Dog Domestication Dogma

A review of evidence on the origins of the domestic dog (here) concludes that the most likely route was not direct domestication of the wolf but the domestication of “a species of medium-sized generalist canid, a "wild C. familiaris," that voluntarily adopted the pariah niche and remained commensal for an extensive period before some populations became truly domesticated”. 

The author highlights the problem that our strongly held belief that we deliberately domesticated the wolf has hindered research on the subject, as has our “Failure to investigate primitive dogs”, concentrating instead on modern breeds. Genetic research on the subject still focuses on comparing “breeds” and wolves rather than investigating the readily available pariah dogs in India or southeast Asian dingoes, for example. As she points out the conventional “dogma” of our beliefs has been a real barrier to objective research.

As she also notes, her conclusions leave significant unanswered questions, most notably the origin of this generalist canine and how it was related to the wolf, but the overall conclusion is very relevant to the modern-day “stray” dog issue. Whether it was the wolf or a proto-dog that moved into the pariah niche prior to domestication this clearly supports my belief that many of the unowned village dogs living today are doing exactly what they naturally evolved to do and that the same dogmatism that is hindering research on domestic dog origins is also blinkering our attitude to the dog’s place in the world.

As I keep saying, not all unowned dogs are stray.

Learn more about the lives and issue of unowned dogs in my e-book ”A Stray View” available from Bangkok Books (readable as .pdf on any computer)