by Perry McCarney

Created on: January 20, 2009   Last Updated: October 31, 2010

Dogs became man's best friend in the animal kingdom through the simple expedient of getting in first! Anthropological research shows that human groups were relating with canine packs at least 15,000 years ago. And it's quite possible that mutual cooperation was occurring between canines and hominids for hundreds of thousands of years before that.

It's not all that hard to see why. Both species brought something to the fold. Our earliest ancestors were hunter/gatherers, the men and possibly younger women hunting and the mothers/older women gathering. As an aside, that is not deliberately sexist, it is just the way it was. Authority within those tribal groups was as likely to reside in a woman as a man; the group assigned such on the basis of ability, not gender. Something we might do well to emulate today.

Canine packs provided tracking ability, close-in attack skills and camp security. Hominids provided thought and imagination, and thus planning skills, hand-based manipulation and long range attack capability through thrown spears, slings and later bows and arrows. Both species at that time had similar levels of stamina, both being hunters capable of following prey over long distances rather than sprinters. It was a match made in heaven, and the emotional bond it generated has lasted through to today.

Horses and cats didn't become involved with humans until about six to eight thousand years ago, when we developed pastoralist and agriculturist societies. In some of these societies they dominated for a time, but most still incorporated dogs in an important social and/or emotional role. Pigs, although easily as capable as dogs at forming bonds with humans, and almost certainly more intelligent, have been considered just a prey species until recently. Their interaction with us is still predominantly one of our predation of them, supplying us with bacon and pork, more than emotional interactions.

Dogs have been our partners for thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of years. They are our best friends, whether we have continued to be theirs is debatable.

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