Man’s Best Friend Has Been Domesticated Longer Than We Thought

Imagine finding a postcard from the past that both confirms your current beliefs on a subject important to you, but also expands on them tremendously.  Now that's a turbo boost of professional excitement and it's exactly what scientists are getting from cliff carvings discovered in Saudi Arabia.

The carving show early man hunting with bow and arrow and dogs, including dogs on leashes tethered to the hunter.

At an estimated 8 - 9 thousand years old, the images reveal man's working relationship with dogs to be a few thousand years older than first thought.  For an archaeozoologist at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, the discovery was mind blowing.

For the rest of us who have dogs as pets, apparently that practice is a lot older than we think, the bond with man is stronger and the friendship goes way back... way, way back!

Think of that when you buy gifts for Fido this Christmas!