how did dogs
become pets?
By Karen Rice
Official Kids Mag
When you see a cute little Poodle and
a giant Great Dane, it's hard to believe
that they are part of the same species.
Even harder to believe is that all dogs are
related to wolves.
That's right, your adorable, furry
little friend's ancestors were big,
(sometimes bad) wolves!
Thousands of years ago,
humans first made friends
with wolves. At that time
all wolves were wild, and
mostly vicious.
Some believe that
people and wolves first
became friends when humans
started feeding them leftovers.
During the ice age, hunter-
gatherers may have shared
their extra food with wolves,
slowly turning them into
pets. Or, the wolves may
have scavenged food that
humans discarded. Others
think that people may have
befriended wolves because
wolves are very good hunters
and could help them hunt for
food.
Over time, wolves began living with
people and became more friendly
and gentle. Wolves in the wild live in
packs, and some of them started living
in human packs instead of wolf packs.
People encouraged the friendliest and
gentlest wolves to have babies and over
many generations, the wolves who lived
with people got friendlier and started
looking and acting less like wolves and
more like dogs. Other wolves, of course,
still stayed wild.
Some dogs still look like wolves, while
others look very different. Over time
people used something called selective
breeding to turn wild wolves into gentle
dogs, and to create dogs that were
smaller, larger, with long hair, short hair,
pointy snouts, spots, good swimmers or
whatever qualities they wanted in a dog.
Today there are more than 350 breeds
of dogs around the world. And all of
them are descendants of wolves!
In a recent study reported in www.
sciencemag.org, scientists discovered that
wild wolf pups would retrieve a tennis
ball that was thrown across the room.
So it might have been wolves' natural
playfulness that first attracted humans to
wolves and vice versa!
Something to think about the next time
you play fetch with your dog!
great dane
We want to hear
about your pet!
You and your furry, feathered
or finned friend could be
featured in a future issue of
official Kids Mag. contact us at
krice@officialkidsmag.com
poodle
www.officialKidsMag.com • august 2021 • 47
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