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General History of Dogs
There is no incongruity in the concept that in the really earliest period of man's habitation of this world he made a buddy and companion of some sort of aboriginal representative of our contemporary dog, and that in return for its help in safeguarding 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 expanded to trust it and look after it. Most likely the pet was initially little else than an abnormally gentle jackal, or an ailing wolf driven by its friends from the wild marauding pack to seek shelter in alien environments. One can well conceive the possibility of the partnership beginning in the scenario of some hopeless whelps being brought home by the very early hunters to be usually tended and raised by the women and children. Dogs introduced into the residence as playthings for the children would grow to regard themselves, and be regarded, as members of the family
In nearly all parts of the globe traces of an indigenous dog household are discovered, the only exceptions being the West Indian Islands, Madagascar, the eastern islands of the Malayan Archipelago, New Zealand, and the Polynesian Islands, where there is no indication that any type of dog, wolf, or fox has actually existed as a true aboriginal pet. In the ancient Oriental lands, and usually amongst the early Mongolians, the dog stayed savage and disregarded for centuries, prowling in packs, gaunt and wolf-like, as it prowls today through the streets and under the walls of every Eastern urban area. No attempt was made to attraction it into human companionship or to improve it into docility. It is not till we involve examine the records of the greater civilisations of Assyria and Egypt that we uncover any unique varieties of canine kind.
The dog was not considerably valued in Palestine, and in both the Old and New Testaments it is typically mentioned with scorn and contempt as an "dirty beast." Even 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 fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my group" is not without a recommendation of contempt, and it is significant that the only biblical allusion to the dog as an acknowledged friend of man happens in the apocryphal Publication of Tobit (v. 16), "So they went forth both, and the young man's dog with them."
The great wide variety of different breeds of the dog and the vast distinctions in their size, points, and basic appearance are realities which make it hard to think that they can have had an usual origins. One thinks of the distinction between the Mastiff and the Japanese Spaniel, the Deerhound and the trendy Pomeranian, the St. Bernard and the Miniature Black and Tan Terrier, and is perplexed in considering the possibility of their having descended from a common 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 easy it is to produce an assortment in type and size by studied selection.
In order correctly to comprehend this question it is needed initially to consider the identification of structure in the wolf and the dog. This identification of structure might most effectively 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 quickly be detected.
The spinal column of the dog contains seven vertebrae in the neck, thirteen in the back, seven in the loins, 3 sacral vertebrae, and twenty to twenty-two in the tail. In both the dog and the wolf there are 13 pairs of ribs, 9 valid and four untrue. Each has forty-two teeth. They both have five front and 4 hind toes, while outwardly the typical wolf has a lot the appearance of a big, bare-boned dog, that a popular summary of the one would serve for the other.
Nor are their practices different. The wolf's natural voice is a loud howl, however when confined with dogs he will learn to bark. Although he is carnivorous, he will certainly additionally eat veggies, and when sickly he will nibble yard. In the chase, a pack of wolves will divide into parties, one following the trail of the quarry, the other endeavoring to intercept its hideaway, exercising a substantial quantity of approach, an attribute which is displayed by many of our sporting dogs and terriers when hunting in groups.
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 types is sixty-three days. There are from 3 to 9 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 consume half-digested flesh disgorged for them by their dam or even their sire.
The native dogs of all regions approximate closely in size, coloration, kind, and habit to the native wolf of those regions. Of this crucial situation there are far too many instances to permit of its being looked upon as a simple coincidence. Sir John Richardson, writing in 1829, observed that "the resemblance between the North American wolves and the domestic dog of the Indians is so terrific that the size and strength of the wolf appears to be the only difference.
It has actually been suggested that the one incontrovertible argument against the lupine relationship of the dog is the reality that all domestic dogs bark, while all wild Canidae express their feelings only by howls. But the problem here is not so terrific as it seems, because we understand that jackals, wild dogs, and wolf pups reared by bitches conveniently obtain the routine. On the other hand, domestic dogs allowed to run wild forget the best ways to bark, while there are some which have actually not yet discovered so to reveal themselves.
The presence or absence of the practice of barking can easily not, then, be regarded as an argument in determining the concern concerning the beginning of the dog. This stumbling block consequently fades away, leaving us in the position of agreeing with Darwin, whose last hypothesis was that "it is very likely that the domestic dogs of the globe have actually descended from 2 great types of wolf (C. lupus and C. latrans), and from 2 or 3 other skeptical species of wolves particularly, the European, Indian, and North African kinds; from a minimum of one or two South American canine types; from a number of races or species of jackal; and possibly from one or more extinct types"; and that the blood of these, in some cases mingled together, streams in the veins of our domestic breeds.
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