Are Dogs Really Our Best Friends?
Dogs. Love them or hate them…few are indifferent to them. And most people find it hard to resist a wagging tail and big eyes.
Many of our dog breeds bear little resemblance to the wolves they were bred from. Why are dogs so important? When did we domesticate them? Why dogs?
We take our dogs for granted, but lets go take a bit of a dive into the history and biology of our four-footed friends.
When and Where Were Dogs Domesticated?
Dogs genetically diverged from Canis lupus, the gray wolf, between 30 and 40,000 years ago. However, the oldest remains of an undisputed dog were found in Oberkassel, Germany, in 1914. This dog was buried with two humans, presumably its owners, a bit over 14,000 years ago.
Likely, though, we’d already had dogs for a while at this point. Evidence suggests that dogs were domesticated about 16,000 years ago in Southeastern Asia, in Nepal and Mongolia, from which they dispersed with migrating humans. Puppies were then, no doubt, traded to other human populations. In Europe, we’ve found large numbers of dogs dating back up to 12,000 years that were distinctly different from wolves and closer to central Asian dogs.
So, our dogs? Domesticated on the Asian steppe. Much later, the same people worked out how to ride a horse.
(Some scientists believe we may have domesticated our first dogs as long ago as 34,000 years!)
Why Dogs?
Here’s an interesting factoid. Humans point. Dogs point. Wolves point. Chimps do not point (unless taught to do so by a human).
Pointing in humans probably started as a signal to a canine hunting partner.
Wolves also have a similar family structure to humans (so, incidentally, do crows)…a couple raising pups with the help of older kids who haven’t left the home yet. Our family structures were similar enough that they could easily merge. I suspect that’s a big part of why we domesticated dogs specifically. It was a natural partnership between two very similar species.
They got opposable thumbs out of the deal and we got a much better sense of smell.
What Did Our Ancestors Use Dogs For?
Our ancestors used dogs first as hunting partners. We trained them to track and retrieve game and work with us as part of a hunting pack.
Dogs might also have helped keep camps clean and it’s very likely the earliest dog owners snuggled with their dogs, too, especially when it was cold. Dogs would also have helped protect the camp by chasing off not just dangerous predators but vermin who might have got into the food stores. (The dog in the picture is a camp dog who’s primary job is to rid the camp of chipmunks!)
Dogs were also used as pack and draft animals. Huskies are draft dogs, and may well have helped the ancestors of the native Americans take the northern route to the American continent (although other humans crossed the ocean…did they also bring their dogs? It seems likely).
With the development of agriculture, dogs were bred to retrieve live prey and bring it to the pack without hurting it…herding.
Now, we have dogs bred for all kinds of purposes…hunting, herding, pulling sleds, or just looking cute.
A Plastic Genome
Look at a St. Bernard and a Chihuahua and it’s hard to believe they’re the same species. Then look at house cats…
The dog genome is flexible and plastic and you can do all kinds of things to dogs. We know the Greeks had four breeds of dog – Laconian (deerhounds), Molossian, Cretan, and Melitan. The latter was the oldest known lap dog! It was probably something like a Maltese.
That’s not the oldest breed, though. Our guess as to the oldest breed is the Matagi-Inu. Which you haven’t heard of. Well, you have, because this breed changed names to Akita Inu or Shiba Inu at some point. Akitas were bred to protect their pack.
As to how many breeds? We can’t really count that high…in part because of arguments about what constitutes a breed. The AKC recognizes 195 breeds, but that’s a really low number…there are many, many more.
The best number I can find is 340 recognized breeds. There are also unrecognized breeds or landraces that don’t have studbooks.
Dogs have long, flowing hair, short velvety hair, no hair. They range in size from the apple-headed chihuahua at up to 6 pounds to 180-pound St. Bernards. I’ve seen a St. Bernard stand next to a horse. The horse was smaller! (Miniature Shetland, if you’re curious…it probably weighed more than the dog, but it was slightly shorter).
All descended from the mighty wolf.
Paws of Civilization
I’m going to stick my neck out and say that humans without dogs would be…well…not the humans we know.
As the first domesticated animal, the dog was a proof of concept for the domestication of other important symbiotes…most noticeably equines and bovines, although I won’t knock our feline friends either.
One author even thinks that we beat out the Neanderthal because we had dogs and they didn’t.
What is certain though is that dogs helped us hunt more effectively but more than that, they helped us herd more effectively. A human shepherd struggles. A human shepherd with two border collies is a well-oiled herding machine. Livestock guardian dogs allowed humans to do thingsother than watch over their flocks all the time. Without dogs, it’s entirely possible we would not be a technological civilization.
Dog = herding = more cattle = food surplus = civilization.
(Equally important, of course, are domesticated grasses).
We aren’t who we are without our dogs.
Saving Lives Through History and Today
The image of a St. Bernard search and rescue dog with a little barrel of brandy is trite, but dogs are a vital tool for search and rescue. (Horses are also good SAR animals in their own right…and many teams use both). We still don’t have a technology that can find somebody in an avalanche, dig them out, and call us the way a dog can.
Then there’s the dog as medical equipment. A service dog can make a huge difference, providing people with independence. Medical alert dogs have been known to save the lives of people other than their handler by alerting to seizures or heart attacks.
Therapy dogs treat mental health in nursing homes, hospitals, schools, even airports.
Just looking at a dog can bring down stress levels, reduce anxiety, and lower blood pressue.
Why?
Likely because they have been with us so long that we know in the depths of our humanity that a dog will keep us safe.
They have been with us for a long time. May they always be with us.