A fully framed Hungarian Vizsla in Queen Elizabeth Forest Park, Scotland. In the past, vizra dogs would partner with hunters to assist in finding and bringing back prey. PHOTOGRAPH BY TONY CLERKSON, ALAMY
Pictured here is a 1959 photograph of a Besenji in Pennsylvania, a breed that does not bark but makes a peculiar "short call." PHOTOGRAPH BY NINA LEEN, THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION, GETTY IMAGES
According to the National Geographic website, our ancestors found lively wild canines tens of thousands of years ago, and this nature continues to today's domestic dogs — especially in dog breeds used for grazing and hunting.uux.cn
Most puppies love to play, whether it's chasing a ball, tug-of-war, or tearing a squeaky toy to piece. For humans, playing with dogs often gives people a boost; science has also confirmed that dog owners laugh more often than cat owners.
So, according to a new study published Sept. 23 in the journal Biology Letters, it's less surprising that "willingness to play with humans" is likely to be a key factor in the domestication of dogs and has led to subsequent efforts to breed dogs with specific functions.
While researchers debate when, where, and how dogs were first domesticated by humans, most agree that it is likely that some ancestor of wolves began their first contact with humans.
The wolf species, which has not yet been identified, probably began wandering around human settlements in Germany or Siberia 20,000 to 40,000 years ago, picking up trash and leftovers. It is likely that there are some less fearful individuals in the wolf pack, who have lost their timid and fearful nature, and have evolved over time into happy, loved ones and loyal domestic dogs, which have warmed people's hearts and families.
In the new paper, scientists examine whether these more curious, playful wolves carried these traits with them to new breeds of domestic dogs, and whether people deliberately bred domestic dogs with these traits. For example, in previous studies, it was found that some young wolves inherently know how to play ball with people.
Evolutionary biologist Nicholas M. Niclas Kolm said: "There are dogs willing to play with us, and it is likely that the history of domestic dog domestication is very important for humans."
In fact, after analyzing the evolutionary relationships between different modern dog breeds, the team found that while some reward stimuli were needed, the dogs' recent common ancestors—an animal similar to today's African hunting dog breed Basenji—did indeed play with humans.
Com said the team also found that livestock dogs such as the Hungarian Vizilla and the Australian Shepherd are "the most playful breeds so far" and have been involved in the game fairly quickly and aggressively.
"It makes a lot of sense, and if a dog is interested in playing with you, it's much easier to train," Kom said. It is also added that livestock dogs need to establish a strong connection with the owner to play to their strengths, and regular play can strengthen such relationships.
Characteristics of puppies
Almost all mammals participate in play at a young age, often with their peers, which contributes to the development of physiological, social, and cognitive behavior, and enables them to practice skills that are critical in adulthood, such as hunting.
In addition to not playing with non-myoids very often, animals rarely play once they grow up, because they need to focus on finding territory, food, and mates.
But dogs, from humans to turtles to chickens, seem to be able to lure out the cheerful nature of many species, and these interactions are also well documented on YouTube. For hundreds of years dogs and horses have domesticated each other on farms, not only playing with each other, but also bowing to each other and other similar behaviors.
To get deeper into the roots of puppies' play, Colm and colleagues studied 132 contemporary dog breeds in the American Kennel Club record to see how human-directed play behaviors in them evolved. The researchers grouped the breeds according to different uses such as animal husbandry, hunting, guarding, companionship, work (such as pulling sleds), and sports (such as retrieving prey), and fed genetic data from different breeds into an evolutionary model in a computer that predicted which dog breeds had the characteristics of play.
Immediately after, the team typed into the model data collected from the Swedish Kennel Club and analyzed the personality and play behaviors of more than 89,000 dogs in 132 strains between 1997 and 2013. Researchers at the Swedish Dog Breeding Association assess a dog's willingness to play tug-of-war with strangers: if a dog is willing and actively involved in the game, it is judged to be a playful dog.
Although the results show that breeds of livestock and sports are the most playful, while pugs such as Pug and Papillon are the last to stay in this regard, Colm said: "The breeding direction of toy dogs is small and portable, and playing with people is not the focus for these breeds."
What surprised Com even more was that breeds like the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, which were originally bred as fighting dogs, were very playful. Coeme speculates that perhaps because they are bred to respond to human commands, naturally including invitations such as "come and play."
Old dog playing the old trick
But the most interesting thing is the African hunting dog breed, the Besenji, although it is not playful, but it is also quite playful. The Besenji is probably the oldest domestic dog breed, with historical records dating back to the 18th century. Researchers believe that according to the hunting situation with dogs depicted in the murals of the Libyan caves, dogs similar to the Beshengji dog existed at least in 6000 BC.
To this day, it is impossible to know whether the behavior of modern Beshengji dogs is similar to that of those of earlier dog breeds, but the authors of the study say that looking at the long history of the breed and the nature of play, people are more convinced of the results of this study, that is, for a long time, the direction of people's dog breeding was partially affected by the dog's "concept of play".
Gordon Gordon, a comparative behaviorist and animal game specialist at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Gordon Burghardt said, "This is a big step forward for game research."
Mark Mark, Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado-Baud. Marc Bekoff said: "[The Swedish research team] is probably right about the idea that 'it's important to be able to play with people during the early domestication of dogs.'"
Bekov, who was not involved in the study, wrote in an email: "People can directly target this trait and breed breeds that are more playful or less playful."
One of the mysteries that the study doesn't explain is that the wolves who are now gluttonous dogs have become the subject of future research on the origins of man's best canine friends.