Dogs: Bred-, Domesticated- Kept-Dogs

There are many different types of animals on this planet that are interested in participating in what humans do, one of which is the domestic dog. In fact, this is how they started to domesticate themselves some 20,000 to 40,000 years ago: by hanging out in the vicinity of humans. Contrary to the historically pervasive story that only credits humans for their domestication process, another narrative reveals that wild wolves specifically developed the sociability and friendliness that allowed them to live close to human settlements to scavenge their leftovers (Coppinger, 2001; Hare & Woods, 2013; Meijer, 2019). The wolves learned how their negotiations with humans became mutually beneficial and thus sought closer relationships. Approaching human settlements and negotiating relationships also changed the wolves' characteristics. Bolder, friendlier, more juvenile, and playful traits such as wagging tails and shifting curiosities emerged and changed their genetic compositions. Within several generations, and due to genetic changes associated with behavioural adaptation, they also showed splotchy coats, floppy ears, and made remarkable psychological changes such as the ability to read human gestures and facial expressions (Hare & Woods, 2013). A more nuanced historical analysis of this theory on dog domestication suggests humans may have had significantly more impact on domesticating dogs through early breeding processes (Shipman, 2015). In this reading, collaborative hunting activities between humans and wolf-dogs could have altered both human and dogs' genetic traits (ibid.). Domestic dogs, in this historical narrative, are an intriguing example when it comes to how they negotiated their territories and living environments. Such mutualistic and collaborative interactions have also been identified between humans and other animals including dolphins, orcas, and certain bird species (Cantor et al., 2023; Curtis, 2023). Rather than violence, control, and domination, animals used friendliness, playfulness, and cooperation as ways to negotiate relations with humans. This chapter seeks to design multispecies futures that are inspired by these characteristics.

From simply scavenging leftovers, proto-dogs – precursors of the domesticated dog – soon started to work with humans more actively. While helping with the hunt, barking at strangers, finding people in trouble, guarding carcasses, and defending humans from predators, dogs started to become increasingly important members of human communities. During the mid-nineteenth century in Victorian England, relationships between humans and dogs further intensified as kennel clubs started to arise and modern dog breeding fully installed itself as the increasingly anthropocentric, exploitative, and eugenics-related institution that it is today. Although different types of dogs already existed long before then (and were already grouped/bred by function), kennel clubs established a narrower focus on the physical appearances and lineages of distinct dog breeds (Budiansky, 2000). This development fundamentally changed the position of the domestic dog as a valued individual member of inclusive multispecies communities, to the amplified and speciesist idea of an animal that can be grouped into categories like purebred or bastard depending on their genetic compositions and their relations to the humans who control them. Nowadays, although often labelled as companion species, most dogs, as most pets, are perhaps more accurately described as instruments of pleasure, aesthetic assets, status symbols, sources of emotional satisfaction, or toys for the many humans who claim to own them. Their friendliness and their interest in participating in human lives have brought dogs multi-faceted – and in some ways tragic – life-stories to tell.

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(From Dog Proposals, Participatory Design, Playfulness, and Multispecies Futures, by Michelle Westerlaken)