Page 74 - 2006 DT 12 Issues

Best Friends Age camp sites likely benefited from or to broadcast how they would like to
scavenging garbage heaps, probably be viewed. For example, selecting a rott-
umans have been in the dog bagging a few rodents at the same time. weiller over a toy poodle might be one
training business for a long According to biologist Raymond Coop- way of saying. “I’m a tough guy.”
Htime. At least 12,000 years ago, inger, “All that was selected for was that In fact, many human emotions,
people in East Asia were creating the first one trait—the ability to eat in proximity such as anger, anxiety, surprise, em-
dogs by breeding aggression out of to people.” barrassment, pride and shame are also
wolves, according to a 2002 study by Dogs, more than any other animal, expressed in dogs, as well as other
Peter Savolainen of the Royal Institute have earned a special place in man’s animals. A 2006 study of 1,000 dogs in
of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. history, not only because they were England revealed that even emotions
By comparing the genetic sequences such as jealousy and animosity also
in the mitochondrial DNA of 654 dogs afflict our canines, especially in a
representing the gamut of the world’s “love triangle” situation with another
breeds, he showed that virtually all human or animal. In dogs, unlike hu-
dogs can trace their maternal lineages mans, the emotions are momentary
to three wolf females that lived be- and disappear after the “situation” caus-
tween 15,000 and 40,000 years ago in ing the emotion is removed.
East Asia. Savolainen speculated that Blind tests with dogs and their
these prehistoric individuals belonged owners have shown that dogs read
to a wolf pack that was in the process human cues and gestures, something
of learning to live among people. most dog owners already knew.
Savolainen believes the small They are tuned in to where our eyes
number of canine progenitors suggests are looking, where we’re pointing
that domestication probably occurred and even what we’re saying. In tests
just once for dogs. Trade and human conducted in 2002 at the Max Planck In-
migration with dogs spread them to stitute in Germany with dogs, wolves
the rest of the world in just a few and chimpanzees, dogs consistently
thousand years. outperformed both chimps and their
A separate DNA study was con- closest relatives, the wolves, in deter-
ducted by geneticist Jennifer Leonard mining which box had food in it after
of the Smithsonian Institution in watching cues from owners. So far,
Washington, D.C. in 2002 with fossils similar tests with kennel-raised dogs
of more than 50 dogs found in Alaska, likely the first domesticated animal, but with little experience of humans have
Latin America and South America. because they evolved in the company of produced the same results.
Leonard confirmed that domestic dogs humans and cannot exist without them. This very trait may have been what
came to the New World across the Ber- That relationship has become so intimate separated the earliest wolf-dogs from
ing land bridge with early settlers some that dogs are viewed as creatures apart, their wild kin. The research concluded
time before 9,000 years ago. These dogs writes biologist James Serpell. “The that dogs don’t learn social and com-
were much more closely related to Old domestic dog exists precariously in the munication skills from people. They
World dogs than to New World wolves, no-man’s-land between the human and acquired them as they evolved in the
meaning that they had not been indepen- nonhuman . . . neither person nor beast.” process of domestication.
dently domesticated from indigenous Extensive research with dogs and The interaction between wolf-dog
packs by early Native Americans. other animals has shown that dogs and humans may have “created” the
At the molecular level, the DNA have individual personalities. As with dog—guard, helper, hunter, playmate
makeup of wolves and dogs is almost humans, these traits differ as much and companion; but the dog, in turn,
identical. So why are dogs so different among dogs and dog breeds as they do has profoundly affected the humans who
from wolves? among people. People may even choose invented him. About 12,000 years ago,
Wolf kin that hung around Stone a breed to reflect their own personalities hunter-gatherers in what is now Israel

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