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RobBrown,haddogsfor20years
WrittenNov16,2014

They probably didn't. The wolves adapted to become much more dog-like, long
before the humans explicitly bred them or even conned them. The human role at
that point would have been quite passive: they allowed the dogs to come closer,
allowed them to feed o the human scraps, and didn't bother chasing them o or
killing them -- as they would have done if the more aggressive wolves got close. This
probably went on for a thousands of years before it was common for the humans to
actually conne them, leash them, or especially, actively breed them.

The main thing that was probably evolving in the animals during this period was a
reduced "ight distance," the distance the animals would allow humans to approach
before they ran away.

The dogs probably looked something like this (a modern "pariah morph" dog that
lives near humans but isn't "owned" by any human: Pariah dog ), before people
actually started taking them in and selectively breeding them.

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AnnieWang,studiedatUniversityofCalifornia,Davis
WrittenNov15,2014

I'm not a scientist but I've read two books which have dierent opinions on how we
domesticated dogs. One, called A Perfect Harmony by Roger Caras is an older book
about human animal relationships. It gives humans pretty much all the credit in
turning wolves into dogs, including going so far as to say early humans would sneak
into wolf dens to steal wolf pups for food. They kept the wolf pups alive, since
obviously that way their meat wouldn't spoil, and early humans of course interacted
with the wolf pups and developed a bond. They would select their least favorite (the
most aggressive and human-adverse) wolf pups to eat rst and perhaps let their
favorites live. Caras posits that it's us who invited the wolves into our dens.

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I've also read a newer book called How the Wolf Became the Dog which gives much
more credit to the wolves. The author argues that essentially wolves self-selected --
they were drawn to our campres and we tolerated them. Some wolves decided to
"trade" their wildness for the comfort of a human campsite and regularly available
food. Humans eventually realized the wolf-dogs were pretty useful -- they would bark
when intruders or other wild animals were near, they could demonstrate aection
and protectiveness towards humans.

In How the Wolf Became the Dog, there is a scene which has particularly stayed with
me. In a cave somewhere in France, scientists discovered human footsteps with a
wolf-dog's alongside it. The human, judging by the size of his feet, was no more than
eight years old. The wolf-dog was full grown. You can imagine they were best friends -
- they hunted together, played together, protected one another. It is within the very
essence of human nature to love dogs: we have loved dogs since nearly the beginning
of our time. Dogs and man have been best friends for close to twenty thousand years.

Ever since the wolf came to our campsite to turn into the wolf-dog and then the
modern dog, we've selected the ones with docile traits and bred them over the course
of thousands of years to get the modern dog. Think of how short a dog's life is:
anywhere from 8 - 15 years. Much shorter than a human's, so the process of changing
its essential nature doesn't take as long. We can very quickly amplify desirable traits
and minimize negative ones.

Experiments have been done with domesticating foxes. It is denitely possible and
can be done within a short period of time. With domestication, foxes begin to actually
exhibit "dog-like" features not naturally found in the wild. Drooping ears and
domestication seem to go hand in hand, for example. The domesticated red foxes also
exhibited mottled coats, not much found in the wild. The sound of their barks and
yips also changed.

To say that dog is man's best friend is a bit of an understatement -- there are some
who argue that dogs were critical in the humans' triumph over neanderthals.
Humanity's Best Friend: How Dogs May Have Helped Humans Beat the
Neanderthals

It's funny to think of my own dog as essentially brainwashed. He has no natural

function except to be my best friend. He is a mutt and exhibits a number of traits my
ancestors have bred into his ancestors -- he holds things softly in his mouth, as a
hunting dog such as a Labrador does. He "points" when he spots what could be game
in the bushes. His build is that of a sight hound -- long and lean. My forefathers gave
me a perfect best friend.
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LazharIchir,FounderofBreedingBusiness,aplatformforethicaldog
breedersworldwide.
WrittenApr21,2016

Dogs and canines were domesticated between 10,000 and 35,000 years ago through
selective dog breeding, suggesting the earliest dogs presumably arose once we,
humans, were still searching and gathering, way before the appearance of agriculture.
History did not wait for our fancy (and amazing) articles to understand how to breed
dogs.

The prehistoric development of the wolf through selective dog breeding , from
which the dog sprang, is typied chiey by increase in running speed. While we are
having an attempt here at climbing the domestic dogs evolution tree, it is important
to remind our readers that the origin of the domestic dog, the Canis lupus familiaris,
is not clear as per today, 2015. Mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA evidences are not
conrming each others conclusions:

1. Mitochondrial DNA indicates that the domestic dog diverged from a wolf-
like canid either 27,000-40,000 years ago or 18,80032,100 years ago
(source [1])

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2. Nuclear DNA points out a divergence that occurred approximately 11,000
16,000 years ago (source [2])

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[1] http://www.cell.com/current-biol... Whatarethebreedsofdogsthatlooklikedire

[2] Genome Sequencing Highlights the Dynamic Early History of Dogs wolves?

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