142 ] Animal Friends and Helpers 



We can clearly trace some of the modern dog's outstanding 

 traits to its wild ancestors. When a dog gives chase, he usually 

 barks a throwback to the wild pack that barked or bayed to 

 keep together while hunting. Similarly, the modern dog's habit 

 of turning around a number of times before lying down makes 

 no sense to us, but he owes this characteristic to his distant ances- 

 torsit was the way they made themselves a comfortable place 

 for lying down in brush, grass, or reeds. Your dog gains nothing 

 by such actions in a modern home, but he repeats them instinc- 

 tively just the same. Sometimes when a dog is gazing at the moon 

 or when he hears music he will emit a series of mournful howls. 

 This too may be a reversion to the past to the time when the 

 "pack" was called together, perhaps to hunt by moonlight. 



How MAN TAMED THE DOG 



The friendly association of human beings and dogs goes 

 back through countless ages. It must have started in some such 

 way as this: In the course of their hunting excursions the early 

 cave dwellers found litters of puppies and brought back the 

 appealing creatures to their primitive homes. The puppies did 

 not grow up wild like their parents for they were fed and shel- 

 tered by people, and in return defended their cave from enemies. 

 The cave was their home, the humans were their masters. 



Primitive man could not fail to appreciate the dog's keen 

 senses of smell and sight: He could take the animal on hunting 

 trips to uncover game where he himself might not suspect it 

 existed. 



As the centuries passed, men gradually changed their way of 

 living. A crude cave was no longer a good home, and hunting was 

 no longer the only means of supplying food for the family. Yet 

 the desire to keep a dog in the household did not change. All 

 over the world they had become established as friends and help- 

 ers, and were bred for all sorts of special purposes. 



The ancient Greeks bred dogs small enough to sit comfortably 

 in ladies' laps with a view to keeping the owner's stomach warm! 



In England there was a need for quite a different kind of dog. 

 Almost a thousand years ago a breed was developed there with a 

 retreating nose, an undershot jaw, and menacing teeth. It was 



