The Evolution Of Dogs

There is no contradiction in the idea that, in the very beginning of man's habitation of this world, he made a friend and companion of some kind of aboriginal representative of our modern dog, and that, in exchange for its assistance in protecting him from wilder animals and guarding his sheep and goats, he gave it a share of his food, a corner in his dwelling, and grew to trust and care for it. Originally, the animal was most likely just a particularly mild jackal, or an injured wolf pushed to seek safety in strange environs by its comrades from the wild marauding pack. One might easily imagine the relationship beginning in the situation of a defenseless whelp.

There are traces of an indigenous dog family in almost every part of the world, with the exception of the West Indian Islands, Madagascar, the eastern islands of the Malayan Archipelago, New Zealand, and the Polynesian Islands, where there is no evidence of any dog, wolf, or fox having existed as a true aboriginal animal. For millennia, the dog remained savage and neglected in the ancient Oriental regions, and in general among the early Mongolians, prowling in packs, emaciated and wolf-like, as it does today through the streets and under the walls of every Eastern city. There was no attempt to entice it into human company or improve its docility. It is not until we examine the records of the higher civilisations that we discover this.