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General History of Dogs
There is no incongruity in the concept that in the very earliest duration of man's habitation of this world he made a pal and companion of some sort of aboriginal representative of our modern dog, and that in return for its aid in protecting him from wilder animals, and in defending his sheep and goats, he provided it a share of his food, a corner in his dwelling, and expanded to trust it and take care of it. Most likely the animal was originally little else than an unusually gentle jackal, or an ailing wolf driven by its friends from the wild marauding pack to seek shelter in alien surroundings. One can well conceive the possibility of the partnership beginning in the circumstance of some hopeless whelps being brought home by the early hunters to be often tended and reared by the females and children. Dogs introduced into the house as playthings for the youngsters would grow to regard themselves, and be concerned, as members of the family
In nearly all parts of the world traces of an indigenous dog family are found, the only exceptions being the West Indian Islands, Madagascar, the eastern islands of the Malayan Island chain, New Zealand, and the Polynesian Islands, where there is no sign that any type of dog, wolf, or fox has existed as a valid aboriginal pet. In the ancient Oriental lands, and normally amongst the early Mongolians, the dog remained savage and disregarded for centuries, prowling in packs, gaunt and wolf-like, as it prowls today with the streets and under the walls of every Eastern city. No attempt was made to attraction it into human companionship or to enhance it into docility. It is not till we pertain to examine the records of the greater civilisations of Assyria and Egypt that we find any type of unique varieties of canine type.
The dog was not considerably cherished in Palestine, and in both the Old and New Testaments it is frequently spoken of with scorn and contempt as an "unclean beast." Even the familiar reference to the Sheepdog in the Book of Job "But now they that are more youthful than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my group" is not without a recommendation of contempt, and it is significant that the only biblical allusion to the dog as an acknowledged friend of guy takes place in the apocryphal Publication of Tobit (v. 16), "So they left both, and the young man's dog with them."
The wonderful multitude of different breeds of the dog and the substantial differences in their size, points, and general appeal are realities which make it difficult to believe that they could possibly have had a typical ancestry. One considers the distinction between the Mastiff and the Japanese Spaniel, the Deerhound and the trendy Pomeranian, the St. Bernard and the Miniature Black and Tan Terrier, and is perplexed in pondering the possibility of their having actually descended from a common progenitor. Yet the variation is no greater than that between the Shire horse and the Shetland pony, the Shorthorn and the Kerry livestocks, or the Patagonian and the Pygmy; and all dog breeders know just how effortless it is to produce an assortment in type and size by studied choice.
In order appropriately to comprehend this question it is required initially to think about the identification of framework in the wolf and the dog. This identity of structure might most effectively be studied in a contrast of the osseous system, or skeletons, of the two pets, which so closely resemble each other that their transposition would not easily be spotted.
The spinal column of the dog consists of seven vertebrae in the neck, thirteen in the back, seven in the loins, three sacral vertebrae, and twenty to twenty-two in the tail. In both the dog and the wolf there are thirteen pairs of ribs, 9 true and 4 incorrect. Each has forty-two teeth. They both have 5 front and four hind toes, while outwardly the common wolf has so much the look of a big, bare-boned dog, that a popular summary of the one would serve for the other.
Nor are their practices different. The wolf's natural voice is a loud howl, but when confined with dogs he will learn to bark. Although he is carnivorous, he will certainly additionally eat vegetables, and when sickly he will certainly nibble lawn. In the chase, a pack of wolves will divide into parties, one following the trail of the quarry, the other endeavoring to intercept its retreat, exercising a significant amount of strategy, a quality which is exhibited by many of our sporting dogs and terriers when searching in teams.
A further essential point of similarity between the Canis lupus and the Canis familiaris lies in the fact that the duration of gestation in both species is sixty-three days. There are from 3 to 9 cubs in a wolf's litter, and these are blind for twenty-one days. They are nursed for 2 months, but at the end of that time they are able to eat half-digested flesh disgorged for them by their dam or even their sire.
The native dogs of all areas approximate closely in size, coloration, kind, and practice to the native wolf of those regions. Of this most important scenario there are far a lot of circumstances to permit of its being looked upon as a mere coincidence. Sir John Richardson, writing in 1829, observed that "the similarity between the North American wolves and the domestic dog of the Indians is so great that the size and strength of the wolf appears to be the only difference.
It has been suggested that the one incontrovertible argument against the lupine relationship of the dog is the fact that all domestic dogs bark, while all wild Canidae express their sensations just by howls. However the difficulty right here is not so fantastic as it seems, since we understand that jackals, wild dogs, and wolf pups reared by bitches conveniently obtain the habit. On the other hand, domestic dogs allowed to run wild forget ways to bark, while there are some which have not yet discovered so to express themselves.
The presence or absence of the routine of barking could not, then, be regarded as an argument in choosing the concern concerning the origin of the dog. This stumbling block as a result fades away, leaving us in the position of agreeing with Darwin, whose final hypothesis was that "it is highly probable that the domestic dogs of the world have descended from 2 excellent species of wolf (C. lupus and C. latrans), and from two or three other doubtful types of wolves namely, the European, Indian, and North African forms; from a minimum of a couple of South American canine types; from numerous races or types of jackal; and maybe from one or even more vanished species"; and that the blood of these, in some cases socialized together, flows in the veins of our domestic breeds.
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