The dog is thought to have been domesticated near the end of the last Ice Age, in coordination with the development of the bow-and-arrow, a tool that improved considerably upon the old hunting method -- bludgeoning to death -- but required a helpmeet animal to chase down and finish off the wounded prey. Doggists were divided whether the animal was descended from the wolf or the jackal until acoustic studies revealed the jackal has a far more "complicated repertoire of howling" than wolf or dog, knocking him out of the running. Wolf bones have been found near hominid bones in northern China archeological sites that are 300,000 years old, suggesting a very ancient association, but the oldest bone that is determinedly dog (a mandible with teeth too small for a wolf) were found at a site in Oberkossel, Germany about 14,000 years ago. From 12,000 years ago we find (in Israel) people being buried with puppies, human arm curled around puppy neck - a very early sign of affection between the species.

Different dog breeds proliferated during the European Middle Ages when hunting became high chic, and each kind of hunt was seen as requiring a unique breed of dog, though the Europeans were not alone in this endeavor, as the Pekinese is a result of Chinese royalty breeding dogs to resemble the sacred lion of their mythology.