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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. Traces of an indigenous dog family can be found in almost all parts of the world. There are several exceptions --in New Zealand, the Polynesian Islands, Madagascar, the eastern islands of the Malaysian Archipelago and the West Indian Islands have no evidence of any dog, fox or wolf existing as a native animal. In ancient Asian regions, as among the the Mongolians, dogs were wild creatures, prowling in packs like wolves. This is still the case in many Eastern cities. If we examine the records of the high civilizations of Assyria and Egypt, we begin to discover distinct varieties of the canine form. The myriad of different dog breeds, and the significant differences of their general appearance, size and temperament, makes it hard for us to believe that they could share a common ancestor. If we think of the differences between, say the St. Bernard and the Miniature Black; the Mastiff and the Japanese Spaniel; the Deerhound and Pomeranian, we become puzzled in considering that they all descended from one progenitor. Yet, the same is true of other species, such as breeds of horse. Dog breeders know that it is not at all difficult to produce a variation in type by selection. If we want to compare dogs and wolves and, it would do well to look at the osseous systems, or skeletons of the two. These are actually quite similar, to the extent that their transposition could not be readily observed. The spine of the dog consists of 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 thirteen pairs of ribs, nine true and four false. Each has forty-two teeth. They both have five front and four hind toes, while outwardly the common wolf has so much the appearance of a large, bare-boned dog, that a popular description of the one would serve for 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. Some see the difference between the dog's bark and wolf's howl as a definitive one. However, we know that wolf pups, along with jackals and wild dogs will readily learn to bark when raised by bitches, while domestic dogs will forget the habit if they run wild long enough. This, then, cannot be used as proof of the dog's origin. Darwin's final hypothesis on this subject was that "it is highly probable that the domestic dogs of the world have descended from two good species of wolf (C. lupus and C. latrans), and from two or three other doubtful species of wolves namely, the European, Indian, and North African forms; from at least one or two South American canine species; from several races or species of jackal; and perhaps from one or more extinct species"; and that the blood of these, in some cases mingled together, flows in the veins of our domestic breeds.
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Bob Evanston writes and researches on many topics pertaining to animals and pets. You can get more information on pet care and some useful resources on dog training Click here to get your own unique version of this article.
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