I consider it a matter of mutual respect. Early humans and dogs are both pack hunters and likely stalked the same prey.

I figure dogs were pretty impressed with our take-downs and were glad to share the spoils, and vice versa. Throw in a warm fire and you got yourself a friend.

Of course, they were wolves at the time. It must have been quite an interesting relationship.

It was and still is possible to domesticate wolves. They are harder to train but it is perfectly possible [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolves_as_pets_and_working_ani...

domesticating dogs refers to multigenerational breeding and selecting for genetic traits.

in the sense of domesticating meaning training, I wouldn't call what you can do with a wolf "perfect". Don't leave the baby alone with them.

I guess people sometimes say “domesticate” when they mean “tame”.

yeah, but we are in a thread talking about our ancestors domesticating dogs originally

True, I should have said "taming" but my comment was a reply to "It must have been quite an interesting relationship", so it is still relevant.

I like to think humans stole the pups or took the abandoned ones.

Saw this [0] on HN a couple months ago, which could hint at how it started.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28272893

It’s lucky that our ancestors selectively bred them so that we get to benefit from them today.

It's lucky that there were innate characteristics in dogs' ancestral species, which allowed for their domestication.

Tail-wagging in juvenile wolves and foxes was selected for in adult dogs. Their acutely sensitive hearing and olfactory sense complements our eyes etc.