Saturday, January 8, 2011

GENERAL HISTORY OF DOGS.

There is no incongruity in the idea that in the very earliest period of man's habitation of this world he made a good friend and companion of some type of aboriginal representative of our modern canine, and that in return for its support in defending him from wilder animals, and in guarding his sheep and goats, he gave it a share of his food, a corner in his dwelling, and grew to belief it and take care of it. In all probability the animal was initially little else than an unusually gentle jackal, or an ailing wolf pushed by its companions from the wild marauding pack to seek shelter in alien surroundings. One can effectively conceive the possibility of the partnership beginning within the circumstance of some helpless whelps being introduced home by the early hunters to be tended and reared by the ladies and children. Canine introduced into the house as playthings for the kids would grow to treat themselves, and be regarded, as family members

In nearly all elements of the world traces of an indigenous dog household are found, the one exceptions being the West Indian Islands, Madagascar, the jap islands of the Malayan Archipelago, New Zealand, and the Polynesian Islands, where there is no sign that any dog, wolf, or fox has existed as a real aboriginal animal. In the ancient Oriental lands, and usually among the many early Mongolians, the dog remained savage and neglected for centuries, prowling in packs, gaunt and wolf-like, as it prowls at present through the streets and below the partitions of every Eastern city. No try was made to attract it into human companionship or to enhance it into docility. It is not until we come to examine the information of the higher civilisations of Assyria and Egypt that we discover any distinct kinds of canine form.

The canine was not enormously appreciated in Palestine, and in each the Old and New Testaments it's generally spoken of with scorn and contempt as an "unclean beast." Even the familiar reference to the Sheepdog in the Book of Job "But now they which might be youthful than I have me in derision, whose fathers I might have disdained to set with the canine of my flock" is just not without a suggestion of contempt, and it is important that the only biblical allusion to the canine as a recognised companion of man occurs in the apocryphal Book of Tobit (v. sixteen), "So they went forth both, and the younger man's dog with them."

The great multitude of various breeds of the dog and the huge variations in their measurement, points, and common look are information which make it tough to consider that they might have had a standard ancestry. One thinks of the distinction between the Mastiff and the Japanese Spaniel, the Deerhound and the modern Pomeranian, the St. Bernard and the Miniature Black and Tan Terrier, and is perplexed in contemplating the potential of their having descended from a typical progenitor. Yet the disparity is no higher than that between the Shire horse and the Shetland pony, the Shorthorn and the Kerry cattle, or the Patagonian and the Pygmy; and all canine breeders know how simple it is to produce a range in type and measurement by studied selection.

In order properly to understand this query it is essential first to consider the identity of structure in the wolf and the dog. This id of construction could best be studied in a comparison of the osseous system, or skeletons, of the two animals, which so carefully resemble one another that their transposition wouldn't easily be detected.

The backbone of the canine consists of seven vertebrae within the neck, 13 in the again, seven within the loins, three sacral vertebrae, and twenty to twenty-two in the tail. In both the dog and the wolf there are 13 pairs of ribs, nine true and 4 false. Each has forty-two teeth. They both have 5 front and four hind toes, whereas outwardly the common wolf has so much the looks of a large, naked-boned canine, that a popular description of the one would serve for the other.

Nor are their habits different. The wolf's pure voice is a loud howl, but when confined with canine he will be taught to bark. Though he is carnivorous, he may also eat greens, and when sickly he'll nibble grass. Within the chase, a pack of wolves will divide into events, one following the path of the quarry, the other endeavouring to intercept its retreat, exercising a considerable quantity of technique, a trait which is exhibited by lots of our sporting canines and terriers when looking in teams.

An extra vital point of resemblance between the Canis lupus and the Canis familiaris lies in the truth that the period of gestation in each species is sixty-three days. There are from three to 9 cubs in a wolf's litter, and these are blind for twenty-one days. They're suckled for two months, however on the end of that time they are able to eat half-digested flesh disgorged for them by their dam and even their sire.

The native canines of all areas approximate intently in measurement, coloration, form, and habit to the native wolf of those regions. Of this most necessary circumstance there are far too many cases to permit of its being appeared upon as a mere coincidence. Sir John Richardson, writing in 1829, noticed that "the resemblance between the North American wolves and the home dog of the Indians is so nice that the size and strength of the wolf appears to be the one difference.

It has been prompt that the one incontrovertible argument in opposition to the lupine relationship of the dog is the truth that all home dogs bark, while all wild Canidae categorical their feelings only by howls. But the problem right here shouldn't be so great as it seems, since we know that jackals, wild dogs, and wolf pups reared by bitches readily purchase the habit. Then again, domestic dogs allowed to run wild forget find out how to bark, whereas there are some which have not but realized so to express themselves.

The presence or absence of the habit of barking can't, then, be considered an argument in deciding the question regarding the origin of the dog. This stumbling block consequently disappears, leaving us in the place of agreeing with Darwin, whose closing speculation was that "it is extremely possible that the domestic canine of the world have descended from two good species of wolf (C. lupus and C. latrans), and from two or three different uncertain species of wolves specifically, the European, Indian, and North African varieties; from at the very least one or two South American canine species; from a number of races or species of jackal; and maybe from a number of extinct species"; and that the blood of these, in some instances mingled collectively, flows in the veins of our domestic breeds.

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