We Didn’t Domesticate Dogs. They Domesticated Us.

In this wonderful piece published on National Geographic's website, Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods opine that mankind was probably approached by friendly wolves and  that instead of thinking of evolution as being the survival of the fittest, perhaps we might better think of it as survival of the friendliest.

"Most likely, it was wolves that approached us, not the other way around, probably while they were scavenging around garbage dumps on the edge of human settlements. The wolves that were bold but aggressive would have been killed by humans, and so only the ones that were bold and friendly would have been tolerated."

The two researchers believe that it was this relationship that caused the animals to not only change their appearance (splotchy coats, floppy ears, wagging tails), but also their psychology. They evolved the ability to read human gestures.

 "As dog owners, we take for granted that we can point to a ball or toy and our dog will bound off to get it. But the ability of dogs to read human gestures is remarkable. Even our closest relatives-chimpanzees and bonobos-can't read our gestures as readily as dogs can. Dogs are remarkably similar to human infants in the way they pay attention to us. This ability accounts for the extraordinary communication we have with our dogs."

And they believe that with these new abilities, people who used dogs to hunt would have a distinct advantage over those who did not and argue that the dogs realized that allying with humans improved their odds at the hunt, also. They also suggest that dogs may have been the catalyst for our civilization.

Maybe in another thousand years, they'll be able to talk. I hope so.

Here are two more links on this. One from the Wall Street Journal and another from Smithsonian.