The domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris), is a subspecies of the gray wolf (Canis lupus), a member of the Canidae family of the mammalian order Carnivora. The term "domestic dog" is generally used for both domesticated and feral varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and pet animal in human history. The word "dog" may also mean the male of a canine species, as opposed to the word "bitch" for the female of the species.
The present lineage of dogs was domesticated from gray wolves about 15,000 years ago. Though remains of domesticated dogs have been found in Siberia and Belgium from about 33,000 years ago, none of those lineages seem to have survived the Last Glacial Maximum. Although DNA testing suggests an evolutionary split between dogs and wolves around 100,000 years ago, no fossil specimens prior to 33,000 years ago are clearly morphologically domesticated dog.
Dogs' value to early human hunter-gatherers led to them quickly becoming ubiquitous across world cultures. Dogs perform many roles for people, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and military, companionship, and, more recently, aiding handicapped individuals. This impact on human society has given them the nickname "Man's Best Friend" in the Western world. In some cultures, dogs are also a source of meat. In 2001, there were estimated to be 400 million dogs in the world.
Most breeds of dogs are at most a few hundred years old, having been artificially selected for particular morphologies and behaviors by people for specific functional roles. Through this selective breeding, the dog has developed into hundreds of varied breeds, and shows more behavioral and morphological variation than any other land mammal. For example, height measured to the withers ranges from 6 inches (150 mm) in the Chihuahua to about 2.5 feet (0.76 m) in the Irish Wolfhound; color varies from white through grays (usually called "blue") to black, and browns from light (tan) to dark ("red" or "chocolate") in a wide variation of patterns; coats can be short or long, coarse-haired to wool-like, straight, curly, or smooth. It is common for most breeds to shed this coat.
Read more about Dog: Etymology and Related Terminology, Taxonomy, History and Evolution, Biology, Mythology, Gallery of Dogs in Art
Other articles related to "dog, dogs":
... and the Mice The Cock and the Jewel The Cock, the Dog and the Fox The Crow and the Pitcher The Crow and the Snake The Deer without a Heart The Dog and its Reflection The Dog and the Wolf The Dove and the Ant The ...
... Say you sue me because you say my dog bit you ... Well, now this is my defense My dog doesn't bite ... And second, in the alternative, my dog was tied up that night ...
... cocker spaniel is first and foremost an upland flushing dog ... In performing this task there are some skills the dog must be trained to perform ... To be an effective hunter the dog must comply with this command absolutely ...
... The footballer said of Triggs, "Unlike humans, dogs don't talk shit" ... Daily Telegraph's Steve Wilson once described Triggs as "the most famous dog in football since Pickles, a mongrel who dug up the stolen Jules Rimet Trophy in 1966, or that dog ... Henry Winter, writing in the same paper, called Triggs "the fittest dog in Cheshire" and opined that "if Cruft's held an endurance event, Keane and Triggs would scoop gold" ...
... Greyfriars Bobby The Most Faithful Dog in the World, the most detailed biography of Bobby to date ... in 19th century Europe there are documented over 60 'graveyard dogs', or 'cemetery dogs' ... These were stray dogs which were fed by visitors and curators to the point the dogs made the graveyards their home ...
Famous quotes containing the word dog:
“A good dog does not block the road.”
—Chinese proverb.
“The hounding of a dog pursuing a fox or other animal in the horizon may have first suggested the notes of the hunting-horn to alternate with and relieve the lungs of the dog. This natural bugle long resounded in the woods of the ancient world before the horn was invented.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
““It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognise out of a number of facts which are incidental and which are vital.... I would call your attention to the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
“The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
“That was the curious incident.””
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)