How the dogs are happened

There is no inconsistency in the idea that, in the earliest settlement of this world, man became the friend and companion of some aboriginal representative of our modern dog, and that in return for his assistance in guarding against wild beasts, and when guarding his sheep and goats, he gave them a share of his food, a corner in his dwelling and began to trust him and take care of him. Probably the animal was originally nothing more than an unusually gentle jackal or a sickly wolf, driven from its wild marauding pack by its companions to seek shelter in a foreign environment. One can well imagine the possibility that the partnership would begin in a situation where some helpless young would be brought home by the first hunters to be cared for and raised by women and children. Dogs brought into the home as toys for children would come to see themselves as members of the family and be treated as members of the family. Traces of the aboriginal dog family are found in almost all parts of the world, the only exceptions being the West Indies, Madagascar, the eastern islands of the Malay Archipelago, New Zealand, and the Polynesian Islands, where there is no indication that the dog, wolf, or fox existed as a true aboriginal animal. In the ancient Oriental countries, and generally among the early Mongols, the dog remained for centuries wild and neglected, roaming in packs, emaciated and wolf-like, as it is to-day prowled through the streets and under the walls of every Eastern city. No attempt was made to attract her to human society or to improve her obedience. It is not until we come to examine the records of the higher civilizations of Assyria and Egypt that we discover any distinct kinds of canine forms. The dog was not much esteemed in Palestine, and is commonly spoken of with disdain and disdain as an "unclean animal" in both the Old and New Testaments. Even the familiar reference to the sheepdog in the Book of Job: "But now they that are younger than I mock me, whose fathers I would have scorned to stand with the dogs of my flock" is not without a hint of contempt. it is significant that the only biblical allusion to the dog as a recognized companion of man occurs in the apocryphal Book of Tobit (v. 16), "So they both went out, and the young man's dog with them." The large number of different breeds of dogs and the huge differences in their size, axes and general appearance are facts that make it difficult to believe that they could have a common ancestor. One thinks of the difference between the Mastiff and the Japanese Spaniel, the Deerhound and the fashionable Pomeranian, the Saint Bernard and the Miniature Black and Tan Terrier, and is puzzled to consider the possibility that they may have descended from a common ancestor. Yet the difference 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 variety of type and size by studied selection. To properly understand this question, it is necessary to first consider the identity of structure in the wolf and the dog. This identity of structure can best be studied by comparing the skeletal system or skeletons of two animals which resemble each other so closely that their transposition would not be easily detected. A dog's spine consists of seven vertebrae in the neck, thirteen in the back, seven in the hips, three sacral vertebrae, and twenty to twenty-two in the tail. Both the dog and the wolf have thirteen pairs of ribs, nine true and four false. Each has forty-two teeth. Both have five fore and four hind toes, while the common wolf has so much the external appearance of a large, bare-boned dog that the popular description of one would do for the other. Their habits are no different either. A wolf's natural voice is a loud howl, but when confined to dogs it learns to bark. Although he is a carnivore, he will also eat vegetables and nibble on grass when he is sick. In the chase, the pack of wolves will divide into groups, one of which will follow the track of the quarry, the other will try to intercept its retreat, employing a considerable amount of strategy, a quality which many of our sporting dogs and terriers display when hunting in teams. Another important point of similarity between Canis lupus and Canis familiaris lies in the fact that the gestation period of both species is sixty-three days. There are from three to nine cubs in a wolf litter, which are blind for twenty-one days. They are nursed for two months, but at the end of this time they are able to eat the half-digested meat that their mother or even their father regurgitates for them. The native dogs of all regions approach the original wolf of those regions in size, color, form, and habit. There are too many instances of this most important circumstance to be looked upon as mere coincidence. Sir John Richardson, writing in 1829, noted that “the resemblance between the North American wolves and the domestic dog of the Indians is so great that the size and strength of the wolf seems to be the only difference. It has been suggested that one irrefutable argument against a dog's relationship with the lupine is the fact that all domestic dogs bark, while all wild canids only express their feelings by howling. But the difficulty here is not so great as it seems, for we know that jackals, wild dogs, and wolf cubs raised by bitches easily acquire this habit. On the other hand, domestic dogs who are allowed to run forget to bark, while there are those who have not yet learned to express themselves. The presence or absence of the habit of barking cannot therefore be considered as an argument when deciding on the question of a dog's origin. This stumbling block subsequently disappears, leaving us in a position to agree with Darwin, whose last hypothesis was that "it is highly probable that the domestic dogs of the world are descended from two good species of wolves (C. lupus and C. latrans) and from two or three others of doubtful kinds of wolves, namely, the European, Indian, and North African forms; from at least one or two South American dog species; of the several races or species of jackals; and perhaps of one or more extinct species'; and that the blood of these, in some cases mixed, flows in the veins of our domestic breeds.