A
recent archaeological dig found what is believed to be a dog’s head carbon dated
over thirty-one thousand years ago. Whether our relationship with dogs goes
back twelve thousand years or a hundred thousand years the fact remains that
our relationship with “man’s best friend” goes back further than any other
animal.
The
debate about how dogs became domesticated is still widely debated. Most
scientists and researchers believe that cave men would not have had the
resources needed to breed wolves’ generation after generation culminating in
today’s domesticated dog. These early humans would have been too busy hunting,
gathering and would need to have pooled all of their resources just to survive.
The
fact remains that there are very few animals that are both social hunters,
carnivores, and hunt by the light of day. This combination of behaviors
could have created a natural teamwork between man and wolf (the predecessor of
domesticated dogs).
The
domestication of the wolf likely fundamentally changed human life style by
allowing us to be better hunters and thereby providing more food. This would
enable the survival of more human offspring and helped to ensure our success as
a species. There is also the theory that the domestication of the dog led
to the creation of agriculture by helping early humans guard and protect their flocks
as well as their crops. Some people even postulate that without dogs, man would
still be hunter-gatherers and that civilization as we currently know it would
not have been possible.
Recent
studies by cognitive behaviorists showing that dogs are the only other species
that responds to us pointing to an object – something that we take for granted
with our dogs. These studies show that even highly intelligent species such as
chimpanzees are not capable of understanding this type of gesture. This does not imply that dogs are (arguably)
smarter than most species, but it does show how uniquely suited they are for
human companionship.
Dogs
not only respond to finger pointing, but also are remarkably good at
understanding our eye movements. Humans are one of the only species that have
sclera (whites of the eye) that is visible. This is believed to be an
adaptation to enhance human communication using nothing but our eyes. The dark
coloration around most other animals’ eyes suggests an adaptation to camouflage
gaze direction so that predators could not predict movements by watching their
prey’s eye movements.
The
truly fascinating aspect is that even though dogs do not use either of these
two characteristics to communicate with each other, they have learned to
watch for this type of input from people. Dogs are also very good at reading
our emotions and body language, making them the undisputed winners of the title
“man’s best friend”.
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