In Taming Dogs, Humans May Have Sought a Meal.

[elleng]

The disputes about the origins of dogs arise because researchers are just cutting their teeth on what Dr. O’Brien called “genomic archaeology.”

“It’s a brand new field,” he said. “We’re just learning how to do it.”

Domestication of the dog and other animals is both of intrinsic interest and of relevance to the human past. “Domestication was really the lever by which civilization was able to organize into communities larger than those of foraging families,” Dr. O’Brien said.

Dogs were evidently so useful to early people that they spread like wildfire. On the basis of current evidence, they were the first species to be domesticated.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/science/08dogs.html?th&emc=th

[GreenStormCloud]

1. And a few thousand years later, cats conquered and enslaved humans.

We are still their servants.

[Occulus]

4. The scary part is, they all act like they KNOW it.

Me: Hey, Merlin, come here. Come here, bud. Come on....

Merlin: *blink* *tailswish* *look away*

And I know he knows exactly what the word means, because he's obeyed before. He just does it when he wants to.

There was an article posted here a while back about how cats train their humans. They'll make certain specific sounds that combine the sounds they normally make. As it happens, humans respond to that particular sound. Such was the gist of the article, IIRC.

I believe it. Cats just seem to know how to make us do what they want.

[and-justice-for-all]

5. I am a servant to 3...nt

[Phoonzang]

6. Speak for your self....my cat knows who's boss.

At least she does when I bring out Catsbane, my wooden kendo sword that she has an irrational fear of.

[steven johnson]

2. And I bet it tastes just like chicken.

Dogs consider us part of their pack. If a dog in the pack dies, the rest of the pack will eat it. If a dog's owner dies, the dog may eat the owner. I wonder if WE taste like chicken?

Man eaten by his own dogs

This dog died of starvation and was partially eaten by other starving dogs

Isotopic analysis of the animals' bones found that the earliest dogs consumed horse, musk ox and reindeer, but not fish or seafood. Since the Aurignacians are believed to have hunted big game and fished at different times of the year, the researchers think the dogs might have enjoyed meaty handouts during certain seasons.

Germonpré believes dog domestication might have begun when the prehistoric hunters killed a female wolf and then brought home her pups. Recent studies on silver foxes suggest that when the most docile pups are kept and cared for, it takes just 10 generations of breeding for morphological changes to take effect.

Germonpré believes dog domestication might have begun when the prehistoric hunters killed a female wolf and then brought home her pups. Recent studies on silver foxes suggest that when the most docile pups are kept and cared for, it takes just 10 generations of breeding for morphological changes to take effect.

World's first dog lived 31,700 years ago, ate big

[HamdenRice]

3. I thought the latest theory was dogs self-domesticated, not the "bring home wolf pups" story

It was that certain wolves began scavenging human waste dumps. Those that remained wild were afraid of coming close to humans and their dumps. Those that were friendliest and showed submissive behavior were tolerated by humans at the dumps, in exchange for barking/warning and hygiene benefits. The dump dogs got more nutrition, had more pups and became friendlier and friendlier.

Even today wild dog packs don't hunt. They look for human garbage instead.