Wolf prints and skeletal remains as much as 40,000 years old have been discovered in territories occupied by humans in Europe, though the use of dogs by Homo sapiens has not been validated by prehistoric cave drawings.
At that time in history, humans had not yet settled into a sedentary existence. They followed the animal that they hunted for food. Climatic changes (end of an ice age and sudden atmospheric warming) that took place approximately 10,000 years ago between the Holocene and Pleistocene Epochs changed the landscape; forests replaced tundra, and as a result, mammoths and bison became rare as deer and boar flourished. When the game they hunted became smaller, humans developed new weapons and hunting techniques. Suddenly, man was competing with wolves for the same food and using the same "pack" hunting methods using "beaters".
It is only natural that early humans felt the need to find a way to use the wolf for hunting. For the first time, they attempted to tame an animal, long before humans had settled into a sedentary life style and began raising livestock.
Therefore, primitive dogs were without a doubt hunting dogs, not herders.
Taming of the Wolf and Domestication
Wolves were domesticated when humans passed from "predation" to "production". A few individual wolves would have been tamed in early attempts. Each time a tamed wolf died, work had to begin again to tame another; but this early work marked a first, vital step toward domesticating a species. The second step was controlled breeding.
Domestication of wolves probably began in several locations in Asia. It did not happen overnight based on the number of domestication centers discovered at archeological sites.
Several attempts were made around the world with young wolf pups from various groups. These pups irreversibly imprinted to man during their first months of life. When they rejected their wild relatives, domestication was successful. The fact that wolf pups naturally submit to the hierarchical rules of the pack undoubtedly made domestication easier. Though, occasionally, some domesticated bitches were impregnated by wild wolves, the pups were raised in proximity with humans, and therefore were far less likely to return to the wild.
From the Wolf to the Dog
As is always the case with any animal, the domestication of wolves led to several morphological and behavioral changes, following the evolution of humans. By studying skeletal remains, scientists have found there was a juvenile regression, called pedomorphosis, as if over the generations, the adult animals retained certain immature characteristics and behaviors, including decreased size, shortened nose bridge, deepened stop, barking, whining, playful disposition, etc. This led some archeozoologists to believe that the dog is still undergoing speciation, that it has become stuck at adolescence and must depend on humans for survival.
Paradoxically, the phenomenon is accompanied by a shortening of the growth stage, meaning puppies reach puberty early, and therefore, are capable of reproducing at an early age. This explains why small breeds reach puberty earlier than large breeds, and why all domestic dogs reach puberty earlier than wolves, which do not mature sexually until approximately two years of age. In addition, the teeth of domestic dogs have adapted to an omnivorous diet rather than a primarily carnivorous diet, since domestic dogs could make do with table scraps rather than hunting for survival.
This type of degeneration as a result of domestication is seen in most species. Other examples are the pig (shortening of the snout) and foxes, which can take on puppylike behavior after only twenty generations of breeding. So it seems that domestication modifies natural evolution (unless humans are considered an integral part of nature's equation) and becomes a new method of selection.
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