogs.
The common belief that the dog came from europe and moved its way over to asia isn't supported
by a trail of young and younger bone samples, instead there are bones in both europe and
asia dating back 12 to 15,000 BCE.
Mostly likely the first domesticated animal on the planet the dog started to evolve to
better perform their duties alongside humans.
Shorter more robust dogs developed as animal herding dogs for sheep and cattle and other
smelly barnyard animals where big, strong, defensive dogs were evolved into the guard
dog of the tribe, camp or community.
Longer, slimmer dogs evolved for their need to be able to dig their way deep into fox
and badger burrows to capture or flush them out and race dogs that are tall, lean and
fast like the greyhound were bred.
More and more dogs were being bred with distinct purposes in mind and named after that purpose
like the sheepdog or retriever.
Dogfighting a popular sport among gamblers was outlawed in the 1830s in Britain.
This change left dog breeders with many dogs and no idea what to do with them and a population
filled with gamblers with no where to spend their money.
The first Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship in 1877 organized by a man named John Henry
Walsh, a former doctor turned journalist, put together a series of rules and within
the tournament would be a dog show with standards and modern dog breeds of the time.
An example of this from Kennel Management of Large Dogs reads:
“The kennel management of greyhounds, foxhounds, harriers, and other sporting dogs varies almost
with each kind.
Thus, greyhounds are most carefully protected from the weather by a roof to their yard as
well as by body clothing, which is worn when in severe training.
Next to these come hounds, and then pointers, setters, spaniels, and retrievers, all of
which last are allowed a run into an open yard at discretion.
In many cases this leads to colds and rheumatism, against which the best precaution is a sloping
door for the opening into the sleeping chamber, hinged at the top, and made up at the sides
with a V shaped piece of wood, but not at the bottom.
“
The book of guidelines goes into a level of detail that would bore even the most anxious
of dogs over its 266 pages.
The Victorian era was transformed at this point, with the success of the dog show, which
brought about kennel clubs that sought to breed dogs solely for their appearance and
nothing more.
This spurred on pure breds, with breeders striving to create the purest of pure bred
dogs or top dogs which became hot commodities and high priced sellers.
Top dogs were hired or rented out for their breeding duties but some breeders sought to
create new breeds.
Cross breeding resulted in 27 types of dogs which were outlined in Walsh’s first book
but by the year 1900 there were 80 breeds of dogs.
Traits were selected or mixed to create extra cute and unique dogs but many of these new
breeds have been found to be problematic and are born with issues that can’t be solved
like spinal problems or a condensed breathing capacity such as with the pug or bulldog.
The breeding didn’t end with creating new companions though, a Scotsman George Augustus
Graham was on a quest to bring back the extinct Irish wolfhound.
This massive dog had gone extinct in 1720 so to recreate it he tried to breed dogs with
irish blood at his estate in Gloucester but was met with little success.
He then bred Scottish deer hounds, a dog of similar appearance to the irish wolfhound
but smaller and mixed it with a great dane.
Finally a boxer and Tibetan mastiff were bred in and the resulting mongrel or mixed breed
dog was one of similar appearance to the Irish wolfhound.
Today this mix he created is recognized as a purebred like many others like the golden
retriever which was created from a cross of a yellow colored retriever and a tweed water
spaniel.
Moving into the 1900s British aristocrats started demanding dogs for personal fashion.
We aren’t talking about wearing them but instead lap dogs were bred for the sole purpose
of having a dog that would lay on a woman’s lap when needed, showing her expensive taste
in fashion with the perfect calm dog to match.
These dogs would sell for over $10,000 and were not only there to sleep on their lap
but to travel with them in their handbags.
They carried their luxury dogs around as a status symbol wherever they went like the
Pembroke Welsh Corgi or Royal Corgi made popular by Queen Elizabeth the II.
Since becoming Queen in 1952 she has owned more than 30 corgis.
In fact she has owned at least one Corgi at any given time since 1933.
As breeding continued more tame, relaxed, submissive or often juvenile qualities were
selected to make the perfect house dog for anyone.
This selection of traits called neoteny is not only found in dogs but other pets like
cats and rabbits.
The dogs we know today are well beyond the state they once were of hanging around camp
protecting it for the scraps from dinner but seek approval and love from their humans.
Both humans and dogs when interacting will release oxytocin the hormone responsible for
the feeling of comfort, security, love and trust.
Wolves on the other hand are becoming extinct or endangered all around the world so essentially
domesticating themselves to humans may have changed their base core but it has saved themselves
from extinction.
Today there are more than 400 different recognized breeds of dogs with new ones being created
every year.
The Nederlandse Kooikerhondje was created in 2018, a spaniel type dog with ancestors
that were duck hunters.
The Norwegian Buhund also a recently created medium size dog has ancestry dating back 900
years where they accompanied Vikings on sailing ships.
Another new dog that dates back to Viking times the Swedish Vallhund, is a small dog
with short legs used for its tracking and herding capabilities.
Humans have been creating unusual breeds of dogs not just recently but for hundreds of
years like the Komondor this combination of a dog and floor mop which has its earliest
mention in a Hungarian codex from 1544.
Where do you think the evolution of dog domestication will go in the next 100 years?
Share your thoughts and until the next one have a good one.