"Doggy" and "Pooch" redirect here. For other uses, see Dog (disambiguation), Doggy (disambiguation), and Pooch (disambiguation).
The dog (Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris) is a descendant of the grey wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from an extinct population of wolves during theLate Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. The dog was the first species to be domesticated by humans, over 14,000 years ago and before the development of agriculture. Due to their long association with humans, dogs have gained the ability to thrive on a starch-rich diet that would be inadequate for other canids.
