Dogs are now a variety of wolf.
Canis lupus arctos. Published by the Smithsonian Institution in association with the American Society of Mammalogists, this reference book is the final authority of the scientific community on mammal classification. It has long been known that dogs were domesticated from wolves, and many scientists considered the dog a variety of wolf. For a while, some zoologists thought dogs might have arisen from jackals, but that idea has been discredited, especially by new molecular genetic analysis. No doubt these considerations led to this new classification and to the sudden realization by millions of people around the world that they are packmates to the wolves fetching their slippers.