Nova (PBS) did a report on the evolution of wolves into dogs. Based on genetic testing the transformation took place a lot more recently, about 15,000 years ago. It also started in what is today Northern China and they spread very quickly because they were so useful.
Wolves hanging around human dumps outside any settlements had a source of food they didn't have to work very hard for or risk injury. Those less prone to flee at the presence of a human tended to get the best pickings and those who fled as soon as a human appeared only got minimal scraps. The theory is that Wolves with a shorter "flight distance" were selectively reinforced by a higher survival rate, so that distance grew shorter with each generation. What is really interesting is that experiments on wild foxes indicates that selectively breeding for less aggression can transform a raw wild fox into something very like a small dog in just 4 generations. What is really a bit freaky is that by breeding for less aggression a whole host of other genetic effects show up. Color changes to lighter colors show up, the tail rises and takes on a distinct curl and in some cases even the ears changed to a typical "dog ear" with a soft tip. End result is that after 4 generations what you see only looks somewhat like a fox. They think that exact same process happened with wolves and it likely happened in less than 100 years.
I missed that show, but the new stuff on the Web shows that dogs first originated in Western Europe thousands of years before the Asiatic events, which had been presumed to be the origin.
At a remote USAF radar site in Newfoundland years ago, we sometimes fed an Arctic fox that came quite close. I was careful never to get my fingers too close, but some guys took serious chances. Something like that could well have been the origin of the dog. Also, foxes (genus
Vulpes) are less threatening to people than are wolves,
Canis lupus.
Over the centuries, wolves have freqently eaten people, even whole villages in Russia, etc. Never heard of much trouble from foxes, other than rabid animals and that grey fox that I mentioned in another topic that almost attacked me. It was certainly habituated to humans to a degree, and it didn't like people! Other foxes encountered in the same area just gave me a wide berth and I did the same for them.
The famed Beast of Gevaudan was either a wolf or a wolf- dog cross that looked wolfish. It terrorized French peasants in the 18th Century, giving rise to the tale of Little Red Riding Hood.
Some think the coyotes that killed the Canadian folk singer Taylor Mitchell were crossed with wolves. I'd buy into that more readily, but have read that wolves usually kill coyotes. Nor do I think that coyotes need wolf blood to kill people if conditions encourage them.
