Dogs

After long discussions, specialists have concluded that the wolf is the ancestor of the domestic dog. There are many assumptions regarding the way in which its domestication was produced, but none of them have been proven. In most cases, even for an experienced zoologist, it is difficult to determine if the bones found still belong to the wolf or belong to a dog.

In a first phase, the two animals were differentiated more by their behavior rather than by their external aspect. It seems that the attempts to domesticate a dog were made in several places, occasions and periods in the northern hemisphere. The oldest archeological discoveries that can be interpreted as the remains of a dog were found in Western Asia, in Europe and curiously in North America.

It is unknown how the dog's external appearance was and how they were used by men. The most accurate data are the ones that were found by the several representations of dogs in ancient civilizations in the East and Egypt. Especially representations of hunting dogs were found on the mural paintings of Anatolia, in Palestine cave paintings or on the Persian pots of the 7th and 4th centuries BC. Towards the year 3500 BC Sahara shepherds left numerous mural paintings used dogs mainly as a help to guard the flock, and less often, to hunt. Apparently men have made good use of dogs in order to fight against other men. We find evidence of this in a Phoenician silver glass found in an Etruscan tomb in Italy, where there was a representation of dogs hunting slaves.

Men domesticated dogs from the beginning. Among the primitive dogs, similar to the wolves, men chose those specimens that were useful for certain things and other objectives and fixed their specific characters in searching selective breeding. Thus, for instance, towards the year 3000 BC drop ear dogs appear; in the Egyptian bas-relief work of the year 2000 BC there is the representation of short-legged miniature dogs similar to the Pinschers. Big dogs similar to the Mastiff were used in India and Mesopotamia between the 3rd and 1st century BC as hunting and fighting dogs.

In the first manual for dog breeding there is an indication about the defects and qualities of dogs, there are guidelines about the way to proceed in order to cover the bitch and it also describes several techniques to take care of them. Since then, numerous books have been written about how to breed dogs. Several breeds have been born and disappeared, but men, whichever is their social position, they have kept a deep interest in dogs. Nowadays there are more people that see in a dog not only a help but also a friend.