MAN AND HIS DOG

Hokitika Guardian, 1 December 1928, Page 2

MAN AND HIS DOG

FROM FOE TO FRIEND. The first .animal to be domesticated by prehistoric man was the dog, and this great event seems to have occurred in the Neolithic Ago, when stone weapons were still in use, though liner ones than before, writes Professor J. Ai&liur Thomson, in " .John O’ London’s Weekly." We do not know with any certainty bow often man effected tin; transformation from wolf to dog, or how many wild species of. the genus Canis were used in different places, or whether dogs arose from grey jackals and wolfjackals as well as from wolves. It is likely that the first step in domestication was taken when the hunter brought some orphaned wolf-i übs home for his children to play with. The rest was due to thousands of years of careful sifting and breeding among the new departures that are always cropping up in the changeful canine race.

OLDEST EUROPEAN DOGS

Amid many uncertainties it is certain that dogs evolved from wolves; and that there were several different kinds of prehistoric domesticated or semi-domesticated dogs in Europe, atheir remains in Stone Age settlements show'. One of these was the “ Peat dog ’’ (.Canis palustris), found near Neolithic lake-dwellings in Switzerland, probably ancestral to. Scotch terriers and the beautiful, sometimes snow-white Siberian dogs. Another was the “Intermediate dog” (Canis intermedins), believed to-be ancestral to hunting dogs that followed by scent, such as foxhounds. A third bears the quaint, but rather fine, name of “ Best Mother dog ” (Canis matris opt-imae). with remains in Bronze Age stations. It leads on to old-fashioned forms like the Belgian sheep-dog, and onwards to finer races like the Alsatian and the collie.

DANGEROUS DOGMATISAI

But we must refrain from dogmatism, for the canine pedigree seems to be a tangle; moreover, we have received convincing evidence that even today dogs may occasionally pair with wolves and have fertile offspring. 'Hie view we are indicating here is based on the well-reasoned discussion of the data by Dr Otto Antonins in his German book on Domesticated Animals (1924), but those who wish to consider other views may be relorred to Air Edward C. Ash’s stately work. “ Dogs, their History and Development.” It is a pleasure to be able to re'ier to a monumntal book like this, which every self-respecting library should possess. No doubt there are other good books on dogs, more within the reach of the average dog-lover’s purse

but one welcomes Air Ash’s monograph as a worthy family history of the dog, greatly to the credit of author and publisher alike. Why has the dog done so well, developing one good quality after another—courage and affection, intelligence and reliability, strength and swiftness? How has it evolved along paths which the cat will not tread ? Why didn't man domesticate the tox • How is it that tin* dog lias given rise tu so many different types—collies, spaniels,, setters, terriers, bulldogs, poodles, bloodhounds, St. Bernard's, and manv more]

The success of the dog lias been primarily due to pre-domestication qualities. Fine brains, keen senses, a strong heart, and a lithe body we cannot lay stress on, for they are shared by many carnivores, such as the iox and the otter. Unless we are mistaken, the special qualities that predestined a wolf to become a dog was its combination of. two antithetic ways of liv-ing-—the eacli-for-li i msclf policy, and the self-subordinating instinct of the pack.

PLAYING THE GAAIK

For many of the wolves are individualise; in summer nod gregarious in winter, thus learning in two great s' liooi.- of life, each excellent in it*way. In relation to the solitary or monogamous life of .summer the woll has evolved all-roundiicss, self-reliance, and independence; and it is also to be noted that the wolf’s family life may last beyond the breeding season, and that plavful cubs receive education from their parents. On the other side.* in relation to the gregarious or social pack-life of winter, the wolf lias evolved self-subor-dination, loyalty, ami the great art of playing the game. The importance of the call, whence evolved the bark, is of course greater during the pack period. There seems to us genuine insight in the suggestion made bv Benjamin Kidd that the dog a- copied and still accepts man as a sort of super-leader of a pack. ’I he cat, walking alone, could never have become man’s ally as tin* dog has done.

THE SURVIVAL OF THE CLEVER KST.

When one thinks of it. man lias ten bad an entirely progressive inffuenec on bis domesticated animals. Though the lambs still rebel, the sheep is servile and stupid: chicks are cx’icrimon tal, but bens show the arresting influence of a sheltered life: cattle havr fine brains, but in most; countries tin field mostly remains fallow. But in the case of the dog it baboon entirely different, for man lm-vi-ry generally, though not always, selected and fostered variations in the direction of intelligence. In early days especially, when there were few “ luxury dogs,” man gave the dog.

like- the horse, the inestimable boon ot responsibility. He made the dog his partner, gate it things to do that really mattered, and rewarded or punished it in direct reference to faithfulness. He lias selected and eliminated. .bred and fostered in relation to educability and reliability. The sieve lias been a fine one—the dog’s ability to be man’s intelligent and loyal partner; and that is the clneT reason why there are so many fine-tempered dogs to-day—some rising to heroism.