Early in human history, man domesticated an early ancestor of the modern day dog. For its part, this creature helped protect people from wild animals and guarded his domestic animals such as goats and sheep. In return, it received food and shelter. Over time, man and dog came to trust each other. These first "dogs" were mostly likely especially gentle jackals, or perhaps ailing wolves exiled from their packs.

There are a few places on earth where no traces of an indigenous dog family can be found --New the Polynesian Islands, New Zealand, the eastern islands of the Malayan Archipelago, Madagascar and the West Indian Islands. Almost everywhere else, an indigenous dog family can be identified.

In the ancient Oriental lands, and generally among the early Mongolians, the dog remained savage and neglected for centuries, prowling in packs, gaunt and wolf-like, as it prowls today through the streets and under the walls of every Eastern city. No attempt was made to allure it into human companionship or to improve it into docility. It is not until we come to examine the records of the higher civilizations of Assyria and Egypt that we discover any distinct varieties of canine form.

One basic fact that makes it hard to believe that today's dogs all share a common ancestry is, simply, how different one breed is from another! Consider the St. Bernard, the Tan Terrier, the German Shepard, Siberian Husky, the Pomeranian and so on. It is perplexing to think how these breeds, differing vastly in size, appearance and temperament, could have one origin. The same, of course, could be said of horses. In both cases, breeders are familiar with the laws of selection and how easy it is to produce a variety in type and size.

In considering the question of dogs and wolves sharing a common origin, we should first look at their skeletal structures, or the osseous system. These are close enough in both species that their transposition from one to the other could hardly be noticed.

A dog's spine has seven vertebrae in the neck, thirteen in the back, seven in the loins, three sacral vertebrae and twenty to twenty-two in the tail. Both the wolf and dog have thirteen pairs of ribs, nine true and four false. Both species have forty-two teeth. Each has five front and four hind toes. As far as their outward appearance goes, a general description of one would serve for the other in many cases.

The habits of dogs and wolves are more similar than you might realize. Wolves are famous for their howl, but when kept with dogs, they will adapt barking. The wolf is, of course, a carnivore, but he can also eat vegetables and will nibble grass when ill. During hunting, a pack of wolves will divide in sections, one directly following the trail of the quarry, the other cutting off its retreat. This strategy is also exhibited by teams of sporting dogs when hunting.

Another common trait that canis familiaris and canis lupus share is the period of gestation, which is sixty-three days for both species. A wolf's litter usually contains three to nine cubs, which are blind for twenty-one days. After being suckled for two months, they are able to consume half-digested meat that has been disgorged for them by their dam or even sire.

The dogs and wolves native to almost all regions closely resemble each other in size, coloration, form and habit, a fact too widespread to be simply coincidental. An observer in 1829, Sir John Richardson, commented that the only difference he could see between the wolves of North America and the domestic dog of the Indians was the greater size and strength of the wolf.

Some see the difference between the dog's bark and wolf's howl as a definitive one. However, we know that wolf pups, along with jackals and wild dogs will readily learn to bark when raised by bitches, while domestic dogs will forget the habit if they run wild long enough. This, then, cannot be used as proof of the dog's origin.

We might consider Darwin's belief that domestic dogs descended from several species of wolf from places as diverse as Europe, India and North Africa, as well as several species of jackal, and possibly from one or more species now extinct. This suggestion that our modern dogs had such a diverse ancestry could be the truest explanation we will find.