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General History of Dogs

There is no incongruity in the concept that in the extremely earliest period of guy's habitation of this world he made a pal and companion of some sort of aboriginal representative of our modern dog, and that in return for its help in securing him from wilder pets, and in defending his sheep and goats, he gave it a share of his food, a corner in his home, and grew to trust it and look after it. Probably the pet was originally little else than an abnormally gentle jackal, or an ailing wolf driven by its companions from the wild marauding pack to find shelter in alien environments. One could well conceive the possibility of the collaboration beginning in the circumstance of some hopeless whelps being brought home by the early hunters to be tended and reared by the females and kids. Dogs introduced into the house as playthings for the youngsters would grow to regard themselves, and be concerned, as family members

In nearly all parts of the globe traces of an indigenous dog family members are found, the only exceptions being the West Indian Islands, Madagascar, the eastern islands of the Malayan Island chain, New Zealand, and the Polynesian Islands, where there is no sign that any sort of dog, wolf, or fox has existed as a valid aboriginal pet. In the old Oriental lands, and usually amongst the early Mongolians, the dog continued to be savage and disregarded for centuries, prowling in packs, gaunt and wolf-like, as it prowls today with the streets and under the walls of every Eastern urban area. No attempt was made to allure it into human companionship or to improve it into docility. It is not till we pertain to examine the records of the greater civilisations of Assyria and Egypt that we find any type of distinct assortments of canine kind.

The dog was not significantly valued in Palestine, and in both the Old and New Testaments it is generally spoken of with scorn and contempt as an "rancid beast." Also the familiar reference to the Sheepdog in the Book of Job "But now they that are more youthful than I have me in derision, whose dads I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock" is not without a recommendation of contempt, and it is considerable that the only biblical allusion to the dog as an acknowledged companion of man happens in the apocryphal Book of Tobit (v. 16), "So they went forth both, and the young man's dog with them."

The excellent wide variety of different breeds of the dog and the vast distinctions in their size, points, and basic appeal are facts which make it tough to think that they might have had a typical ancestry. One thinks about the distinction between the Mastiff and the Japanese Spaniel, the Deerhound and the fashionable Pomeranian, the St. Bernard and the Miniature Black and Tan Terrier, and is perplexed in considering the possibility of their having actually descended from a typical progenitor. Yet the variation is no greater than that between the Shire horse and the Shetland pony, the Shorthorn and the Kerry cattle, or the Patagonian and the Pygmy; and all dog breeders know how simple it is to produce an assortment in kind and size by studied selection.

In order effectively to comprehend this question it is needed initially to consider the identity of structure in the wolf and the dog. This identity of structure could best be studied in a contrast 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 vertebrae of the dog includes seven vertebrae in the neck, thirteen in the back, seven in the loins, three sacral vertebrae, and twenty to twenty-two in the tail. In both the dog and the wolf there are 13 pairs of ribs, 9 true and four untrue. Each has forty-two teeth. They both have 5 front and four hind toes, while outwardly the usual wolf has so much the appeal of a huge, bare-boned dog, that a popular description of the one would serve for the other.

Nor are their practices different. The wolf's natural voice is a loud howl, however when restricted with dogs he will discover to bark. Although he is meat-eating, he will also eat vegetables, and when sickly he will nibble yard. In the chase, a pack of wolves will divide into parties, one following the path of the quarry, the other endeavoring to intercept its hideaway, exercising a considerable amount of approach, a characteristic which is displayed by numerous of our sporting dogs and terriers when hunting in teams.

A further important point of similarity 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 3 to nine cubs in a wolf's litter, and these are blind for twenty-one days. They are nursed 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 native dogs of all areas approximate closely in size, coloration, type, and practice to the native wolf of those regions. Of this most important circumstance there are far too many instances to permit of its being looked upon as a simple coincidence. Sir John Richardson, writing in 1829, noted that "the similarity between the North American wolves and the domestic dog of the Indians is so terrific that the size and strength of the wolf seems to be the only distinction.

It has been recommended that the one incontrovertible argument against the lupine relationship of the dog is the fact that all domestic dogs bark, while all wild Canidae show their sensations only by howls. But the problem here is not so excellent as it appears, since we understand that jackals, wild dogs, and wolf pups raised by bitches readily get the practice. On the other hand, domestic dogs allowed to run wild forget how to bark, while there are some which have not yet learned so to express themselves.

The presence or absence of the practice of barking could not, then, be considereded an argument in deciding the concern concerning the origin of the dog. This stumbling block consequently vanishes, leaving us in the position of agreeing with Darwin, whose last hypothesis was that "it is very likely that the domestic dogs of the world have actually descended from 2 great types of wolf (C. lupus and C. latrans), and from two or 3 other doubtful types of wolves specifically, the European, Indian, and North African forms; from at least a couple of South American canine types; from several races or types of jackal; and possibly from one or even more extinct types"; and that the blood of these, in some cases socialized together, streams in the veins of our domestic breeds.

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