Dogs but not wolves?

Question

How come we domesticated dogs but not wolves? Just curious.

Answer 1

Wolves are the ancestors of domesticated dogs. It's not known whether dogs followed bands of humans to feed off their refuse or whether humans adopted wolf pups to raise as protectors and companions -- but however it began the human-dog partnership has been going on for over 12,000 years.

Despite 12,000 years of human selection today's domesticated dog is genetically nearly identical to the modern wolf.

Check out this wonderful story in National Geographic.

Answer 2

We did domesticate wolves - dogs are their direct descendants. When we originally domesticated wolves, thousands of years ago, they were the same animal we see in the wild today. Over thousands of generations of selective breeding - that is, choosing which individuals breed with which on the basis of which characteristics you wish to produce in the offspring - we altered their appearance and behaviour, gradually transforming them into all the hundreds of different dog breeds we have today.

Answer 3

Dogs are descendants of domesticated wolves.  Therefore, wolves were domesticated and dogs are the result of that.  In some respects even adult dog are wolves that retain typically juvenile characteristics.

Answer 4

Dogs like Huskies are a sort of domesticated wolf/dog crossbreed that has been solidified over the centuries.

You may as well ask "Why have we domesticated house cats, but not lynxes?"

Answer 5

Dogs are essentially domesticated wolves - bred for thousands of years to be friendly, docile and happy to see you when you come home from work.

Other than that, they're pretty much the same critter.

Answer 6

We did domesticate wolves. The ones that stayed wild didn't change much, but the ones man tampered with evolved radically.