Ever wondered about your dog's ancestry? Here it is in a nutshell...

The dog is a truly remarkable creature. Worldwide today, there are an estimated 400 pure breeds to choose from, taking in every shape and size. No other species can come close to such diversity.

Yet despite so much variation, all domestic dogs are part of the same family, Canis familiaris, proven by DNA analysis to be descendants of Canis lupus, the wolf.

The wolf's ability to adapt to different environments and to cooperate socially led to success in the wild. For the same reasons, it was also well-prepared for adapting to a domestic life. In fact, it is the domesticated wolf that has proved most resilient. Today, there are more than 400 million dogs around the world, compared with only an estimated 40,000 wolves left in the wild.

It's been a very long time since your cocker spaniel's forebears roamed the forests. But although it may not be that obvious, our dogs retain many of the behavioural characteristics of the young wolf - playfulness, an urge to explore, and a willingness to be submissive to a parent or leader figure.

The ability of the wolf to vary its social structure from living alone to living in pairs or in large packs, its excellent communication abilities and its need to develop stable communal relationships have also been passed on to the dog.
 
Behaviourally, the dog is a bit like a wolf that has never grown up - a permanent 11-year-old in human terms, with a special talent in each breed for running, guarding, herding and so on.

Dogs have had a special bond with humans for over 12,000 years. We befriended each other when wolves were foraging around our Mesolithic camps for food, and our own ancestors quickly discovered that wolves could help them track and hunt animals.

The wolves that were most tolerant of people thrived. Once a village had a resident population, humans recognised that young wolves could be socialised and put to useful purposes. We began by selecting them for their friendliness and then to breed them for physical and behavioural characteristics.

We bred our domesticated wolf specifically to enhance useful behaviours. The wild wolf remains the best general all-rounder, but some breeds of dog have evolved to the extent that they are now far better at certain things than their ancestor. So the bloodhound can track a scent better, a German shepherd guards better, a greyhound is faster, terriers are more tenacious, and the cavalier King Charles spaniel fits much better on your lap than a timber wolf ever can!

By 7000BC, breeding was widespread. The first recognised  dog 'breed' probably resembled a swift, lanky greyhound, developed for its speed in hunting. As time went on, humans bred more specialised skills, such as 'sighthounds' and 'scenthounds'. Shapes and sizes evolved accordingly - shorter muzzles, shorter legs and acute hearing and sight.

So much breeding went on that by the time of the Roman Empire, most of today's general breed types were already identifiable.