The Wolf in Your Living Room
I saw a wonderful programme last night with Martin Clunes, a big dog lover, tracing back the dog ancestry to its roots in the wild. He made a lovely statement that no matter how much you dressed it up if you had a dog you were sharing your home with a wolf! As I sat curled up on the sofa with Tashi, a cuddly teddy bear of a shih tzu and Harvey, a much more imposing figure of a large basset hound, I was intrigued by the show immediately. Where did these cute and funny characters originate from?
Clunes went on to say that genetically dogs are still 99 percent wolf and went off to Pennsylvania to track down a real wolf and see if he could see any similarities between our now domesticated and genetically modified pets and the wild wolf. The only difference seemed to be their shyness towards humans but they still had the ability to welcome humans into the pack as long as they understood your role.
The first domesticated dog is believed to have been the dingo and Clunes travelled to Australia to see the wild dingos in their natural habitat and living alongside the Aborigines who revere the dingo as a sacred creature. Dogs had begun their partnership with humans to keep warm, safe and have access to food and shelter. So the question that was left open was did we choose dogs or did they choose us and who had most to benefit from the relationship. The series continues on ITV next Sunday at 9.00pm.
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August 26th, 2008 at 10:26 am
I also saw the programme and thought it was great. For anyone who missed it though, take a look at Martin Clunes