The Domestication of Dogs
I. Introduction
The Domestication of the canine began with the gray wolf. This domestication began several thousands of years ago. Domesticated dogs provided early humans with a guard animal, fur, and a beast of burden. A beast of burden is a labor animal that is usually domesticated. A site of domestic dogs date back to 1656 where a domestic canine is seen in Diego Velazquez’s painting “Las Meninas”.
II. Discovery
The discovery of domesticated dogs seemed to be a very conscious effort by humans. The theory is that the ancient people would take wolf pups into their house or den, adopt them, feed them, trained them and then eventually tamed them. This theory is completely false according to Biologist Raymond Coppinger, who has spent over 45 years of his life working canine studies. Coppinger believes that the ancients would not have had the time necessary to train these wolves, and even if they kept them in their house they would not be very docile in the aspects of food or breading for that matter. If you try and interfere with wolves and their reproductive performance, you could die directly on the spot. Raymond Coppinger has a completely different theory, stating that the wolves began to domesticate themselves. He suspects that wolves began to do this right around the time of the end of the last Ice Age which was approximately 15,000 years ago. He found that because people began to form villages and start to live in one place that the wolves began to follow because evidence of dog fossils came from around this time era.
I will admit that I did not believe Mr. Coppinger at all up until this point in his research when he spoke more about the villages. He stated, “People are organized into continuous settlements — villages where they remain for a long period of time, whether there were sitting on the edge of a shell fishery or on the edge of a coral reef. When humans live in the same spot for a long period of time, they create waste, including both sewage and, more importantly for the dog, leftovers. There are things people can’t eat, seeds that fall on the ground, things that have gone bad,” Coppinger says, “The garbage, which might be found in dumps, or just scattered near houses, attracts scavengers: cockroaches, pigeons, rats, jackals — and wolves.”
Through this research we cannot be sure where the true discovery of domesticated dogs came from, but it seems to be that the first wolves to be domesticated were from Asia.
III. Biology and Behavior
Behavior is included in every activity of a dog’s life, including scratching itself, reproduction, grooming, caring for young, communication, etc. The behavior of a dog could be one’s individual reaction to a stimulus or a physiological change. Physiology is the function of living systems, so a change like this could include illness. The method frequently referred to as “Tinbergen’s four questions”, outlines the specific aspects that are felt to be the central task of ethology (biologic behavioral study). Here are the questions and answers.
1. What causes barking? The answer to this question refers to the immediate causes, such as which the stimuli elicit or stimulate a particular behavior.
2. What is the function of barking? In this case, the answer describes how to performance of a behavior affects that affects the reproductive success, and the fitness of the dog. It has to do with evolutionary aspects and consequences.
3. How does barking develop during ontogeny? Studies of this question say that it depends on the way behavior modifies based on individual experience. That also would answer questions on how barking matures, and how it changes with the age of the dog.
4. How has barking developed during phylogeny? This question is clearly directed towards evolution. It is impossible to examine the vocal behaviors of a fossil but comparing vocalizations of different now living dogs may help us understand this with more depth.
*Ontogeny – it is defined as the history of structural change in a unity, which can be a cell, an organism, or a society of organisms.
*Phylogeny – it is the study of evolutionary relatedness among groups of organisms.
IV. Impact on the world
The impact domesticated dogs have had on the world can have many different answers. In the beginning of domestication they served as a source of food, fur, and a working animal. As time has progressed dogs have come to live in 49.9 % of houses in America. Dogs can now serve as a pet, a nose that special task forces can utilize, a guide for those who cannot see, and most of all they can serve as a friend.
V. Journal Article Review
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=SpkSd__EdKYC&oi=fnd&pg=PA21&dq=domestication+of+dogs&ots=4l-yULPTY7&sig=wlrZ7m89pgn2uG8E1mwh2Q5ODX4#v=onepage&q=domestication%20of%20dogs&f=false
This book written on the history of dogs was filled with useful information used on this blog. The author of the book “The Behavioral Biology of Dogs” Per Jensen not only used his knowledge but he incorporated a collaboration of useful facts from others who study this topic. He wrote about the origin of the wolf in one section, then talked about the archeological evidence that the first domestic dog came from Europe, Asia, and America. The thing I enjoyed about the book is that he wrote about study methods that were used by a wide range of scientists. Over all, this book was extremely useful in writing this blog.
VI. Bibliography
Coppinger, David. "Dogs That Changed the World - What caused the domestication of wolves? Nature PBS." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. N.p., 28 Nov. 2008. Web. 16 Feb. 2011.
Hirst, K. Kris. "Dog History - Domestication and Dog History." About Archaeology - The Study of Human History. N.p., 12 May 2005. Web. 16 Feb. 2011.
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