DOGS AND ALL ABOUT THEM 



CHAPTER I 

 GENERAL HISTORY OF THE DOG 



THERE is no incongruity in the idea that in the very earliest 

 period of man's habitation of this world he made a friend 

 and companion of some sort of aboriginal representative 

 of our modern dog, and that in return for its aid in protecting 

 him from wilder animals, and in guarding his sheep and 

 goats, he gave it a share of his food, a corner in his dwelling, 

 and grew to trust it and care for it. Probably the animal 

 was originally little else than an unusually gentle jackal, 

 or an ailing wolf driven by its companions from the wild 

 marauding pack to seek shelter in alien surroundings. One 

 can well conceive the possibility of the partnership beginning 

 in the circumstance of some helpless whelps being brought 

 home by the early hunters to be tended and reared by the 

 women and children. The present-day savage of New Guinea 

 and mid-Africa does not, as a rule, take the trouble to tame 

 and train an adult wild animal for his own purposes, and primi- 

 tive man was surely equally indifferent to the questionable 

 advantage of harbouring a dangerous guest. But a litter 

 of woolly whelps introduced into the home as playthings 

 for the children would grow to regard themselves, and be 

 regarded, as members of the family, and it would soon be 

 found that the hunting instincts of the maturing animal 

 were of value to his captors. The savage master, treading 

 the primeval forests in search of food, would not fail to recog- 

 nise the helpfulness of a keener nose and sharper eyes even 

 than his own unsullied senses, while the dog in his turn would 

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