Based on archaeological evidence—bits of canine bones found cohabiting human camp sites—it has generally been believed that this adoption process began somewhere between 10,000-20,000 years ago. There’s debate in the scientific community about what drove this cohabitation. One camp believes that humans adopted wolf pups and rather understandably selected the less aggressive, friendlier offspring. The other camp is convinced that dogs themselves drove the process by becoming our four-footed garbage removers. 10,000 years ago, scavenging around the increasingly successful human hunters would have had a clear evolutionary advantage, namely easy pickings. It seems reasonable that humans would have killed off overly aggressive dogs while ignoring those who more comfortably coexisted in or around human encampments. Such unconscious culling would have selected for personality traits in the local canid population that would have been compatible with coexisting with another species and, over time, beneficial to the human population. Thus we began the long journey to today.
By 4500 BC, there were five distinct types of working dogs: sight hounds, pointing dogs, mastiffs, herding dogs and, oddly, the original wolf types. Then, as now, specialization arose to fill human needs. Early on, when hunting still dominated as a means of food production, both pointing dogs and sight hounds would have been prized variants. With their keen senses (dogs have upwards of twenty times our olfactory receptors) and rugged staying power for long chases, they made key contributions to the hunt. The different hunting breeds had their specialties: sight hounds pursued prey to kill, pointers found and stood game without immediate attack. Both would have been useful to early small-game hunters, depending on the local ecosystem. The hound lineage produced the fastest of dogs and consequently became our sleek dog racing champions. It is curious that wolf types continued to be part of the dog breed landscape for some time. Whether they were kept for their coordinated pack hunting instincts or their ability to deal with large prey is unknown.
As humans became more settled and agriculturally oriented, other characteristics became valued. Protection of an encampment gave rise to the mastiff breeds—large yet docile animals, with great strength, powerful necks and jaws, and a limited need for speed or tracking ability. Later, they would become sporting dogs for bull-baiting and dog fighting. A greater challenge was the conversion of the canid’s carnivorous instincts into protecting domesticated animals. Perhaps tracking and stalking skills were co-opted into the herding types’ genome. This is an amazing conversion of natural instinct, as killing and eating easy prey such as sheep and cattle would be any wolf’s first reaction.
Then, as now, it took generations of dogs and people to create new breeds. But without working knowledge of the science of genetics, these breeds were created in an amazingly few thousand years, almost nothing in evolutionary terms.
Looking for Old Dogs
It turns out that developing those new dogs may have taken a lot more time than we previously thought. Using the tools of modern molecular biology, Robert K. Wayne of UCLA has found evidence that dogs may have been domesticated earlier, as early as 100,000 years ago, close to the dawn of our own species.
Molecular biologists traced the complex ancestry of the 400-plus modern dog breeds and related canine species. Mitochondrial DNA, unlike chromosomal DNA, mutates at a fairly rapid and predictable rate. By looking at the degree of divergence in the DNA of various canine breeds and near relatives, molecular biologists were stunned. The degree of divergence they discovered couldn’t have occurred had dogs evolved from wolves in only the last ten to twenty thousand years, as previously thought. Ironically, the same science that uncovered our extraordinary long relationship with dogs is also contributing to a new rapidity and range of future divergence.
Making a New Science
In 1973, Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen used enzymes to cut a bacteria plasmid and insert a strand of DNA in the gap. This milestone technique, recombinant DNA, allows for direct modification of animal characteristics and creates the ultimate paintbrush for animal breeding, transspecies genetic trait transfer. Until now, it has taken generations of dogs and people to develop a truly new breed, and moving traits directly from one species to another was impossible. Now, bioengineering technology allows us to supersede traditional breeding techniques and create previously unrealizable innovations. This includes mixing traits of totally dissimilar organisms. It is now possible to manipulate an animal’s physical appearance and behavior using these recombinant DNA techniques, AKA genetic engineering. Bioengineering should also allow scientists to attack ancient genetic problems such as large dog hip dysphasia or hemophilia. Cures that once would have taken generations may now be possible in a few years. New breeds may now, by definition, take one dog generation to create. Once these principles were established, the process has grown increasingly easy. How easy?
A group of students from Eagle Crest High School in Aurora, Colorado built an E.Coli bacteria with the same glow-in-the-dark gene Kac used. Unlike Kac, they did it themselves, with $150 worth of materials that they bought through mail order. To understand what this increasingly easy technology might mean for the future requires another trip into the past.
Old New Kinds of Dog
Mesolithic archeological sites in Denmark yielded surprisingly small dogs; similar dogs have been found at Swiss lake dwellings, apparently house dogs. These weren’t mastiffs protecting the hearth or hounds for chasing game, these were a new type of animal: the companion dog. Later, in the first century AD, the Chinese would separately develop their own types. Unlike robust field hunters, these “lapdogs” were bred for small size and unusual looks. Described as “short-legged and short-headed dogs whose place was under the table,” they were the aesthetic forerunners of today’s Pekinese and pug. Greeks and Romans kept such companion dogs, as did prosperous Europeans and Toltecs. In many royal courts, they were considered so important that they were assigned their own human servants. Then, as now, they were highly prized, pampered house pets, at one time carried along the trade routes as gifts of high esteem for emperors and kings.
Dogs became the subjects of affection and expression in many cultures. In Europe, the merchant classes were great enthusiasts, making these dogs fashion accessories and including them in family portraits. If there was a utility in these dogs, it was filling the need for self-expression. That must have been important because the breeds flourished. In Europe, ladies of the court described them as ‘comforters’ and early Church documents show that it was common for the parishioners to bring their dogs to services for foot warmers. Clearly, this was something new, an animal whose sole purpose was as an “ego adjunct.”
Not only did these new breeds become very popular, but older working breeds increasingly became companionship-only animals. Today, most registered breeds have their origins in some variation of a utility breed (140 out of 155, by my count), yet surveys suggest that 94% of owners say their dog’s primary benefit is companionship. Certainly today’s average dog is “non-working.” In fact, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) has published a position paper supporting the animals as companions; it cites their “enormous value to human health and well-being.” The role of dogs has evolved, and most dogs have become decorative and companion animals. The American Kennel Club (AKC) judges a dog’s “quality” almost exclusively by its appearance.
Decorating the Dog
Breeding for appearance, rather than utility, swept away accepted approaches to new breed development with style becoming king. Only time and cost constrained these creations. To get around those seemingly unbreakable limits, decoration became the fast track to high style. In the time of Louis XV of France, businesses providing the latest fashion in dog haircuts, perms, and colorizing flourished. Dog collars became a measure of importance, with some made of gold, silver, white leather, or velvet. The trend continues today, of course, with once utilitarian leashes morphed into $38 Coach collars and $800 Louis Vuitton carrying cases. One shudders to think of how much is spent on dog haircuts alone.
Beyond surface decoration came decorative surgery. Early and still common modifications include ear and tail docking. Tail docking is routine for 56 of the 155 AKC-recognized breeds. Dog conformation enthusiasts continue to rationalize that a docked tail provides a handle to pull terriers and other breeds out of burrows. One wonders who would pull a Doberman out by its docked tail?
Decorative surgery or time consuming breeding aside, we continue to be driven to decorate our dogs. Stylish inbreeding has created bulldogs who struggle to breathe through short noses, shar-peis suffer with eczema of folded skin, and Boston terriers with large protruding eyes prone to degeneration. We care about our dogs’ health—Americans spend over $7 billion a year on veterinarians. However, good health continues to be subsidiary to fashion. Pierre Barnoti, Executive Director of the Canadian SPCA, points out that there are over three hundred known genetic defects in dogs that we have not bothered to repair. In his lectures to Quebec school children (and their teachers), he points out that their province, unlike 13th century Europe, has no animal welfare laws. This has lead to its becoming, in his words, the “capital of cruelty” for animal breeders wanting to avoid US and Canadian laws yet fill the American need for stylish pets. The “Olympics of conformation” dominate dog shows. As mentioned, the AKC defines most of its 155 official breeds predominantly by their appearance.* However, the time in which we can create new canine fashions is about to drop from generations to months.