[SunkenCiv]

A lateral view of a Palaeolithic dog from the Goyet cave (Belgium), calibrated age of 36,000 years Before the Present. Thalmann et al. believe the species represented by this fossil to be an ancient sister-group to all modern dogs and wolves, rather than a direct ancestor. [Image courtesy of Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences]

[svcw]

If I had been around, canines would not have been domesticated....way to needy.
;-)
This is very interesting.

[MUDDOG]

It has been previously thought that fields and crops attracted wolves to villages, leading to interactions with humans that eventually resulted in a cooperative or symbiotic relationship.

This would apply more to cats, who would've been attracted by the rodents eating the grain.

[digger48]

A Paleolithic Canis lupus ate my cave-baby

[Marcella]

I have a Yorkie. Yorkies were bred in Yorkshire, England, to be very small dogs to catch rats in their small tunnels so digging is in her DNA. I got her when she was five weeks old. When she was not much older, she started digging holes in a sheet of sheetrock wall just inside the front door. I tried everything to stop her from doing that, even the bitter spray to keep dogs away from what was sprayed, but I couldn't watch her every single minute of the day and she managed to dig two holes completely through it. She is very smart. I watched her one day and she licked the spot to soften up the sheetrock, then dug like a drill hammer getting through it. She digs so fast, her paws are a blur when she digs. She is so small, but can dig like an electric drill.

I picked out a sheet of material like you see in showers that is slick and strong. Had a workman install that wall and she never approached that wall again. She knew she couldn't get through it. I gave her cardboard boxes to dig in the sides of the boxes and she put holes in those boxes.

She never found a mouse or a rat in the holes she dug but I could have told her she wouldn't find any.

[TigersEye]

When did man invent bacon? Connect the dots! ;^)

[blueunicorn6]

I watch that Westminster Kennel Club show every year. I keep hoping that a Weiner dog will leap into the stands and grab someone by the throat. I know....not much chance of that happening. More likely Chihuahuas.

[SharpRightTurn]

“Before the Present”

Haven’t seen that one before. I thought the current New Age circumlocution to avoid “BC” and “AD” was “BCE” and “CE”. Is “Before the Present” a new and improved way to be hip?

(Interesting thread, BTW, SunkenCiv, and not intending to take the domestication history of canines down a side alley.)

[JLS]

So I would guess we have two competing hypotheses:

A. Farming people domesticated wolf/dogs to help protect their fields.

B. Hunter/gatherers domesticate wolf/dogs to help them find game or other food.

The new evidence favors B for now.

[Wuli]

without directly saying it, the report suggests (a) domestication of canines occurred earlier in Europe than elsewhere and (b) possibly very very much earlier, and (c) which MAY explain the cultural roots in some Asian societies where eating canines STILL has some adherents today (and was even more common in the past we modern humans know about)

[blam]

The Dixie Dingo