Link:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/dogs/

The Truth About Dogs
by Stephen Budiansky



Dogs and More Dogs homepage

Dogs are a brilliant evolutionary success almost without parallel in the
animal world, and they owe that success to their uncanny ability to worm
themselves into our homes, and to our relentlessly anthropomorphic
psyches that let them do it.

Throughout much of Africa and Asia to this day, millions upon millions
of dogs roam freely through villages and even cities: they are generally
despised, shunned, justifiably feared as dangerous and disease-ridden,
occasionally eaten; yet they flourish in spite of it all. However
consciously and rationally humans may dislike or distrust these
free-ranging dogs, however much humans may determinedly try to relegate
them to the mental category occupied by rats, lice, and pigeons, still,
when man comes face to face with dog, the will to inflict serious bodily
harm mysteriously melts away. Dogs, in an evolutionary sense, know this.
They cringe, they whine, they look soulfully into our eyes, and we say,
"Aww, the heck with it," drop the rock and go our way.

The wild ancestor of the dog, the wolf, is practically extinct. There
are probably no more that 100,000 wolves left in the entire world today.
The world's dog population easily exceeds that by a factor of a
thousand. For all the myths and tales of the dog's service to man, only
the smallest fraction of dogs that live off human society today earn
their keep. No one has done an actual study of this, but there is reason
to be suspicious even of the most common rationalization of dogs'
utility to man, as guardians of property or intruder alarms; for every
tale of a dog successfully frightening off burglars, there are thousands
of dogs who bark incessantly at every goddamned thing that moves and
then sleep blissfully through a crime in progress.

For all the myths about how some caveman or cavewoman adopted a wolf cub
from the wild and found him a valuable guardian and hunting companion,
the behavioral and archeological evidence now strongly points to a
conclusion that even thousands of years ago the overwhelming majority of
dogs were biological freeloaders. The things that a small number of
modern-day dogs do that clearly pay [see Working Dogs]—assisting the
blind and disabled, herding livestock, providing recreational sport for
hunters and racing enthusiasts— were late developments in the dog's
checkered career. Every great crime family turns out a few solid
citizens eventually.

If dogs have lost their usefulness to the human race,I feel its our
fault,we bred it out of them. Half the dogs today never exisited in the
natural world,they are our creation,for our purpose. Most are
useful,some are downright useless for anything.The wolf is not a pure
breed either. Adog is a dog,is a dog. we get one,not for a purpose,other
than to fill a empty space in ourselves.I am a animal lover,animals of
all kinds. But don't mistake me for a PETA member. some animals taste
very good.have you ever noticed that most good tasting animals, are slow
and dumb? eg, the cow,the pig.cats are fast and taste terrible,at least
to me. dogs are smart,and taste somewhat better than cats.

So I can take it that you don't like the term evolution then. Such as
Did we evolve from something?

That was my premiss for the Dog evolving from the wolf.

They seem to be close reated dur to some ppl's attachment to them.

So what do you think. cowboy?

well,ghost, part of me belives it,my grandmother is spinning in her
grave as i type this but yes Ibelive evolotion is the prime mover of our
kind on earth, But i don't exclude religion entirley either.I guess i'm
trying to hedge my bets. dogs are still "pack"animals. they are best in
company,my dog has really changed since my step-sons dog has been here,
she's teaching him the rules of the house.which are my rules by the way.
shes become my Squad leader"if you will. funny to watch.

Yes, driver! Me too!
If you have seen my post about has Religion evolved, I see the same
pattern. Other's are too arrogant to see it.( I didn't evolved from some
goo!) Well, maybe those certain ppl here did. LOL. But the essence of my
post is that everything evolves. You me and the Computer. Only some ppl
here take it the wrong way by my example. Again Arrogence. and lack of
education different from you and I.

Thank you for your input.

Ghostrecon

Boy, I would have loved to have gotten in on this one earlier. I am an
animal lover from the depts of my soul and am also an evolutionist- I
mean the facts are right there before your eyes. Maybe it's a good thing
that I didn't notice the Dis. Grp. Otherwise, I would be on my 20th
page of Reply. The dogs and my Guinea tribe would have starved to death.
That's what's so good about the forums. You can speak your opinions
uninterruped, all the readers fall asleep and your point will have been
made.