The archaeological record and genetic analysis show the remains of the Bonn-Oberkassel dog buried beside humans 14,200 years ago to be the first undisputed dog, with disputed remains occurring 36,000 years ago.
Oft-cited contenders for the title of oldest dog breeds include the basenji, which was depicted in cave paintings in Libya that date back to around 6000 BC, the Chinese saluki, which was depicted on Egyptian caves dating to 2100 BC, and the Afghan hound, which is classed as a basal breed and predates modern dog breeds.
The timing and location of dog domestication is a matter of debate. There is strong genetic evidence, however, that the first domestication events occurred somewhere in northern Eurasia between 14,000 and 29,000 years ago.
Dogs most probably evolved from wolves at a single location about 20,000 to 40,000 years ago, a study suggests. Previously, it had been thought that dogs were tamed from two populations of wolves living thousands of miles apart.
Dogs may have been domesticated and kept as pets since Paleolithic times, as can be surmised from the paintings and carvings that archaeologists have found in ancient campsites and tombs. It is likely that the dog was not only the first domesticated species but also the first animal kept as a pet.
The Siberian Husky, originally and still used for sledding, is very similar to wolves. Overtime not only has the resemblance to wolves stayed similar, but the genetic composition has as well.
It seems the that the cat family branched off first, 10.3 million years ago, before the family of dog-like mammals, 7.8 million years ago.
The history of dog
About seven centuries ago, the word hound, which came from the Old English hund, was the word for all domestic canines. Dog was just used to refer to a subgroup of hounds that includes the lovely but frequently slobbering mastiff.
The ancestor of modern domestic cats was the last to appear, about 3.4 million years ago. A small wildcat species was first domesticated in the Near East 8,000 to 10,000 years ago.
DNA discovery dating back to 685 BC makes the Chinese Saluki the second oldest dog breed in history. Also known as the Shanxi Xigou, this dog was around during the Tang Dynasty ruling of China.
The Labrador Retriever holds the top spot, and this friendly favorite has been No. 1 since 1991. Below, find ranked annual lists of AKC-recognized breeds.
The researchers estimate that dogs and wolves diverged genetically between 36,900 and 41,500 years ago, and that eastern and western dogs split 17,500–23,900 years ago. Because domestication had to have happened between those events, the team puts it somewhere from 20,000 to 40,000 years ago.
"In shape, the Paleolithic dogs most resemble the Siberian husky, but in size, however, they were somewhat larger, probably comparable to large shepherd dogs," added Germonpré, a paleontologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.
Researchers found that the version of the gene IGF1 that is a major determinant of small size in dogs probably originated as a result of domestication of the Middle Eastern gray wolf, which also happens to be smaller than many other wolves.
All modern dogs are descendants of wolves, though this domestication may have happened twice, producing groups of dogs descended from two unique common ancestors.
When it comes to how old we imagine our dogs to be in human years, most of us use a calculation that says dogs age seven years for every one human year. So a 1-year-old dog is roughly the same, developmentally, as a 7-year-old human. A 2-year-old dog is equivalent to a young teenager, et cetera.
Dogs and wolves are actually the same species. Their physical appearance is similar but their instincts, disposition and temperament are widely different. The gray wolf, or simply the wolf is the largest wild member of the Canidae family. The dog is the domesticated form of the gray wolf.
The term "K9" or "K-9" is an abbreviation of the English and French word "CANINE" (which simply means "DOG"). 'CA' = 'K' and 'NINE' = '9' (the same as 'YOU TOO' = 'U2').
But among dogs, which are well known for their hybrid (or mongrel) varieties, different breeds can mate and have viable offspring, so they are all found under the umbrella of a single species, Canis familiaris. Dogs are highly unusual in their variation, from the Chihuahua to the Great Dane.
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The high price of an Azawakh often stems from its bloodline. They make terrific show dogs and are also very rare. Azawakhs hail from Western Africa where they hunt gazelle, running as long and as fast as they can.
Though this data might seem to suggest that dogs are twice as intelligent as cats, a direct correlation between larger brain size and increased intelligence has not been conclusively proven. Regardless, dogs' higher neuron count is often viewed as a gauge of their superior intelligence.
Canines. The third group, the Canines includes the wolf and all living species of dogs.
Wild dogs tend to live in more open areas with less cover, so their optimal strategy is endurance hunting, working in packs to exhaust their prey before attacking it. Size is not an asset for endurance hunting, so this has balanced out the optimal size for wild dogs to be smaller than cats.