Anthropology and Domestication of Canines Question?

Question

Is it possible that the primary (that which gives berth to all others) reason for the domestication of dogs is their use to early humanity as guinea pigs in testing the poisonousness of potential food sources (e.g. fruit, vegetable, mushroom) thus aiding in selection for basic food cultivars?

Answer 1

Not likely.  They are not even sensitive to the same foods.  Grapes and chocolate will kill dogs.  It would be hard to make a dog eat some strange plant or mushroom and it would be even harder to tell if something made it sick.  It may have been done on occasion but I don't see that happening much compared to dogs value as a guard dog or hunting dog.

Answer 2

Humans, due to their poor sense of smell & hearing probably used the 1st semi domesticated wolves to guard the camp & aid in hunting.  The dog is but a domesticated gray wolf, for all the selection they have undergone the last ~50,000 years. Anthropologists have determined dogs were domesticated 12 to 14,000 yrs ago, while biologists put the date as far back as 100,000 yrs ago.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/da...

It appears as if wolves were domesticated in 5 differing locations... the 1st probably being in Asia.

http://www.idir.net/~wolf2dog/wayne1.htm

The gray wolf is in fact a wild dog or the dog is a tamed wolf.

http://www.nwcreation.net/dogsandwolves....