The Dog Through the Ages

Romans distinguished among house dogs, shepherd dogs, hunting dogs, and fighting dogs. Little dogs such as Maltese, Pomeranian, or Pekingese are among the oldest of breeds, and were found in noble homes and royal palaces from the Mediterranean to the Orient. They were bathed and perfumed, they were petted and carried from room to room on silk cushions. In China, sacred little dogs lived at the Emperor's court, tended by eunuchs. Death by torture was the punishment for raising a hand against a royal dog.

Classical literature abounds with tributes to thet dog: Ulysses' faithful hound Argus who alone recognized his master when Ulysses returned home after long years of wandering; the royal dog who leaped upon his fallen master's pyre (a heap of wood upon which a corpse is burnt); the dog who recognized his master's murderer in a crowd and attacked him with such fury that the villlain confessed.

Corinth, it is recorded, was saved by watchdogs who patrolled the ramparts while their masters slept. The enemy crept in for a surprise attack, but the keen-eared dogs sprang for their throats. The dogs fought until only one remained, but he lived to rouse the garrison and save the city.

"Such fidelity of dogs in protecting what is commited to their charge, such affectionate attachment to their masters, such jealousy of strangers, such incredible acuteness of nose in following a track, such keenness in hunting - what else do they prove but that these animals were created for the use of man." So wrote Cicero 2,000 years ago. Is it any wonder that dogs are still called Fido, the Latin word for Faithful?

The dingo is said to be the oldest living race of dog. It probably entered Australia with the first men who crossed a land bridge that once linked the island-continent to Asia.

A 19th century observer reported that tribesmen in Queensland reared with their children wild dingo puppies they found in hollow trees. The keen-scented dingo was valuable on the hunt, tracking and running down game swiftly and silently. The man never struck him, caressed him. Responding to this kindly treatment, the dingo became a one-man, dog. But sometimes the call of the wild grew too strong and he would join the pack in attacks on cattle and sheep, never to return.

Perhaps you've wondered how the naked aborigines keep warm on cold desert night's. Actually, they don't sleep naked - they "wear" their dogs as cover.

How did this partnership begin? And when in the vast wilderness of the prehistoric world did man and dog make a bond that last's until this day? Man was early associated with doglike animals. But association is a long way from domestication, and farther still from friendship. Primitive man no doubt had to fight wild dogs just as he had to fight other wild animals he met. And with their strength and speed and cruel slashing teeth these wild dogs would prove no mean foes. But man had two arms, he could climb a tree, wield a club, throw a stone; he won the wild dog's grudging respect. Also they had something in common. Both man and dog were carnivorous and lived mainly by the hunt. When man made his kill, the dogs, lurking at a respectful distance, would move in to finish off parts of the carcass he did not carry off.

Again, the dogs might run down quarry too fast for man, yet too dangerous for them to kill. Man with his crude weapons would dispatch their enemy, take what he needed, and leave them a feast. Thus man and dog forged an alliance in the hunt.