TEETH

An adult dog has 42 teeth, including four stabbing, canine or ''dog'' teeth and four molar teeth called carnassials that are designed to shear through tough flesh.

pack instinct

Unlike more specialized carnivores, such as cats, which tend to hunt alone, most Candis hunt in packs. pack members also have a strong instinct to guard pack territory. such instincts helped domestication, as canids readily adopted a human family as their ''pack''.

domestication

Dogs were first domesticated from wolves over 10,000 years ago in the middle east and accompanied people across the world. contact between humans and dogs may have evolved as wolves scavenged around human settlements. the dog's great potential as a guard and hunting companion was soon realized.

pharaoh hound

This oldest-record breed graces the tombs of ancient Egyptian pharaohs. it was probably a descendant of the Phoenician hound-the Phoenicians traded dogs throughout the Mediterranean.

Evolution

about 50 million years ago, in the Eocene epoch, miacis, a small, weasel-like mammal with a well-developed brain, was the forefather of all canids, as well as more distantly related carnivores

what is a dog?

The domestic dog, called canis familiaris in latin (from the word canis meaning dog), is one of 35 existing species of canids-meat-eating animals that evolved for the pursuit of prey across open grassland. The dog family ranges from the tiny fennec fox to the large gray wolf.