The first dog domesticated by man was a wolf. It is possible to date its appearance in most parts of the world to about twelve thousand years ago. The remains found in the Beaverhead Mountains of Idaho and those found in Europe, Asia, and pre-Columbian America all belong to the same epoch. The friendship between man and dog is one of the oldest and most lasting in history. Human beings and wolves reached such a quick accord because they have the same social organization and, on the whole, the same instinctive mental structure.
Wolves live in couples and the whole pack cooperates under a single leader in the hunt.
If the prey travels in groups, there is also a wolf whose Job It is to isolate the victim. The leader of the pack feeds first. When his hunger is satisfied, the rest of the pack is allowed to finish the banquet. It is probable that men who lived in more or less settled family groups threw the bones and scraps of their meals to the hungry animals that prowled around the villages. They sensed his superiority in hunting and began treating him as a leader, following him at a distance during the hunt and returning with him to the villages to get their share of the spoils.