https://www.britannica.com/animal/dog
Dog, (Canis lupus familiaris), domestic mammal of the family Canidae (order Carnivora). It is a subspecies of the gray wolf (Canis lupus) and is related to foxes and jackals. The dog is one of the two most ubiquitous and most popular domestic animals in the world (the cat is the other). For more than 12,000 years it has lived with humans as a hunting companion, protector, object of scorn or friend.
The dog evolved from the gray wolf into more than 400 distinct breeds. Human beings have played a major role in creating dogs that fulfill distinct societal needs. Through the most rudimentary form of genetic engineering, dogs were bred to accentuate instincts that were evident from their earliest encounters with humans. Although details about the evolution of dogs are uncertain, the first dogs were hunters with keen senses of sight and smell. Humans developed these instincts and created new breeds as need or desire arose.
Dogs are regarded differently in different parts of the world. Characteristics of loyalty, friendship, protectiveness, and affection have earned dogs an important position in Western society, and in the United States and Europe the care and feeding of dogs has become a multibillion-dollar business. Western civilization has given the relationship between human and dog great importance, but, in some of the developing nations and in many areas of Asia, dogs are not held in the same esteem. In some areas of the world, dogs are used as guards or beasts of burden or even for food, whereas in the United States and Europe dogs are protected and admired. In ancient Egyptduring the days of the pharaohs, dogs were considered to be sacred.
End quote much more at Brittanica. I grew up with 2 dogs between the ages of 4 and 17 or 18. Outside of family these were my closest companions. One was a shepherd-collie mix, he would wander about, hunt in the woods, get porcupine quills in his face tht we went to the vet to remove. We got him at birth. The other, a female poodle, was a stray we got off the street in ghe middle of the cold Alaskan winter. She was quite overweight and remained so. Both got brain tuors, presumably from dry dog food we fed them. I recall incidences of my father drowning puppies born apparently a birth control method like infanticide in subcontinent still widely used for humans, mainly female babies due to dowry demands at marriage. (My wife says her grandmother did the same in Russia with kittens) There is a a large, perhaps 10% excess of males to females in China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Even with this women's rights have far to go. Male assumptions of their God given right to predominance seem hard wired. Tell that to my leo, oldest born wife I joke, as I get ordered around daily and called an idiot. Every relationship works differently. My dog sox was very smart. Our current cat, Mashka, OTOH seems playful but dumb and not at all cuddly. We got her a year ago from neighnours at 3 months old, house trained. This has helped keep peace in the family where relationships get quite rancorous. It is nice to have someone to look after, care for and love when the kids are big, marriage is old and relationship patterns are hardened. I suppose grandchildren also play this role generally.
End quote much more at Brittanica. I grew up with 2 dogs between the ages of 4 and 17 or 18. Outside of family these were my closest companions. One was a shepherd-collie mix, he would wander about, hunt in the woods, get porcupine quills in his face tht we went to the vet to remove. We got him at birth. The other, a female poodle, was a stray we got off the street in ghe middle of the cold Alaskan winter. She was quite overweight and remained so. Both got brain tuors, presumably from dry dog food we fed them. I recall incidences of my father drowning puppies born apparently a birth control method like infanticide in subcontinent still widely used for humans, mainly female babies due to dowry demands at marriage. (My wife says her grandmother did the same in Russia with kittens) There is a a large, perhaps 10% excess of males to females in China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Even with this women's rights have far to go. Male assumptions of their God given right to predominance seem hard wired. Tell that to my leo, oldest born wife I joke, as I get ordered around daily and called an idiot. Every relationship works differently. My dog sox was very smart. Our current cat, Mashka, OTOH seems playful but dumb and not at all cuddly. We got her a year ago from neighnours at 3 months old, house trained. This has helped keep peace in the family where relationships get quite rancorous. It is nice to have someone to look after, care for and love when the kids are big, marriage is old and relationship patterns are hardened. I suppose grandchildren also play this role generally.
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