Dogs presumably gained this ability over generations of domestication.
Mutual gain is another aspect of domestication.
To think of domestication as a form of enslavement or even exploitation is to misconstrue the whole relationship, to project a human idea of power onto what is, in fact, an instance of mutualism between species.
Both may play roles in the history of domestication.
There has been some better news outside the borders of domestication.
Belyaev decided to study the genetics of domestication, a problem to which Darwin gave deep attention.
"We automatically think of domestication as something we do to other species," Pollan writes.
These were acts of self-preservation but also of domestication.
Although previous studies have focused on the brain to find mechanisms underlying domestication, the potential role of the pituitary gland as a target of domestication is highly overlooked.
The geographic location for dog domestication presented here, though quite strong, is not fully compatible with earlier studies that used wolves to identify the site of domestication.
