Dogs : domestication and the development of a social bond / Darcy F. Morey.

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Preamble to the dog's journey through time -- Immediate ancestry -- Evidence of dog domestication and its timing : morphological and contextual indications -- Domestication of dogs and other organisms -- The roles of dogs in past human societies -- Dogs of the Arctic, the Far North -- The burial of dogs, and what dog burials mean -- Why the social bond between dogs and people? -- Other human-like capabilities of dogs -- Roles of dogs in recent times -- Epilogue : one dog's journey.

This book traces the evolution of the dog, from its origins about 15,000 years ago up to recent times. The timing of dog domestication receives attention, with comparisons between different genetics-based models and archaeological evidence. Allometric patterns between dogs and their ancestors, wolves, shed light on the nature of the morphological changes that dogs underwent. Dog burials highlight a unifying theme of the whole book: the development of a distinctive social bond between dogs and people; the book also explores why dogs and people relate so well to each other. Though cosmopolitan in overall scope, the greatest emphasis is on the New World, with an entire chapter devoted to dogs of the arctic regions, mostly in the New World. Discussion of several distinctive modern roles of dogs underscores the social bond between dogs and people.