3 main questions about dogs

1. How and when did dogs become pets?

There are several versions of what the primary process of domestication was. According to one version, the ancient ancestors of dogs, more similar to modern wolves, were the first to show interest in life with humans. Most often, wolves were drawn to human habitats to find food. The ancestors of dogs stole leftovers or caught small rodents near people, which also accompanied people in search of food. And all this happened in the upper Paleolithic era (40-12 thousand years BC). the Era was characterized by harsh conditions, so the predators were forced to seek food by any possible means. Scientists claim that the process of "self-domestication" took place only genetically defective individuals. Also to man sought wolves-loners, expelled from the pack. Life without a pack complicated the process of hunting and survival in General, so the wolves developed a new biological niche. Sick, old, lonely individuals came to man for help. They chose to cooperate with a person over death. It is safe to say that the dog became a friend of man by its own will.

2. Why did a person need a dog?

Dogs have accompanied humans throughout history. The first animal remains were found in East Asia in places of human settlements Dating back more than 100,000 years BC.based on these excavations, scientists concluded that the dog became a separate biological species as early as 33,000 years ago. The ancestors of dogs roamed with man, suffering with him all the difficulties: drought, famine, bad weather. Dogs have become assistants to people in hunting, as well as teachers in many ways. So, according to scientists, people learned to hunt in groups from dogs. Also, the dogs showed a live example of how to communicate with gestures, including during hunting. Of course, you can not underestimate the influence of dogs on human psychology. Through communication with animals, people learned to care, enjoy, and communicate. It is difficult to clearly answer the question why a person needed a dog, but its appearance definitely had a positive impact on the formation of a person as a person.

3. What were the first dogs?

It's no secret that dogs are descended from wolves. From the point of view of biology, a dog is a predatory mammal of the canine family. Initially, the domestic dog was separated into a separate biological species by the Swedish naturalist Linnaeus in 1758, and in 1993 it was reclassified as a subspecies of the wolf. In Russian-language written sources, the word "dog" in the meaning of the corresponding animal occurs since 1475. Currently, 400 breeds of dogs are registered, but most of them have nothing to do with the prototype of the dog, because since the advent of breeding, breeds have been bred artificially for various purposes. The first domesticated animal is the wolf. It remained a wolf, except for some genetic changes over the years of adaptive life with humans. Over the years, wolves have lost some size: the jaw, skull, brain, and paws have become 20-30% smaller. As a result of the first biological changes, man's friend became an animal that closely resembles modern tamaskans or Northern eskimo dogs.

Whatever the path of a dog to a person, this path is not in vain. After all, the French artist Toussaint Charles was right: "the Best thing a person has is a dog."

Author: Alexandra Akinina