Humans and dogs have been friends for what seems like forever. However, all relationships have to start somewhere, and this relationship is no different. From the beginnings of domestication to today, how we have adapted dogs to our needs and how dogs have adapted us to their needs is a seemingly fictional story. This couldn't be further from the truth. We call them man's best friends for a reason: we artificially created them to be our best friends, and they created the mannerisms we use today. Father-son team SJ Olsen and JW Olsen (1977) also hypothesized that dog domestication began in China. They proposed that, starting with a small subspecies of wolf, humans evolved it into the modern Chinese/Mongol subspecies of Canis lupus chanco. There is another hypothesis according to which even the Cro-Magnons could have domesticated certain breeds of dogs. A piece of a dog's right jaw was reported from a Cro-Magnon site (Nobis, 1979); the jaw dates back to 14,000 BP. No matter what the conflicting sources specifically say, we know that dogs were domesticated before 15,000 BP and that they originated in Eurasia. They actually crossed the land bridge to the Americas with us (JA Leonard, 2002), meaning they played an important role in influencing us and helping us settle in the new world. We now have a general idea of ​​when domestication began, but the next question is why? Why did we make wolves our friends? Why not chimpanzees or another kind of primate? The answer lies in several different reasons. Our old friends, even from Canis lupus, the gray wolf (the original ancestor of most modern dogs), have human qualities. Wolves are intelligent hunters and gatherers, especially the gray wolf. Unspecified...... middle of paper ... and cooperate with each other while hunting, but there is even more, such as having primarily monogamous relationships while sharing food and providing care parental to everyone (Schleidt/Shalter, 2003), a bit like a blended family in Full House. Contrary to popular belief, this is where our similar mannerisms come from, not the other way around; we learned from dogs. Think about that the next time you try to roll Fido or sit him down. Based on popular belief, you would probably think that dogs have been our companions for thousands and thousands of years. Really, the question is: are dogs our companions or are we the dogs' companions? Without a doubt, we have evolved dogs, but have dogs also evolved us? Would civilization exist without dogs? This is the question I leave you today. People and dogs, or dogs and people. The chicken and the egg.