The Domestic Dog: Its Evolution, Behaviour, and Interactions with People - Book Report/Review Example

?Although it is true that the relationship between humans and animals can be exhibited within a large array of examples, perhaps one of the best known and most obvious relations that exists is with regards to the human and animal interrelationships from domestication to present as exhibited by canines. Scholars and evolutionary theorists alike have long sought to point to a time in the fossil record where humans first began to domesticate the dog. However, contrary to what many evolutionists and archaeologists previously believed, is now largely understood that the first step towards the domestication of the dog was in fact the domestication of the human. What is meant by this is that the domestication or interrelationship between dog and human was not feasible or even possible during the time in which humans were at the very earliest stages of their evolutionary development. As such, it was only at the time in which humans had secured their own food supply, provided themselves with some semblance of adequate shelter, and could exhibit at least a superficial degree of self-sufficiency that the dog/wolf was able to be domesticated. Moreover, the book in question The Domestic Dog :Its Evolution, Behaviour, and Interactions with People highlights the way in which this relationship came to be exhibited and the means through which the behavioral patterns that continue to be extant within this interdependent relationship are manifest within the current time. In this way, the following analysis will seek to provide a chapter by chapter/section by section overview and report on the aspects of human and animal interrelationships that are exhibited within the text in question. The first section comprises three chapters the focus upon the domestication evolutionary process that dogs underwent with regards to the first history of interaction between humans and canines. As such, chapter 1 focuses upon a brief back story with regards to the domestication evolution process; denoting the fact that it was not humans that sought to domesticate dog rather the dog sought to “domesticate humans”. What is meant by this is that the dog sought out populations of humans that were self-sustaining and able to provide sustenance not only to their representative members but also in excess so that the dog might have a codependent relationship and benefit from this interaction. Chapter 2 focuses upon the means through which traditional forms of dog domestication began to take place as the human interaction between wild dog/wolf and the community sought to leverage an overall benefit by creating guard dogs, shepherds, and many other types of working dogs from these animals. Likewise, chapter 3 goes into a great deal of death with regards to how the working relationship further sought to solidify the role through which humans and dogs began to cooperate during this early domestication period. Naturally, the first section of this book focuses upon the relationship that came to be developed between human and animal and between animal and human. These relationships, as defined in the text, had a great deal to do with survival and the ability to breed and form a codependent relationship on the part of the dog as well as a desire for companionship and ownership on the part of the humans. Had this drive not existed and this initial relationship not been developed, the evolutionary nature of the way in which dogs and humans interact would likely be far different than it is today. The second section of the book focuses upon the genetic aspect of the way in which behavior and behavior problems were first denoted with regards to human and canine relationship. Chapters 4 and five focus upon the way in which genetic aspects of behavior with regards to working ability began to be modified with respect to the way in which reading was undertaken. Chapter 6, 7, and 8 focus upon the early experience of the development of positive and negative behavior and means through which interaction and the social needs of beginning community and form the way in which the dog was expected to behave/react. Naturally, this was one of the very first evidences of the way in which different breed began to be noted with regards to their function and the social expectation that a should fulfill a given role. Similarly, chapters 9, 10, and 11 deal with be affected on her personality and the means through which epidemiology and canine behavior can be understood based upon these early interactions. In short, the entirety of section 2 is upon the way in which human interaction formulated a biological response within the canine population of the world and created something of a self fulfilling prophecy with respect to how the lovely behave, what they would be expected look like, and what they would do. The key deviation from section 1 is with regards to the fact that the biological implications of the way through which environment and society impacting upon the behavior of canines is with respect to the fact that friendship, codependent, or a litany of other factors that were discussed in section 1 actually have little if any bearing with respect to the way in which canines developed during the intermediate and tertiary period. Rather, the authors indicate the fact that the main driving force was with regards to genetic mutation and the means through which different breed came to be evidenced; display a litany of different personality types based upon the needs that they were intended to fulfill. Finally, section 3, comprising chapters 12, 13, and 14, focuses upon the way in which dog and human welfare began to the understood socially, as well as evolutionary as one in the same. As such, discussing the way in which the evolutionary codependency that is previously been referenced came to the genetically and sociologically manifested with respect to the way in which humans came to understand the mutual benefits of interactions with dogs, can best be understood with regards to the way in which sociological interpretations of benefit canines are evidenced within the current era. As such, the book is able to present the reader with something of a full circle analysis (Surpell 121). Ultimately, this changes upon the fact that companionship and the need for survival was ultimately one of the primary factors that first coaxed the wild dog/wolf away from its hat into the embrace of early human society. By much the same token, the primal need for survival and the codependent of a psychologically and sociologically reinforce relationship continue to be evidenced within the current time. If the information that was presented with respect to the way in which the domesticated dog has developed was both enlightening and captivating. Rather than merely focusing upon the fact that humans must have seen some sort of tangential benefit from integrating with canine, the author is able to present anthropologically and evolutionarily sound argument that it was in fact the canine that first sought out humans as a means of providing protection from the outside world and shelter/food to secure continued existence. This is a beneficial approach due to the fact that engaging in such an understanding removes much of the false understanding that typifies many of the current understandings of how this relationship came to be exhibited. Further, the domestication of the dog, although somewhat a belabored point, must be understood as quite dissimilar to the domestication of many of the other animals that humans have come to directly interact with. By comparison, the cow was ultimately domesticated as both a reliable and steady supply of milk/dairy products, and a continual source of meat. By the same token, the purpose of domestication for the horse is quite obvious; transportation. By the same token, chickens were domesticated for the purpose of the food that they could provide; those in the form of eggs and form the actual meat itself. However, as has been denoted, dogs never offered such an immediate benefit; rather, it was the possibility of companionship and the need for survival that brought humans and canines into this co-dependent relationship that has persisted up until the current time. Perhaps the only aspect of the book that was not fully detailed and could have used a bit of further explanation was with respect to the genetic factors that have continued to keep this co-dependent relationship alive for so many tens of thousands of years. Although it was tangentially discussed that genetic factors had a large part to play in the development of evolutionary instinct and the types of behavior patterns that were exhibited within animals, a lack of discussion was provided with regards to the way in which modern science can pinpoint the evolutionary impacts of how this co-dependence is somehow imprinted upon each and every puppy that is born and how an innate trust and desire for human companionship is exhibited from generation to generation. Work Cited Serpell, James. The Domestic Dog :Its Evolution, Behaviour, and Interactions with People. Cambridge New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Print. Read More