快猫短视频

See more: An illustrated version of this article will be published within the next two weeks on our CultureLab books and arts blog

In How the Dog Became the Dog, Mark Derr digs into the past to explore how wolves were domesticated, with varying degrees of success

HUMANS persist in trying to subdue nature, and there is perhaps no creature that we have so totally dominated as the dog. From an ancestral grey wolf stock, we have created myriad canines for seemingly every occasion 鈥� from muscular mastiffs that guard homes, to pugs and other breeds that have been so drastically modified that they can鈥檛 even be born without human intervention.

When did the strange relationship between humans and dogs begin? According to journalist Mark Derr in How the Dog Became the Dog, prehistoric wolves had an inner pet just waiting to be drawn out by the right kind of human. Contrary to the popular notion that dogs are the descendants of trash-grubbing wolves that were friendly or naive enough to strike up an association with ancient people, Derr contends that wolves and Pleistocene Homo sapiens struck up a mutually beneficial relationship as soon as the two species met in prehistoric Eurasia. In time, socialised wolves that merely followed humans on hunts became what Derr calls 鈥渄ogwolves鈥�, before ultimately being modified into the various domestic breeds we know today.

Derr鈥檚 narrative lopes a little lightly over the scant fossil evidence and confusing genetic trail of the earliest dogs. The difference between wolf and dog doesn鈥檛 seem so much anatomical or genetic as the result of a change in status that came with domestication, and that hasn鈥檛 been preserved in the fossil record. Derr tries to fill in some of the substantial gaps with fictional passages of people and their canid companions through history, but these momentary distractions from what is unknown just serve to confound the book鈥檚 central question. Derr鈥檚 wandering, circuitous story of dog origins only highlights how much we have yet to learn about our curious relationship with the domesticated, carnivorous beasts we have invited into our homes.