A little history.

[sandymere 8,263]

From wolf to working dog.

 

 

In the modern world dogs are an every day part of our lives but they have a long history that is a times clouded by our lack of knowledge. Recent improvements in genetics are shining new light and evidence suggests that the dominant ancestor of dogs was of Middle Eastern origin with a later addition of Asiatic and or Chinese wolves. This does seem to mirror the fist flourishing of agriculture starting in these areas and so gives a clue to those early days. The first interactions may well have begun much earlier having an effect on altering the evolutionary pressures of particular groups of wolfs well before true domestication commenced. When our ancestors moved out of Africa to arrive in the middle east some 100.000 years ago they perhaps picked up canine camp followers and so begin pre domestication development of the dog.

 

These early camp followers may have joined the humans as they spread through their Middle Eastern territories and then have traveled in the wake of the hunter gatherers as the populations expanded outwards to Europe and Asia. This could have prompted the evolutionary process that would one day result in the dog. Adaptations to the camp follower lifestyle would have helped to keep these packs separate from local populations as they spread so isolating the gene pool and helping to fix a type ready for the domestication with the birth of the agriculturalists lifestyle around 14,000 years ago. A skull found in Belgium dated from over 30.000 years ago could be an early transitional stage from wolf to dog although its true relationship to man is unknown.

 

Later, around 12,000 years ago, in what is now Israel, they buried a person holding the body of a puppy in their arms. Why it was done and even if the puppy was wolf or dog is unknown but it shows early evidence of a strong link between human and canine that has survived to this day. So our modern dogs, whether they are hounds, terriers or huskies have their roots set in the Middle East and the type is set to the extent that when left to natural selection, as with the Dingo, they don’t revert back to wolves but remain dogs. The next stage in this interspecies collaboration would be to start the process of breeding to improve positive traits such as guarding, herding or hunting and the emergence of the specialist.

 

Pre domestication selection along the lines of an aggressive camp follower being killed or driven off and the more friendly being tolerated, to post domestication picking individual traits that fitted a defined purpose would be a natural progression. The watchful to guard the livestock and home, which would lead onto herding and guard dog types, and the good hunters to join their human counterparts in dealing with predators and supplementing the diet with meat. With this ability to create new types with specialist skills combined with a more reliable food supply though agriculture it wouldn’t have been long before hunting with dogs became a sport.

The earliest mention of specific breeds are in fact sporting dogs with the likes of the Egyptian pharaohs, Assyrians and ancient Greeks all leaving evidence, in pictorial form of lightly built hunting dogs that resemble modern sight hounds. As well as pictures sight hounds also get many early written endorsements, being the only breed mentioned in the bible and Ovid the Grecian historian, 63 BC to AD 17, wrote (translated by Dryden)

 

"As when the impatient greyhound,

slipped from far Bounds o'er the glade to course the fearful hare,

She in her speed does all her safety use,

And he with double speed pursues his prey,

O'erruns her at the sitting turns; but licks His chops in vain;

Yet blows upon the flix,

She seeks the shelter which the neighboring covert gives,

And, gaining it, she doubts it yet she lives."

 

It’s likely the scent hounds would also have been early developments and once you have agriculture you have pests and the need of terriers, of course this is just conjecture. Just as the past cannot ever be truly known so the future lies open to question but we stand at a pivotal point and hold so much in our hands right now.

Country sports are for once getting positive publicity with game featuring on every TV cookery show and the conservationist views of wildlife management rather than the anti’s don’t touch anything attitude gaining public acceptance. So now more than ever we need to actually promote ourselves in a positive and honest light however we work our dogs. The likes of sustainable food, local produce and habitat management are our evidential arguments and marching banners, these are augments that make sound economic, ecological and ethical sense and so when presented well can redress the balance of public opinion from anti hunting. The chance of a change in the law seems to have receded a little but if the prospect of a free vote in parliament does emerge then we need MPs to be getting the right message from their constituents and those banners along with cost effectiveness and the right of personal choice can be our wining message but it will only need a few fools to bring bad publicity to our cause and it may yet all fall down. I hope that we are a step in the centuries old story of working dogs and that it is a history that will go on for a few more generations yet but fear that if we get it wrong now future historians will record our time as the one that saw the last of the sporting dogs.

Edited July 8, 2011 by sandymere

[Bosun11 537]

If that came from you Sandymere it is very well written and certainly food for thought, very prophetic, especially the last few lines...

 

Thank you for posting

[alaunte 12]

discovery channel.

[jasher 55]

Thanks for posting Sandymere, an informative read.

[BORDERSCOT 3,816]

Great read as usual.