In Dog We Trust

The oldest known evidence of human domestication of dogs is approximately 14,000 years old. Only a jawbone with some teeth attached, it was found in the 1950's buried under the floor of a cave in the region we now call Iraq, and wasn't properly dated until 1974. In his excellent book The Intelligence of Dogs, Stanley Coren finishes the tale:

"... the importance and age of this fossil were not recognized at first. This is because the fossil was of a dog so similar to contemporary dogs that the archaeologists thought a modern dog must have wandered into the ancient cave site and died there."

It is safe to say that were you knapping your flint spear head by the fire in paleolithic times, the dog curled up next to you would be indistinguishable in appearance and behaviour from one you might meet on any street in the world.

History and myth world wide abounds with stories underlining the importance of the dog in human history. Referring once again to The Intelligence of Dogs, Stanley Coren reveals this:
"According to the Kato Indians of California, the god Nagaicho created the world. First he erected four great pillars at the corners of the sky to hold it up and to expose the earth. Then he began a casual stroll around this new world and proceeded to create the things to fill it. The myth specifies how man and woman were made of earth, how the creeks and rivers were made by Nagaicho's dragging feet, how each animal was made and placed in its proper spot in the world - each animal, that is, except the dog. Nowhere in the story is there any mention of Nagaicho, the creator, creating the dog. Rather, when Nagaicho first started on his walk, he took a dog with him: God already had a dog."