Howlz That!

The crop appears to be one thing when it is still in the field:

“Haunched like a faun, he hooed

From grove of moon-glint and fen-frost

Until all owls in the twigged forest

Flapped back to look and brood

On the call this man made.

No sound but a drunken coot

Lurching home along river bank.

Stars hung water-sunk, so a rank

Of double star-eyes lit

Boughs where those owls sat.

An arena of yellow eyes

Watched the changing shape he cut,

Saw hoof harden from foot, saw sprout

Goat-horns. Marked how god rose

And galloped woodward in that guise.” : Faun, Sylvia Plath

At early childhood, I was thrilled by an advertisement on TV which showed a dog fetching newspapers for his human companions. I thought, ‘Great! What a smart creature to keep at home’ (Read: it will make me look even smarter!) With slight trepidation I went to my father and summed up the courage to ask, ‘Baba, can we have a dog at home as a pet?’ My usually benevolent father looked at askance towards my mother who feigned complete unawareness about the exchanges just took place and at that time usually her nonchalance was enough to showcase an irrevocable negative verdict. Disgruntled, I started concocting stories about how adroitly my dog (which didn’t exist) fetched toothbrush for me along with the morning paper to my kindergarten schoolmates. A few more imaginative nudges and a family visit to watch ‘The Doberman Gang’ in a theatre further propelled my desire to such an extent that I mastered enough guts to directly confront my mother: “Why can’t we have dog as pets in home?”  A cold stare which used to make me perspire even during winter retorted: “Dogs will come from the front door in my house and then and there I’ll exit from the back door…never to return!”. Sensing my emotional unsettledness at such a tormenting answer, she tried to comfort with a chuckle, “Dogs are wild animals and wilds are befitting only for wilderness. It’s painful for them to adjust to civilization just as much it will be painful for me to clean the poops”. The second half of the sentence only rang in my mind and I realized my mother was weary of keeping dogs as she knew she had to single-handedly take care of the pet, juggling it with her usual household chores. After dissipation of initial excitement, neither my father nor me would have the time, patience and maturity (in my case) to take such a full-fledged responsibility. I understood and never expressed such a wish thereafter.

Moa in his room

But as destiny or my hidden desire would have it, I got myself a dog (whom I named ‘Moa’) almost 18 years later this conversation has taken place. And as my extreme misfortune and my mother’s strong willpower would have it, she has exited from the other door almost 7 years before Moa’s dirty semolac-smeared paws could spoil the floor of my rented abode at Bangalore. Had she been around, I’m sure it would have been a gala fun with her being such a stickler for cleanliness and Moa being such an epitome of mess. And I’m also sure in today’s time I would have managed to persuade her about keeping dogs and who knows, perhaps she would have cared for Moa more than anyone else and Moa perhaps would have found at least one condescending human. All ifs and buts apart, when Moa came in my house at first, one neighbour asked, ‘Where from you got this?’ I replied with a breeder’s address. And then….

I paused, I pondered. Seriously, where from Moa appeared in actuality? Where, How and Why have dogs originated? 

If you will be tumblers in the lock, I will be the key

Evolutionary science unearths the mystery behind many unfathomable facts. One of them is the starkly close association between humans and other animals in wild from the prehistoric age. There was a time when human, just like any other untamed animals, was a ruthless predator.

More than 400, 000 years ago, the primitive hunting skill of hominids’ was severely challenged in the vast wild. More often than not, a group of human animals (as a member of the order Primate along with chimps and gorillas) only managed to wound a prey for living but the scathed target would have escaped unless a pack of scavenging wolves armoured with their sharp sense of smell and deft hunting tactics joined the battleground and made a kill. Impressed hunters took the major share of the carcass and then left the remains for the wolf pack to savour. The more evolved human brain could soon spot the immediate advantage: it was worthy of his time and effort to follow the wolves (who could clock 40 mph, unthinkable by human standard) in order to better the strike rate. From the wolves’ perspective, a certain danger was slowly becoming a lucrative prospect: humans were using their underdeveloped yet effective spears to mutilate the pray wolves themselves were locating with great accuracy and both parties were enjoying their fair share. In addition, wolves remained better protected in human company as their bones were largely impenetrable to humans, which otherwise would have been vulnerable in front of a 1000-pound-per-square-inch jaw of large enemies like giant sabre-toothed cats.

Grey Wolf

Several other factors came into interplay to make this hint of interdependence a long-term feasibility. Grey wolf were the only wild mammalian species (with their 39 sub-species) which had such an all-pervasive geographical presence (across North America, Eurasia and northern regions of African continent, from the freezing Alaska to the tropical subcontinent) attributed by their terrific adaptive skills. Although the most fearsome ambush predator on terra-firma, tiger, was a more capable hunter (successful in one out of ten attempts), the increasing familiarity with nomadic humans have given wolves a distinct edge. Both Grey Wolf and Dingo (Genera: Canis) have also placed themselves in a far more advantageous position as primates’ use of fire aided them to bring down an animal as a pack. Furthermore, a change of weather in the forest would have spelled disaster for highly territorial tigers and other such solitary beings. In contrast, hominid’s social environs were especially flexible: just migrate to another region, lit up another fire and start finding other resources for survival. Naturally, it paid for the wolves to suitably fit in these ecological niches, undergoing inadvertent morphological changes with the added incentive of devouring hominid excreta! 

Another speculation suggests that around 55 million years ago some human hunters spared few wolf infants after killing their adult counterparts and let them inhabit common space as they posed no imminent danger. As humans observed that adolescent wolf howling signalled them about encroaching potential threats, the elongated body and sharp wolf claws could frighten other predators and they were acting as a loyal guard in the hominid encampments, the comfortable proximity earlier shared became an obstinate interdependence insolvent among the mountains.

Whatever be the possibilities, there are substantial evidence to establish a kind of natural selection over hundreds of thousands of years has resulted in a mutual conditioning of dependence. Status quos hardly altered in such a strict hierarchical set-up, what prevailed was a sharp demarcation between dominant members and the submissive ones (not necessarily timid) in a pack but they all followed their human guardian as the pack-leader. It was a very rewarding disposition, wolves quickly learnt. 

Then the transformation time comes, and we see how it is: half chaff, half grain

Doggification

Interbreeding between wolves that were genetically as well as instinctively more eager to present themselves as efficient companions, those who possessed means to reach the goal, have managed to create offspring less ‘wolf-like’ due to subtle changes of neurotransmitters (such as serotonin) and hormonal levels (such as adrenaline). Slowly wolf’s wild nature has experienced a paradigm shift making them completely lose their fear of humans. Certain typical wolf-like behaviours, such as the regurgitation of partially digested food for the young, have also disappeared. Here comes the ‘domesticated elite’ at a staggering speed, a species that not only tolerates human intervention in their lives but actually welcomes it. Humans took nearly two million years to morph from Homo habilis to Homo sapiens, but the wolf got domesticated with a dogged resolve through a kind of artificial selection. Presumably the dog we keep as pet now is the first animal species to be domesticated by humans, sometime around 13,000–10,000 B.C. (a lot earlier than domestication of cats), from its wolf-like ancestor Canis lupus. Carles Vila of UCLA, who has conducted the most extensive research on this subject, propositioned that dogs were separated from wolf’s lineage approximately 100,000 years ago based on molecular clock studies.

Thus, 20th century genetics has unarguably established the fact that all dogs have evolved from the same maternal stock- intelligent, sociable and self-sufficient grey wolf, with their mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNA of individuals has been used to trace human ancestry, and to estimate the evolutionary relationships among animal species) differing at most by 0.2 %. To put it simply, science revealed that the furry four-legged companion (Canis Familiaris/Domesticus) curling up now at your drawing room or licking your face with affection are nothing but domesticated wolves (Canis Lupus), both belonging to the same Family Canidae (dogs, wild dogs, wolves, coyotes, dingos and jackals). Hyenas are amiss from this list as even though dog-like in some ways, hyenas are actually not canids. They are carnivores more closely related to mongooses and cats rather than dogs.

Through the black amnesias of heaven

As per Zoological classification, dogs belong to the Class Mammalia (mammals - they are air-breathing vertebrate animals, females nurse their young with breast milk which is secreted from special glands, mammary glands), the Order Carnivora (they eat meat) and the Family - Canidae. Within this family there are further subdivisions called genera, and each genus (Lycaon, Canis, Cuon, Nyctereutes, Fennecus, Vulpes etc) contains individual species. A species of dog is a group that normally breed and produce fertile offspring. However, it is possible to cross-breed different species within artificial set-up (like captivity) and indeed the domesticated dog is reported to have been bred successfully with all other members of the family Canidae. For example, German Shepherd shows a closer relation to wolf sequence than to those of the main dog group, suggesting that such breeds had been produced by intermingling wild wolves with dogs.


Although classified as carnivores, dogs have actually evolved as omnivores and can be fed on an exclusive-veg diet (unlike cats which are compulsorily carnivores). Curiously, the Chow Chow in China was fed only rice and cereals owing to which they developed many health concerns when introduced to the all-meat meal in Britain.

The looking itself is a trace of what we are looking for
Earliest ancestors of dogs originally can be traced back to about 200 million years ago from reptiles. Dental pattern of modern day dogs resembles to that found in fossilised creodonts (earlier presumed as ancestors of modern Carnivora and ranged from very large, wolf-like animals as Hyaenodon to small mongoose-like forms such as Prototomus vulpeculus), primitive fish-eating mammals which lived about 50 million years ago, but this genetic line failed to survive and there are no direct descendants today. Another group of animals, the miacids (small forest-dwelling creatures), claimed to be linked to dog ancestry as some believe that cat-like (Feloidea) and dog-like (Canoidea) carnivores actually evolved from miacids. But canoed line is the most significant one on this account, leading from the coyote-sized Mesocyon of the Oligocene (38 to 24 million years ago) to the fox-like Leptocyon and the wolf-like Tomarctus that roamed North America some 10 million years ago. From the time of Tomarctus, dog-like carnivores have made their presence felt throughout the world. In 400 BC, a werewolf won medals at the Olympics.

In his ‘Natural History’, Pliny identified seven dog types in the ancient Rome:

a)       Bellicosi and pugnaces- war dogs ( divisions of fierce fighting dogs patrolled the empire’s furthermost borders)

b)       Nares sagaces- scent hounds

c)       Pastorales pecuari-sheep dogs

d)       Pedibus celeres-sight hounds

e)       Venatici-sporting dogs

f)         Villactici-pets or guard dog

Personalities are born once, a mystic many times

 Archaeology has placed the earliest known domestication at potentially 10,000 BC-12,000 BC and with certainty at 7,000 BC. Sumerian writings from 3000BC and Egyptian paintings of dogs from 2000BC clearly indicate that they were cohabitant of human territory as domesticated animals at that time and there is even an implication that specific breeds were being selectively bred. Naturally, humans would have selected dogs with preferable traits and kept those that responded positively to human fondling and training.

Argos with Odysseus

By the time of Christ, 2000 years ago, Gratius Faliscus, a Roman poet, listed 22 breeds of hunting dog of which only one originated in Italy - the rest were imported from other countries. Unfortunately, no images survive to illustrate these different breeds. Even in Homer’s Odyssey, it is mentioned that when the ancient Greek hero Odysseus returns homeland in beggar’s disguise after twenty years, his faithful old dog, Argos, managed to greet him with all his residual strength before dying amidst utter negligence. (‘There the dog Argos lay in the dung, all covered with dog ticks. Now, as he perceived that Odysseus had come close to him, he wagged his tail, and laid both ears back; only he now no longer had the strength to move any closer to his master….’)

As David Mech, the world’s leading wolf expert emphasizes, “Wolves are not just wild dogs, dogs are domesticated wolves”. As wolves discovered an avenue of huge food source they started living on the edge of human society in order to exploit it. With the advent of agrarian society, humans looking to find settlements found specialized activities like herding and guarding more desirable and wolves started getting selected and bred as per these embryonic attributes. Sporadic out-breeding beyond human control only added to the diversity of the gene pool and retarded some extreme morphological modifications. Humans started to reap multi-faceted benefits as time progressed and human civilization advanced. Larger dogs such as Newfoundland were used to pull carts and were called draught dogs. Newfoundland was also used to carry lines from shore to ship (swimming is still part of the litmus test for the breed). St Bernard in the mid-17^th Century was used as working dogs that helped to carry loads, worked as a guide and helped humans to find the trajectory in the snow-cladded route. North American Indians used dog-sized travois before adapting the horse for this purpose, and huskies are famous for pulling sleds for Inuit communities. It is highly probable that the dog was the original beast of burden before the domestication of the horse or ox.

Dog at early cave painting

Actual notion of dog as a “pet” first came into use in the Old Northern English and Scottish languages, at about 1000 A.D. It was used for any favoured animal that was domesticated over a large period of time as a natural practice and treated with indulgence or fondness. Although the terms "taming" and "domestication" are often used interchangeably, they are mutually exclusive. Individual wild animals can appear to behave in a docile manner (due to fall in adrenal glands’ hormone production) around humans (only propelled by the trigger of fear). If the creatures were allowed their freedom, they would invariably revert to their wild ways. Wolves, like big cats, can be trained but it’s too arrogant on our part to think that we have tamed them. It’s actually the cumulative effects of domestication and behavioural modification (that takes place with an entire animal species over many generations) that ushered this change. 


These words may not be pure truth, but they contain an energy that you can spend

Dog Skull

The oldest known human archaeological site which contains the bones of dogs in close proximity with humans is about 14,000 years old. Linguists have discovered that the ancient Nostratic language, which arose in Southwest Asia about 14,000 years ago, had the same terminology for “dog” and “wolf”. Even though all modern dogs appear to be descended from ancestors that lived at the end of the Ice Age 17,000-14,000 years ago, some canines were domesticated by at least 33, 000 years ago. The recent finding of an ancient animal (identified as being a partly domesticated dog through radiocarbon dating) at Razboinichya Cave in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia augmented the possibility of the presence of ideal condition of domestication much earlier than once thought. Domestic redemption of dogs post ice-age ensured a permanent change. Speculations abound when the first pre-Ice Age dogs emerged, but a dog-like skull dating to 36,500 years ago found at Goyet Cave in Belgium indicates the possibility that the first dogs appeared in parts of Europe and Asia much earlier than commonly thought.

Peter Savolainen (of the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm) led the study of Old World dogs, analysing DNA samples taken from dogs in Asia, Europe, Africa and arctic America. The huge genetic diversity noticed in Dogs of East Asia led many researchers to believe that East Asia has been the breeding ground for domestication. Another international group of researchers recently analysed blood samples from dogs in Egypt, Uganda and Namibia and found the DNA of African village dogs to be as much as diverse. They also have taken major initiative to prove the origins of some pedigree dogs. For example, the Saluki breed shares DNA with modern day village dogs from Egypt - as does the Afghan Hound, despite the ambiguity in its name. Likewise, the Basenji breed is genetically quite close to some Namibian and Ugandan village dogs. However, the Pharaoh Hound and Rhodesian Ridgeback have little in common with any African indigenous dogs which suggests that these two breeds have non-African origins. Existing "Wild dogs" - the African hunting dog, South American bush dog and Indian dhole are remotely related to the domesticated dog - only sharing a common ancestry some 20 million years ago in the Oligocene period. On the other hand, foxes and wolves share a common ancestor 7.5 million years ago in the Miocene period.

Along with greyhounds the Spitz-type dogs (has been recorded in Mesolithic human settlements in Denmark) are generally believed to be one of the earliest domesticated dogs in the world. In spite of being closely related to wolves and dogs and their evolutionary readiness, no canids (even Silver fox) have been completely domesticated apart from the dog.

Love does the same with us. Constraint, freedom.

Dog. N. A kind of additional or subsidiary deity designed to catch the overflow and surplus of the world’s worship.” Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)

Kukur-Tihar at Nepal

Throughout recorded history as dogs have accompanied man, they have been given religious significance in several countries as well. In China and amongst the North American Indians it was believed that dogs would escort the dead safely to the underworld. In Hinduism, beliefs run parallel where dog is considered as a messenger of Yama, The God of Death and supposedly guards the heaven’s door. In order to please the dogs that humans will meet after their mortal life at the heaven’s door, Hindus in Nepal mark the 14th day of the lunar cycle in November as Kukur-Tihar (the dog's day). This is an auspicious occasion when the dog is worshipped by applying tika (the holy vermilion dot), incense sticks and affectionately garlanded with marigold flower.

The Nosarii of western Asia are said to worship a dog. The Karang of Java had a cult of the red dog, each family keeping one in the house. In é-ur-gi7-ra (which translates as dog house), a Mesopotamian temple, a popular dog cult existed and probably here dog was worshipped as divinity. Even though the Ancient Egyptians are often more associated with cats in the form of Bastet, dog figured in a significant position in their religious iconography and was associated with Anubis, the jackal headed God of underworld. In Zoroastrianism as well dogs enjoyed a religious predilection.

Honoured as one of the twelve animals in Chinese astrology, the second day of the Chinese New Year is heralded as the birthday of all dogs. The greyhound is the only breed of dog mentioned by name in the Holy Bible, appearing in Proverbs 30: 29-31 (King James Version):

                              ‘There be three things which go well,

                                  Yea, four are comely in going:

                             A lion, which is strongest among beasts,

                                 And turneth not away for any;

                                 A greyhound; a he-goat also;

                        And a king, against whom  there is no rising up’.

Islamic religion had a controversial take on dogs where some sect of followers believes dogs are incarnation of evils. In Britain, police sniffer dogs trained to spot terrorists at stations once suffered major opposition from some Muslim passengers as it was offensive to their religious beliefs. In stark contrast lies the inscription at Park Lane, London, which reads “This monument is dedicated to all the animals that served and died alongside British and allied forces in wars and campaigns throughout time. They had no choice” (2004, at an Animal in War Memorial). An anonymous person left a note after its unveiling: “Dear Animals, you have smelt our fear. You have seen our bloodshed. You have heard our cries. Forgive us dear animals that we have asked you to serve in this way in war”. One can only think of the Byronic irony expressed in Epitaph to a Dog (1808):

‘But the poor dog, in life the firmest friend,

The first to welcome, foremost to defend,

Whose honest heart is still his master's own,

Who labors, fights, lives, breathes for him alone,

Unhonored falls, unnoticed all his worth,

Denied in heaven the soul he held on earth –

While man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven,

And claims himself a sole exclusive heaven’.

I call you dog, but that is not right. Does anything resemble you? Let’s read your name backwards

Moa

So finally, after Moa’s invasion in my life, I have managed to trace dog’s family tree further than my own. Hope you had a good time reading it as much as I was tantalized researching and writing on a never-ending subject like this. Want to finish this article with a quatrain of mine written on everybody’s best friend, dog.

As for me there are no barks to bark.

Let me delve into your eyes, an abyss

requesting to run around in the park,

The sight I do not want to miss-

God’s purity playing in light and dark

running around invisible circle, relentless,

stopping only to make a mark

in this indifferent cosmos, of kindness.