How did dog become man’s best friend?

by Sunil Dharmabandhu, UK

International Dog Day was observed as National Dog Day in the US in 2004 by pet and family lifestyle expert and animal rescue advocate Colleen Paige. She chose to observe the day on August 26 as it was the date that her family adopted their first dog ‘Sheltie’ from an animal shelter home. The website of National Dog Day describes their mission as “to help galvanise the public to recognise the number of dogs that need to be rescued each year and acknowledges family dogs and dogs that work selflessly each day to save lives, keep us safe and bring comfort.” Taken in the context of the current pandemic sweeping across the world threatening the very existence of mankind, the latest weapon against COVID-19, faster than PCR and more accurate than lateral flow tests, has four legs and a wet nose. A study published recently found that people who are infected with the Coronavirus give off a distinct odour, which these highly trained dogs can detect with pinpoint precision.

Medical Detection Dogs was formed in Milton Keynes, UK in 2008. The charity trains companion dogs that can detect odour changes, in people with type 1 diabetes and other severe disorders, emitted shortly before their health deteriorates, alerting them to take action. It also researches dogs’ abilities to detect cancer, and other diseases, including Parkinson’s. When the pandemic hit it had just completed a study with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), demonstrating that dogs can detect malaria.

Specially trained sniffer dogs who can detect the scent of money are exhibiting their own brand of dogged determination in stopping criminals smuggling their ill-gotten gains out of the country airports and seaports in the UK! They are also at the forefront of detecting human cargo brought in by organised criminal gangs.

Pets As Therapy, a national charity founded in 1983, relies on its many volunteers who, along with their well-behaved dogs, make regular visits to nursing homes, hospitals, hospices, day care centres and schools.

Your dog may make you less likely to get heart disease, why? Dog owners walk more and have lower blood pressure than people who don’t have dogs. Pets can also be good for you if you already have heart problems. Heart attack survivors and people with serious abnormal heart rhythms who own dogs live longer than people with the same heart problems who don’t have pets, studies show. Petting your cat or dog feels good. It can lower your blood pressure, helps your body release a relaxation hormone, and cuts down on levels of a stress hormone. It also soothes your pet, says Alan Beck, ScD, director of the Centre for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue University in Indiana, USA. Pets, especially dogs, can help you connect with other people.”If I saw you walking down the street, I couldn’t comfortably start talking to you if I didn’t know you, but I could if you had a dog,” Beck says. “It’s an acceptable interaction that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.” People with pets are generally happier, more trusting, and less lonely than those who don’t have pets. They also visit the doctor less often for minor problems. One reason for that may be that your pet gives you a sense of belonging and meaning, “You feel like you have greater control of your life.” Babies raised in families that have pets may be less likely to get allergies and asthma, some studies show. It has to start early, ideally before a baby is six months old, says Beck. Babies with dogs or cats at home have fewer colds and ear infections during their first year than babies living in pet-free homes, one study found. Kids tend to relate better to their classmates who have autism when pets are in the classroom, Beck has found in his research. “Animals change the classroom environment and help to integrate those who are a little less typical,” Beck says. “Once the children get involved with animals, they view each other more positively and work together better.”

National Dog Day celebrates dogs of all breeds. Dogs are not only man’s best friend; they are also his oldest one. Adored by Her Majesty the Queen and millions across the world, they are our most trusted, loving companions.

Their love is unconditional. They can read your mind better than a psychiatrist. How we grieve over the loss of a pet dog even in old age, which is no different from the loss of a family member! Like human beings, dogs too have their own unique, individual personalities and character. We have cherished memories of all our previous Corgis from sporty Sox, ready to jump into even icy cold puddles in winter during walks, to Tuffy, the brave, ready to take on even a much bigger German Shepherd, to Tara, the tricoloured who thought she was connected to the Royalty in some way, to Toby, the proper gentleman pictured below in the shrine, with the casket holding his ashes after cremation, by Pet Funeral Directors, still in our bedroom! They all remain in our daily prayers and in memories along with family members who are no more.

From my own past professional experience in forensic psychiatry working for the now defunct Mental Health Act Commission visiting institutions like the maximum security, Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire, looking after patients with criminal histories, I can share with the readership that some of the inpatients had committed unbelievable atrocities to animals in their childhood through lack of remorse.

Also, many dog attacks on humans are due primarily to mankind cross breeding to produce dangerous dogs for fighting which led to The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 in UK with two main objectives: It made it a criminal offence for the owner and/or the person in charge of the dog to allow a dog to be ‘dangerously out of control’ in a public place or be in a place where it is not permitted to be. However, ironically it’s always the poor dog that pays the ultimate price being put down and the real culprit ends up with a lenient sentence and debarred from keeping a dog.

Although historians agree that dogs were the first domesticated animal, there is debate on how long ago and where the friendship began. Based on DNA evidence, most researchers believe that the furry, warm-nosed companion beside you descended from a group of gray wolves that has since become extinct. Those canny canines figured out that if they hung with early hunter-gatherers rather than going it alone, they could live off what they could scavenge from the humans.

Scientists speculate that friendship bloomed when those humans began taking in wolf pups, which led to socializing them from infancy. And since wolves instinctively operate in packs with a clear hierarchy, humans easily assumed the role of alpha wolf, establishing themselves as Those Who Must Be Obeyed. And there was a pay-off when man and tame wolf became a dynamic hunting duo. Humans’ skills and savvy combined with wolves’ speed and sense of smell turned them into complementary partners who tracked, captured and devoured prey to their mutual benefit.

Humans offered wolves a reliable food source; tame wolves provided physical warmth and acted as early warning sentries when strangers or predators approached. The animals that accepted this relationship evolved into more and more obedient companions until, many generations later, we had domesticated dogs and their feral gray wolf forbears died out.

Let’s now focus on how best to mark the day: You can celebrate International Dog Day by making a donation to shelter homes for canines. You can also volunteer with organisations that are working towards the cause of dogs. If you are planning to get a pet dog for yourself, then International Dog Day is symbolically the best day to do so. Also, when you are looking for a dog as a companion, you should ‘adopt, not shop’. You will promote breed discrimination by buying a dog and when you adopt a dog from a shelter home, another dog takes its place. So, you will actually save two lives.

This article is not complete without paying tributes for the selfless dedication by the following: Janey Lowes, British vet in Sri Lanka. The 28-year-old dog lover, hailing from County Durham, arrived on the island in 2014 on holiday, but was so moved by the three million street strays roaming the country, she decided to do something about itt-–and our friend, Geethamalee and her daughter in Sri Lanka who work tirelessly to improve the welfare of stray dogs!