From the user neonas85.
This is one theory about how dogs came about.
However, I think that human agency in this is a bit stronger than Coppinger does. Also, I think that before we began our wide-scale persecution of the wolf, the animal’s nature and temperament was fundamentally different. I don’t think that ancient people produced enough garbage to allow for a niche to develop.
It is true that domestication has reduced the size of the dog’s brain, along with its teeth, the length of its muzzle, and the size of its skull. These traits exist in all domestic dogs, even the molosser breeds that have what appears to be large heads. Their heads are smaller than those of wolves. And head size is really important for bite strength.
However, I’m less sure that dogs are dumber than wolves, because intelligence in humans is a nebulous thing. And I don’t think we have all the answers when it comes to dog intelligence. If you want to look at some new ideas on this subject, check out this book. One of the main findings in this book’s research is that dogs can learn better from humans because they have evolved cognitive skills that allow them to learn from us. (Coppinger doesn’t like this at all. Here’s a really good critique of what Coppinger says.)
Basically what these studies are showing is that wolves have bigger brains than dogs. They are like computers with lots of hardware. However, these computers lack a word processor. No matter what you do, you cannot compose anything on them.
Dogs have smaller brains, but they have the program for reading people. That’s why we have dogs like Rico, who responds to over 200 words, and we have guide dogs that can intelligently disobey their handlers to prevent them from walking into traffic. No wolf has ever done this, despite its big brain.
It is commonly said that dogs can’t coordinate hunts to bring down large prey. However, very few large dogs get to wander the countryside. In the Italian study group on which all of this information based, along with other urban dog studies, the dogs had lots of garbage to scavenge. In the Italian study, there was such a paucity of prey that even the wolves lived at the dump.
Now, I know that there situations in which large dogs are allowed to form groupings in rural parts of the United States. The dogs do kill deer, running them down in packs. It’s much more common with dogs that have learned to hunt other game, such as foxhounds. (I remember my grandfather telling me a story about how a fox hunt broke up after six dogs took off after a herd of deer. The dogs ran the deer nearly 10 miles before swarming it, and they killed it. The dogs were allowed to eat the deer before they were collected several days later, because the landowner didn’t want a rotting deer carcass on his property. In those days, having a fox hunting permit for a pack meant that the local conservation officer could not issue fines for killing a deer by accident. Those times have certainly changed.)
I also remember a dog the college town where I got my BA. This dog knew that the police would pick up any dog wandering the town on his own. So he find someone walking along the street and walk close beside that person. He would look up with adoration in his eyes, trotting as if he were at a perfect heel. He wasn’t really interested in companionship, though, because as soon as his human shield turned in a direction contrary to his destination, he would wander off and look for another person to walk beside. He was a very clever dog, looking both ways to cross the street. His owners were forever trying to keep him confined, but it was nearly impossible.
So dogs have evolved a different sort of intelligence as they have developed into neotenous forms of wolf.
When talking about brain size between wolves and dogs, exactly what areas of the brain are being addressed? Overall brain size or specific areas? Dogs need to be far more adaptive to environmental circumstances than wolves. Wolves can’r adapt well to living close to man, although I have seen clips of a female wolf scavenging a dump site in Eastern Europe, something that is an aberration here in N.A., escept perhaps in National parks. Dogs seem to do these much more readily than their wolf ancestors.
Anyway, I would expect in a study of dog versus wolf brains to see a difference in specific areas indicating brain adaptions to living in proximity to us messy apes. Not that I am advocating the return to late part of the 19th century and early 20th when there was a bounty on wolves/extirpation just so we can compare dog and wolf brains with modern technology, Sarah Palin notwithstanding.
I think Temple Grandin writes that the parts of the brain that have to do with a sense of smell and sight and the parts that have to do with planning are smaller in dogs. However, I don’t know what parts are the same or larger in dogs. This is a question that hasn’t been addressed in the literature.
The wolves in Eastern Europe must scavenge from dumps, because there is a paucity of prey species. In Romania, though, they have prey species. It’s just easier to scavenge. The ones in North America don’t do it, because we have a lot more wilderness. And the wolves live in the wilderness. We also have had very extensive wolf eradication program here, Mexico, and parts of southern Canada. This killing spree that wiped the wolf out of all but Alaska and Minnesota, left the remaining wolves nervous and flight. It’s the exact opposite of the Belyaev selection.
I don’t think our ancestors could have domesticated wolves unless it was very easy. I don’t think scavenging is the whole story, because large numbers of wolves couldn’t live off that sort of refuse. I think that the wolves those ancient people were interacting with were far different from the ones that exist today.
I have some evidence for this. In Alaska, red foxes that haven’t been shot over for generations come out during the day and beg food. The Grizzly Man even tamed some down to the level of slightly more independent dogs. (I wish he’d stayed with foxes.) Perhaps the original wolves were of this disposition.
Also, the least shot over wolves live in the High Arctic. David Mech, the great wolf research, habituated a pack of these wolves to his presence. Although these wolves didn’t tame down, they were less wary of him than their southernmost populations.
Also, most wolf pups born in captivity must be bottle reared from an early age (19 days, I think) to make them not fear people. I’ve read accounts of Arctic wolf puppies in zoos being tamed down while being nursed by their own mothers.
Also, there’s the story of “Wags.” http://books.google.com/books?id=_jrDrKS4o-IC&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=wags+murie&source=bl&ots=DXtFrmSwdW&sig=AXOk5oPXGFw7bTBSu5ypF6sBRpQ&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result
Wags was a bottle reared wolf that never attacked people or dogs for any reason. She was one of the Mt. McKinley wolves that Adolph Murie studied. Also, Lewis and Clark talk about wolves that can be killed with hunting knives that can be enticed to camp really easily. They also mention wolves and Indian dogs eating from the same carcasses ( With today’s wolves, the dogs would be wolf meat.)
Stories like are what made me think of this possible theory.