On the Origin of Breeds: How were over 400 breeds created?
The Evolution of Dogs: From Wolves to Companions
Let’s go in our way-back machine somewhere on the order of 50,000 years ago. We would see prehistoric humans and packs of wolves each living on the Asian continent. Slowly over time, individual wolves became less fearful and started to work with humans. We will never know exactly how it happened, but humans and wolves eventually built a working relationship.
Over a relatively short amount of time evolutionarily speaking, tens of thousands of years rather than hundreds of thousands or even millions of years as for other species, a few wolves adapted to humans and evolved into dogs. These new dogs had developed particular characteristics that helped them fit into and become valuable members of their new human pack. Dogs were likely involved in hunting game for food and protecting the camp sites from predators. In return, the dogs received better access to resources like food and shelter. As the relationships between these fledgling dogs and their humans developed, the dog became the first species that humans domesticated, and we have been working and evolving together ever since!
The Role of Dogs in Early Human Life
Research has shown that as people migrated from Asia into Europe or into the Americas across the Bering Land Bridge, they brought their dogs (Ollivier et al., 2018; Perri et al., 2021). Clearly humans considered dogs valuable enough to share their scare resources to keep them around.
Diversification of Dog Types and Behavioral Temperaments
Fast forward to about 10,000 years ago when humans evolved from a rather mobile hunter-gather lifestyle to a more settled, agrarian one. Humans then selected for different features in their canine companions. In addition to the hunting dog that was built for speed a second larger, guarding-type dog was developed. Along with different job descriptions, both likely exhibited very different behavioral temperaments (Sykes, 2019).
Over the next few thousand years, there was additional diversification in dog types to include herding, sporting, and even dogs whose main purpose was companionship rather than work. But it was really in the last 200 years when the concept of a pedigree and purebred dog really took hold starting in England.
The History of Purebred Dogs and Dog Shows
It was in England, where the middle class began showing their poultry, livestock, and eventually dogs in shows to demonstrate their breeding and farming prowess. To properly compete against each other, there had to be specific breeds with particular characteristics, or “standards”, by which to be judged. The first formal dog show was held in Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1859 with 60 sporting type dogs and it grew from there to shows with over a thousand dogs entered within a few years. Purebred dogs were all the rage in Victorian England and in 1873, the Kennel Club was the first established club to track dogs and their pedigrees. Breeders began developing new breeds by selecting dogs that could impart specific, recognizable physical and behavioral traits that could meet a need – for example, short-legged Dachshunds that could chase prey into burrows – or breeder preferences such as the smaller stature and shorter face of the King Charles Spaniel. As a result, we saw an explosion in the number of distinct breeds. Even today, we continue to see new breeds developed and introduced like the Biewer Terrier, a tricolored (black, tan, and white) off-shoot of the Yorkshire Terrier that was developed in Germany in the 1980s and was fully recognized by the American Kennel Club in 2021.
Dogs Today: An Evolutionary Success Story
There are now more than 400 breeds recognized by kennel clubs around the world. They represent the most diverse land mammal species on the planet with a 100-fold size difference, from the 2 pound Chihuahua to the 200 pound Great Dane. Each breed has its own standard defining its desired traits and a legion of fans that are devoted to preserving their dogs and the breed.
Beginning with a few wolves that evolved into dogs, there are now nearly 500 million pet dogs worldwide. I would call that an evolutionary success!
References
Ollivier M, Tresset A, Frantz LA, et al. (2018) Dogs accompanied humans during the Neolithic expansion into Europe. Biol Lett. 14:20180286. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0286
Perri AR, Feuerborn TR, Frantz LA, et al. (2021) Dog domestication and the dual dispersal of people and dogs into the Americas. PNAS. 118:e2010083118. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2010083118
Sykes B. (2019) Once a wolf: The science behind our dogs’ astonishing genetic evolution. New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation. Pgs 89-90.