Canine Domestication, Social
Structure and Behavioural Influences
Human
Domestication
Hypothesis
This hypothesis suggests humans played a key role in dog domestication by selectively breeding wolf pups for hunting, guarding, or companionship, which sped up divergence from feral wolves (Perri et al., 2020).
Domestication
"A process by which a population of animals become adapted to man and a captive environment by genetic changes"
Price 1984
Supporting Evidence:
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Archaeological sites from 14,000–17,000 years ago show deliberate human-canine relationships, with dog burials and grave goods, indicating dogs had social roles beyond scavenging
(Gräslund, 2004; Losey et al., 2011).
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Ethnographic Analogy: Modern and historic hunter-gatherers often raise wild animals for specific uses, demonstrating that domestication is possible and practical (Perri et al., 2020).
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Selection for Utility: The rise of specialised dog breeds for herding, hunting, and guarding shows that directed selection can quickly produce new forms and behaviours (Bergström et al., 2020).
Criticisms and Counter-Evidence:
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Feasibility Issues: Wolves fear humans (Mech & Janssens, 2022). Raising and taming wolf pups is challenging and labour-intensive, possibly beyond early humans' capacity or interest (Germonpré et al., 2018).
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Process: Genetic and archaeological evidence indicate domestication occurred over thousands of years, conflicting with the idea of a quick, highly directed process (Bergström et al., 2022).
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Self-Domestication Overlap: Some traits from human selection might also result from natural selection in human-influenced environments, blurring the line between models (Perri et al., 2020).