a wonderful adventure, provided you really get to know this creature who will share your life for more than ten years. In order to make the right choice, you need to know how the bond between man and canine has developed over time, how a dog’s personality is formed, and about the various breeds and their inherent skills.
An Opportunistic Wolf
Dogs have retained the memory of their distant ancestor, the wolf, in their genes. But after a very long common history and life shared with humans, the canine species has undergone physical changes and acquired new skills in order to integrate with their human families and become, so to speak, “children” of their families.
UNITED FOR BETTER LITES
A Win-Win Relationship
About 25,000 years ago, the first wolf to approach human camps was a rather brave outsider who was attracted by food waste. He quickly understood all the benefits that entailed befriending the human species. It is in this way that we believe the wolf allowed itself to become domesticated. In return, the humans gained a guard, a hunter, and an efficient garbage collector. The first relationship between the dog’s ancestor and humankind was thus established on a “win-win” premise.
An Emotional Bond
Due to constant contact, what was initially a purely utilitarian relationship gave way to a relationship of selfless trust. We can imagine that it all began when a hungry, orphaned wolf cub found refuge with a compassionate human family. The early contact with humans and the maternal care given to the cub made it possible to establish a mutual, lasting bond between the cub and his rescuers.
Even today, few humans can resist the irrepressible desire to take care of a puppy who noisily expresses his distress. The maternal instinct ingrained in the human brain and the puppy’s expressive gaze have a lot to do with this instant connection.
Without the intervention of a good human soul, this little wolf cub would certainly have died. But instead of being solely a useful animal, he became what can be considered the promising beginnings of our pet dog. Today, while some breeds still play the double role of working dog and pet dog, many breeds are primarily companion animals.
MULTIPLE AND VARIED DESCENDANTS
Owing to the permanent presence of the dog among humans, we were able to start a process of selection that resulted in dogs who were adapted to the functions assigned to them: guarding, hunting, tracking, companionship, etc. Empirical at first, this selection improved over time and resulted in the creation of more than 300 canine breeds, each with distinct physical and behavioral characteristics.
Despite their differences, the Chihuahua, Shar-Pei, German Shepherd, Weimaraner, Afghan Hound, and Great Dane all have a common ancestor. If they wanted, they could mate and have viable offspring, which, if nothing else, would be original!
A DIFFERENT GENOME
Comparing the genomes of wolves and dogs, researchers have discovered that some genes involved in brain development and starch metabolism were modified during domestication. Thus, due to contact with humans, dog has lost his large head (30% less head volume than that of the wolf) and has gained a better ability to digest starch. Just look at the speed with which a dog goes for the leftover pasta!
AT HUMAN SCHOOL
The communication between dogs and their human companions is only slightly similar to the communication that dogs have among themselves. At human school, the dog, without losing his first language, perfected a second one. Over time, this hardworking student learned to communicate better with his teachers, and they have built a wonderful, unique relationship that is based on love, trust, and companionship.
Dogs have learned to read the emotions on human faces.
A study conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria, shows that dogs can distinguish between happy and angry facial expressions.
Dogs have learned to decipher finger-pointing gestures.
An experiment conducted to compare the interspecific communication skills of dogs and wolves showed that dogs have greater ability to decipher finger-pointing than wolves do. This proves that the dog’s ability was not inherited from his ancestor but rather was developed while evolving alongside humans.
In the experiment, a dog was given two opaque containers, an empty one and one with food inside it. A person pointing to the food container allowed the dog to find the food more quickly. Dogs trust humans to such an extent that if someone were to point to the wrong container, the dog would choose it—even though his strong sense of smell clearly tells him which container is the food container.
Dogs have learned to ask for help with their eyes.
When a dog is faced with an unsolvable problem—for example, not being able to reach his ball—research has shown that the dog seeks to establish eye contact with a human, as if to ask for help. In contrast, a wolf will instead look at the object of the problem.
Dogs have learned to recognize a human’s attention.
A dog is sensitive to and aware of his owner’s eyes and perceives them as an indication of where his owner’s attention is focused. For example, if you give your dog the cue to lie down while looking at him, he is much more likely to respond correctly than if you are looking at your phone or facing another direction. This behavior is similar to that of a student who ignores the classroom rules when the teacher’s back is turned.
Dogs have learned to recognize the emotions conveyed through voice inflections.
Thanks to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Hungarian researchers have proven that the brains of dogs and humans react in the same way to similar sounds, especially to emotionally charged sounds, such as crying or laughing. Both the dog and the human would have inherited this ability from their common ancestor, who is at least 100 million years old. This shows the richness of the interactions between humans and
