Domestic dogs inherited a complex social hierarchy and behaviors from their wolf ancestors. Dogs are pack animals with a complex set of behaviors related to determining each dog's position in the social hierarchy, and they exhibit various postures and other means of nonverbal communication that reveal their states of mind.[1] These sophisticated forms of social cognition and communication may account for their trainability, playfulness, and ability to fit into human households and social situations, and these attributes have earned dogs a unique relationship with humans despite being potentially dangerous apex predators.Although experts largely disagree over the details of dog domestication, it is agreed that human interaction played a significant role in shaping the subspecies.[4] Shortly after domestication, dogs became ubiquitous in human populations, and spread throughout the world. Emigrants from Siberia likely crossed the Bering Strait with dogs in their company, and some experts suggest that use of sled dogs may have been critical to the success of the waves that entered North America roughly 12,000 years ago. Dogs were an important part of life for the Athabascan population in North America, and were their only domesticated animal. Dogs also carried much of the load in the migration of the Apache and Navajo tribes 1,400 years ago. Use of dogs as pack animals in these cultures often persisted after the introduction of the horse to North America
“The most widespread form of interspecies bonding occurs between humans and dogs” [34] and the keeping of dogs as companions, particularly by elites, has a long history.[37] However pet dog populations grew significantly after WWII as suburbanization increased.[37] In the 1950s and 1960s dogs were kept outside,[38] (using the expression “in the doghouse” to describe exclusion from the group signifies the distance between the doghouse and the home) and were still primarily functional, acting as a guard, children’s playmate, or walking companion.[38] From the 1980s we have seen significant changes in the role of the pet dog, and writer John Katz describes the new work of dogs as the emotional support of their owner.[39] People and dogs have become increasingly integrated and implicated in each other’s lives,[40] to the point where pet dogs actively shape the way that family and home are experienced.[41]
There have been two major trends in the changing status of pet dogs. The first has been the ‘commodification’ of the dog, shaping it to conform to human expectations of personality and behaviour.[41] The second has been the broadening of the concept of the family and the home to include dogs-as-dogs within everyday routines and practices.
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“The most widespread form of interspecies bonding occurs between humans and dogs” [34] and the keeping of dogs as companions, particularly by elites, has a long history.[37] However pet dog populations grew significantly after WWII as suburbanization increased.[37] In the 1950s and 1960s dogs were kept outside,[38] (using the expression “in the doghouse” to describe exclusion from the group signifies the distance between the doghouse and the home) and were still primarily functional, acting as a guard, children’s playmate, or walking companion.[38] From the 1980s we have seen significant changes in the role of the pet dog, and writer John Katz describes the new work of dogs as the emotional support of their owner.[39] People and dogs have become increasingly integrated and implicated in each other’s lives,[40] to the point where pet dogs actively shape the way that family and home are experienced.[41]
There have been two major trends in the changing status of pet dogs. The first has been the ‘commodification’ of the dog, shaping it to conform to human expectations of personality and behaviour.[41] The second has been the broadening of the concept of the family and the home to include dogs-as-dogs within everyday routines and practices.
