An ancient team that still works today
Story by Glenn Savage Illustration by Dan Burr

Let me tell you a story about how dogs and humans became such good friends. The story is fictional, but based on actual evidence found by anthropologists and their educated guesses. Anthropology is the science of human beings, especially the study of our ancestors in relation to our environment and societies:

It was the worst drought any human or wild dog could remember. There was no grass or wildlife anywhere. The ancient dog pack was desperate for food as they roamed the night far beyond their usual range looking for anything edible.

Then, the pack detected a wonderful aroma in the air and quickly turned into the wind to follow it to the source. Soon, they stopped in their tracks. There, before them was a big fire leaping into the air, crackling and snapping. The pack would normally run from fire because of the danger, but this fire was different.

The pack detected an alarming odor they usually ran from — the smell of humans!

The pack always avoided humans because they are predators like themselves. But this time, the white-muzzled pack leader was overcome by hunger and the smell of roasted meat and closed in on the human camp. As the pack members lay on their bellies and drooled, the pack leader laid back his ears and began to slowly crawl toward the humans and their fire.

In the grass, the pack leader sensed food and snapped up a bone, swallowing it whole. How delicious! Then, one of the humans spotted him and tossed more bones his way.

After a while, the pack leader crawled back to the pack and led them away from the human encampment. Once they were at a safe distance, the pack nuzzled and licked the leader’s greasy face. They whined with hunger and even growled at each other for the privilege of licking their leader’s face.

The next night, the pack returned to where their leader had found the human food. This time, the pack leader’s mate followed him to the camp where they ate more scraps left on the ground. Each night thereafter more of the pack joined in the feast until the whole pack was secretly feasting on the human’s discarded bones and scraps.

When the humans had snared and trapped all the unwary animals in the area, they moved on to another place where they trapped turtles and fish and collected freshwater clams. Of course they threw out the bones, shells and, best of all, the spoiled food humans couldn’t eat. And this time, the humans had company — the hungry pack had followed them knowing they would find an easy meal of scraps!

Eventually, the wild dogs and humans became more and more comfortable around each other. The humans liked the dogs around because they kept their camp clean and barked when dangerous predators were around, such as giant short-faced bears and saber-tooth tigers. The dogs liked the humans because of the easy meals, especially during hard times.

It took many years, but eventually humans and dogs teamed up more and more and even began living together. Each helped the other to prosper. Humans now had keen hunting partners who could track game with their superior sense of smell, faster running speed and deadly teeth and claws.

Dogs had a partner who could find and catch game in the worst of times. The humans could catch food from under the ground or under the water with equal ease and then would throw the scraps to their new dog friends.

Today, our special partnership with dogs continues. For many members of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, dogs remain our hunting partners like those first dogs and humans from many thousands of years ago.