Dog Origins

We read books and watch TV series by popular dog-authors who claim to have learnt their skills by watching the wolf, and so on. But did the dog evolve directly from the wolf? Did we domesticate the wolf, or did it domesticate itself, and us too? Did the wolf, dog, coyote and jackal have a (now extinct) common ancestor? (Daft question - aren’t they all canines!)

In science we are informed by evidence, not faith, and as new evidence appears it is tested and evaluated, the picture is refined and our understanding improves. For an excellent summary of the current thoughts within academia about dog origins:

http://darrennaish.blogspot.com/2006/10/controversial-origins-of-domestic-dog.html

This cites a paper The Origin of the Dog Revisited by Janice Koler-Matznick that you can read at: http://www.canineworld.com/ngsdcs/Origin.of.the.Dog.pdf  It concludes -

“The hypothesis that (best) fits the available evidence is that the first domestic dogs descended from a species of medium-sized generalist canid, ... that voluntarily adopted the pariah niche and remained commensal for an extensive period before some populations became truly domesticated. If the inertia created by the wolf-origin dogma can be overcome, and the problem considered without preconceptions, perhaps investigation of possible functional origins of the morphological differences between dogs and wolves, expanded nuclear DNA studies and re-evaluation of the canid archaeological and fossil record will answer some of the unresolved questions concerning our most ancient domesticant.”

If you want to read more on the subject, see Coppinger’s book “Dogs: a Startling New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior and Evolution” on the Books/Gear page.

For a good introduction to science and evolution generally, see the National Academies site: http://nationalacademies.org/evolution/

You can read a copy of their ebook online and download a summary at: 

And finally, next time someone blethers on about dominance and submission and about your dog wanting to be the “alpha”, point them to this article, “Whatever happened to the term Alpha Wolf?” by David Mech. http://www.4pawsu.com/alphawolf.pdf If it doesn’t apply to wolves, you can be pretty sure that it applies even less to dogs (see Semyonova’s book for more information - Books page )

(David Mech is senior research scientist for the US Geological Survey and founder and vice chair of the International Wolf Centre. He has studied wolves for 50 years and published several books and many articles about them.) http://www.wolf.org/wolves/index.asp

The Future of Dogs?

Sue Sternberg (APDT Chronicle of the Dog, July 2003) wrote an article asking if dogs were heading for extinction, and concluded that it wasn’t the pet dog but temperament that was heading for extinction.

She points out that the spay/neuter campaign has reduced the number of ordinary friendly mixed-breed family pets produced, leaving the main pool of breeding dogs as either pedigrees or urban macho dogs, the muscle dogs. The latter are not bred for their winning smiles and waggy tails, and the former are locked in a diminishing gene pool.

“Once a breed is acknowledged as a breed, the gene pool effectively closes.”

The example given is for Boxers:

“Cardiomyopathy is a progressive deterioration of the heart muscle. It is frequently undetected, because dogs may not show any signs of the disease for years. As many as 80% of boxers may be affected with cardiomyopathy or are carriers of the condition, which causes the affected dog to have an arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat.) Although many dogs are without symptoms, some may have episodes of fainting or collapse, weakness, and occasionally heart failure. Death often occcurs from an inability to control irregular heart rhythms and is usually sudden.” (from Boxers for Dummies, 2000)

That leaves 20% of the population of Boxers as breedable. With a closed gene pool, that leaves an even smaller population with whom to breed to try to eliminate cardiomyopathy. Even “reputable” breeders are fighting the odds.

So, what dogs breed? Only purebreds, only show dogs where structure rather than temperament is paramount, only urban macho dogs. Family pets, often healthy despite inadequate care and nutrition, with low thresholds for aggression, with good temperaments, are denied breeding. She concludes: “It feels almost like racial prejudice to me. We exclude these ideal family dogs from breeding while, just because they are purebred, many (quite frankly) hideous dogs continue to be perpetuated.”

(That should stir it up!)