Why are dogs commonly thought of as man’s best friend? You likely heard that it’s because dogs have successfully cooperated with us in our endeavors for thousands of years, which is correct. They let us know that someone is by our front door. They help us track missing individuals. They play with us. They perform a variety of activities that benefit humans.
But what is a friend? A friend is a person that provides you mutual benefit on a personal level. You enjoy their company. They enjoy your company. You have their back. They have your back. They are to you what you are to them.
Likewise, the same applies to dogs, woofly speaking. We provide food and shelter for them. They lavish us with undying love and affection. This has been going on for millennia. After all, we domesticated them, and they altered us Homo sapiens.
However, you might be thinking, “They altered us?” Well yes, they did. To understand this, it is important to understand how the word “altered” is being used. Said word is being used with the concept of evolution in mind. Exactly what is evolution, again? To explain simply, evolution is the process by which a species adapts to a certain environment. It either successfully meets the demands of the environment or it ceases to exist. Evolution is a passive process driven by chance. Within a species, an organism that is better suited towards overcoming the challenges of its environment has a greater probability of passing on its genes than another less-adapted organism.
By virtue of genetic variance, some wolves certainly had a greater preposition towards being friendly than other wolves. Some wolves are dominant. Some are submissive. Some are bigger. Some are smaller. Wolves are mammals. Compared to other groups of animals, mammals are a sophisticated class of animals in terms of cognitive ability. Many of them are capable of displaying different personality traits.
The more friendly wolves had a greater chance of being allowed to live side-by-side with humans. Similarly, human clans with a greater propensity for teaming up with these prehistoric dogs increased their chance of survival.
Humans clan likely used dogs in the same ways that modern humans use dogs. The only difference would be that these dogs were less specialized than the dogs we see today. They look like wolves, because, again, they were wolves. Along with wolves, all breeds of dogs are members of the species Canis lupus. Once humans figured out that they could modify specific traits of these wolves to suit the former’s needs via breeding, wolves began to evolve into the dogs we see today.
Prehistoric tribes with cooperative wolves had an easier time foraging for food, detecting predators, and defending themselves from other tribes. The average dog’s sense of smell far surpasses that of the average human. Also, dogs could be utilized as manpower during fights between tribes. The more the merrier, especially during times of war.
Dogs benefited us in the past and continue to serve us in the present. It’s no wonder a sizable portion of the population loves dogs. Out of all pets, dogs are the most popular. There are more households with at least one dog than the amount of households with any other pet. It’s no wonder dogs are considered to be man’s best friend.
