What are Working Dogs ?

Since joining forces with humanity some I2, ooo-14, ooo years ago, dogs have altered dramatically not only in physical appearance but also in the variety of uses to which they have been put. At different times and in different localities, dogs have been employed for hunting and fishing, guarding and guiding, herding, and fighting, bull and bear-baiting, drawing sledges and travois, turning spits and detecting truffles and for racing and clowning. They have also been used as a source of meat, wool and companionship, as receptacles for waste disposal, as weapons of war and as objects of religious worship.

Few of these uses would have made sense to the people who first domesticated wolves. The number of useful roles which dogs can play in societies of subsistence hunters and gatherers is fairly limited, and the newly domesticated wolves of the late Paleolithic period would have been physically and temperamentally unsuited to many of the specialized tasks that their descendants perform so skillfully. nevertheless, the life styles of wolves and Stone Age humans shared much common ground; while tame wolves are neither particularly obedient nor easily trained, they are doubtless efficient at carrying out wolfish tasks, and some of these natural abilities and habits would have been potentially useful to their human masters.


Dogs as Scavengers
Ancient Watch Dogs
Dogs as Hunting Partners
Dogs as a Food Source
The Dog as Deity
Greyfriars Bobby
Dogs as Companions