This lesson introduces students to the process of dog domestication, from wild wolves to modern-day Cocker Spaniels and other familiar breeds. Students will act out two scenarios to see how dogs may have become domesticated, research dog breeds on the Internet, and write essays tracing a dog breed's evolution from its wolf origins.

Geography, life sciences

Standard 8: "The characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems on Earth's surface"

Four hours

• Computer with Internet access
• Blank Xpeditions outline maps of the world

Students will

• take an online quiz about wolves and dogs, and discuss their answers;
• act out two scenarios to illustrate the possible ways that dogs were domesticated;
• look up dog breeds at a Web site, and label their locations of origin on a world map;
• list the ways people have used these dog breeds and the characteristics that have helped the breeds adapt to human expectations and to their geographic locations; and
• write essays tracing a dog breed's evolution from its wolf origins.

Show students this cover of the January 2002 issue of National Geographic Magazine. Ask them to describe the similarities they think exist between this wolf and Maltese. What other dog breeds more closely resemble wolves? Explain that, although many dog breeds look little like wolves, they are all very closely related.

Have students take the online Wolves and Dogs: Fact and Fiction quiz. After they have taken this quiz, ask them to answer these questions in writing or in a class discussion:

• What is the relationship between dogs and wolves?
• Approximately how long ago were dogs domesticated?
• Question number five states that there are many dog breeds "because dogs have undergone a number of changes due to natural selection—and have also changed drastically through artificial selection for hair color, size, and temperament." What does this mean? What is the difference between natural and artificial selection?

Ask students to brainstorm how they think the initial domestication process (from wolves to the first domestic dogs) might have occurred. How could people tens of thousands of years ago have gotten wolves to "obey" or to share their homes with them?

Have students read the first paragraph of National Geographic Magazine's Wolf to Woof: The Evolution of Dogs, which describes these possible scenarios by which dogs became domesticated:

• Scenario 1: "Humans adopted wolf pups and natural selection favored those less aggressive and better at begging for food."
  
  
• Scenario 2: "Dogs domesticated themselves by adapting to a new niche—human refuse dumps. Scavenging canids that were less likely to flee from people survived in this niche, and succeeding generations became increasingly tame."

Have a class discussion and ask students which scenario they think is more likely and why.

Give each student a blank world outline map. Have students form small groups and look up the following dog breeds at the Dog Breed Info Center and the American Kennel Club:

• Alaskan Malamute
• Labrador Retriever
• Lhasa Apso
• Miniature Poodle
• Newfoundland
• Otterhound
• Rhodesian Ridgeback
• Saluki
• St. Bernard
• Yorkshire Terrier

As they read about each breed, have students:

• label their outline maps with the locations where each breed originated;
• list these breeds'' "duties" (What did/do people use them for?); and
• list characteristics that helped these breeds succeed in their geographical locations and in their duties.

Discuss students' findings as a class. What are some of the reasons people have bred certain types of dogs? Are there negative consequences to breeding dogs for very specific traits?

Ask each student to choose one dog breed. Have them write essays entitled "From Wolf to Woof" (the same title as the January 2002 National Geographic Magazine article). Students' essays should trace the dog breeds they have chosen from wolf to the present day. They should include information about

• the relationship between dogs and wolves;
• how dogs may have originally been domesticated;
• the location(s) where the breed originated;
• the reasons people bred this type of dog;
• how people originally used this type of dog; and
• how people use this type of dog today.

Have students research the origins and characteristics of a controversial dog breed such as the wolf hybrid or the American pit bull. Ask them to create visual or oral presentations to inform the public of this breed's history, its similarities to and differences from the wolf, and the pros and cons of keeping it as a pet.

Dog Breed Information and Breeder Listing
National Geographic: Geoguide—Wolves
National Geographic: Wolf to Woof—The Evolution of Dogs
PBS: Wild Wolves