There is no incongruity in the concept that in the very earliest period of man’s habitation of this world he made a buddy and buddy of some sort of aboriginal agent of our modern-day dog, and that in return for its aid in securing him from wilder animals, and in safeguarding his sheep and goats, he gave it a share of his food, a corner in his dwelling, and grew to trust it and take care of it.
Probably the animal was initially little else than an unusually mild jackal, or an ailing wolf owned by its companions from the wild marauding pack to seek shelter in alien surroundings. One can well conceive the possibility of the partnership start in the situation of some defenseless whelps being brought home by the early hunters to be tended and reared by the ladies and children. Dogs presented into the house as toys for the kids would grow to regard themselves, and be regarded, as family members
In nearly all parts of the world traces of a native pet 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 indication that any pet dog, wolf, or fox has actually existed as a real aboriginal animal. I
In the ancient Asian lands, and normally amongst the early Mongolians, the dog remained savage and ignored for centuries, prowling in packs, gaunt and wolf-like, as it prowls today through the streets and under the walls of every Eastern city. No effort was made to appeal it into human friendship or to enhance it into docility. It is not till we concern analyze the records of the greater civilisations of Assyria and Egypt that we discover any unique ranges of canine type.
The canine was not considerably appreciated in Palestine, and in both the Old and New Testaments it is commonly spoken of with reject and contempt as an “dirty monster.” Even the familiar reference to the Sheepdog in the Book of Job “And now they that are more youthful than I have me in derision, whose daddies I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock” is not without a suggestion of contempt, and it is significant that the only biblical allusion to the pet as an acknowledged buddy of male happens in the apocryphal Book of Tobit (v. 16), “So they went forth both, and the young guy’s dog with them.”
The terrific multitude of different breeds of the canine and the huge differences in their size, points, and general look are realities which make it hard to think that they might have had a common origins.
One thinks about the difference in between the Mastiff and the Japanese Spaniel, the Deerhound and the stylish Pomeranian, the St. Bernard and the Mini Black and Tan Terrier, and is astonished in considering the possibility of their having come down from a common progenitor.
Yet the variation is no greater than that in between the Shire horse and the Shetland pony, the Shorthorn and the Kerry cattle, or the Patagonian and the Pygmy; and all pet breeders understand how easy it is to produce a range in type and size by studied choice.
In order properly to understand this question it is necessary first to think about the identity of structure in the wolf and the pet. This identity of structure may best be studied in a comparison of the osseous system, or skeletons, of the 2 animals, which so carefully look like each other that their transposition would not quickly be found.
The spine of the pet dog includes 7 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 pet and the wolf there are thirteen pairs of ribs, 9 real and four false. Each has forty-two teeth.
They both have five front and four hind toes, while outwardly the common wolf has so much the appearance of a large, bare-boned pet dog, that a popular description of the one would serve for the other.
Nor are their practices different. The wolf’s natural voice is a loud shout, but when confined with pet dogs he will discover how to bark. Although he is meat-eating, he will likewise consume vegetables, and when sickly he will nibble grass. In the chase, a pack of wolves will divide into celebrations, one following the trail of the quarry, the other endeavouring to intercept its retreat, working out a significant quantity of strategy, a characteristic which is exhibited by much of our sporting canines and terriers when hunting in teams.
An even more crucial point of similarity in between the Canis lupus and the Canis familiaris lies in the reality that the duration of pregnancy 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, however at the end of that time they are able to eat half-digested flesh disgorged for them by their dam and even their sire.
The native pet dogs of all regions approximate closely in size, coloration, form, and routine to the native wolf of those areas. Of this most essential situation there are far too lots of circumstances to enable 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 pet dog of the Indians is so terrific that the size and strength of the wolf seems to be the only distinction.
It has been recommended that the one incontrovertible argument against the lupine relationship of the canine is that all domestic canines bark, while all wild Canidae express their feelings just by growls. But the trouble here is not so great as it seems, because we understand that jackals, wild dogs, and wolf puppies raised by bitches easily acquire the habit. On the other hand, domestic pets permitted to run wild forget ways to bark, while there are some which have actually not yet learned so to express themselves.
The existence or lack of the practice of barking can not, then, be considered an argument in deciding the question concerning the origin of the pet dog. This stumbling block consequently vanishes, leaving us in the position of concurring with Darwin, whose last hypothesis was that “it is extremely probable that the domestic canines of the world have come down from 2 excellent types of wolf (C. lupus and C. latrans), and from two or 3 other skeptical types of wolves particularly, the European, Indian, and North African kinds; from at least a couple of South American canine types; from several races or types of jackal; and perhaps from one or more extinct species”; which the blood of these, sometimes socialized together, flows in the veins of our domestic types.
pixabay
source http://creativedogtrainingonline.com/toy-dog-breed-category/history-of-the-pet-dog/
No comments:
Post a Comment