When did people first start using dogs as pets?

Answer 1

Mitochondrial DNA evidence points to a divergence of dogs from wolves about 150,000 years ago, which could be about the same time that Homo sapiens first apppeared. There is no fossil evidence for this, however.
Other DNA evidence, with some corroboration in the fossil record puts the domestication of dogs at somewhere between 50,000 to 15,000 years ago in Asia. After that, dogs went wherever humans went, and their evolution was entwined with ours.

edit: I guess it's worth noting that the first dog-human companions were probably not quite a pet-owner relationship like we know it. Dogs were probably at first more equal partners who scavenged after humans or joined groups of humans for hunting purposes. Later, humans started using the dogs for work, and probably even later as pets. Since pets are more like dependents (since they are often unable to survive without humans) and luxury items (as having a non-working pet is a drain on one's personal resources), the use of dogs as pets, I'm guessing, came with agriculture and the switch to a forms of production that allowed for the accumulation of wealth. Mesopotamia?

Answer 2

There is an interesting theory that dogs evolved into the niche of living in human habitation rather than them being consciously used by humans for domestication. They first started living off human waste. They became less aggressive because the more aggressive ones were killed. They became more friendly looking and puppy like in behavior to please the humans which would then take better care of them. Some developed into certain niches such as terriers which became good rabbit hunters. The symbiosis of humans and dogs is fascinating.

Answer 3

Dogs and humans hv been companions since prehistoric times. Prehistoric men domesticated wolves and mainly they were used in hunting, slowly they adapted to their households and became pets as well as used for hunting....how there became so many different breeds, is the real question.

Answer 4

Fossil records show that wolf and dog remains near human cave dwellings as early as 17,000 years ago, and possibly as early as 400,000 years ago. According to the DNA tests, it shows that the wolves are the ancestors of dogs, and it is possible that humans domesticated wolves and bred them to create modern day dogs.

Answer 5

The Dingo, the "native" Australian dog, was cohabiting with Aboriginal peoples as early as around 4'000 years ago I believe...I'm not sure about else where.

Answer 6

They're very adaptive. Whether they are tamed or not, imagine if you feed them. Somehow they calm down and stick around because they realized this is where they can be fed. Soon enough, it is hard to realized that you can tame dogs. If animals are adaptive and can be doesticated, chances are we are going to try to teach them to behave and be our friends. good enough, yes?

Answer 7

after the dinosaurs died and the dogs first walked on the earth