How things go nuts. [Jennifer Michael Hecht]

There is a theory about dogs, about how at some point some wolves who were more mellow figured they’d hang by the dump and eat what humans left over, and very quickly, in one generation, it bred out the wolf traits of killing for food.  And this had, previously, been the wolf’s whole gig.  This so severely disrupted the DNA that everything else fell drastically out of whack, and resulted in mutations from the Dachshund to the Terrier to the Great Dane and Saint Bernard.   None of which look like the same animal as a wolf. 

I like to image this in a sudden bloom of dog families in which each member looks like a different species.  It must have been a ruff time to be a dog. It must have been a weird thing for man and dog to go through this.  Maybe owning dogs changed us too?   There is a mechanism, if people who could get along with dogs were much fitter, that would do it.

Comments

[Stacey]

Owning dogs definitely changes us!! Do you have one? Sometimes I think we pick dogs the way we pick mates. . . I wonder. Did you think of this post b/c of Bo in the White House? It's a big mistake to give a do a name that rhymes with "no" by the way, something I learned by experience. You get a very confused animal.

[Laura Orem]

I don't own my dogs - they own me. It's okay, though - b/c they think I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread. (Very therapeutic after a day of teaching.)

Dogs are very discreet. One of my dogs used to belong to the assistant director of the Bennington Writing Seminars, and he knows all the complete scoop on all the writers who taught there (including DL!), but he won't say a word. It's very aggravating.

As for Bo Obama - they could say "Stop" or "Drop it" instead of No. Although that's hard to do. He's adorable, though, and, as I read somewhere, "black and white just like our President." Porties are great dogs, but energetic. I hope there isn't a run on them by people who don't realize what a commitment they are and just want a dog like the President's - fortunately they are VERY expensive.