It’s hard to imagine that dogs descended from fierce grey wolves—especially when your fat labrador begs for peanut butter, or your poodle snores on the couch. And yet, that’s exactly what happened.

Who said it first, no one knows. But Frederick the Great, warrior ruler and enlightened despot of 18th-century Prussia, said it well. “The only, absolute and best friend a man has, in this selfish ...

Although the domestic dog’s origin is still unclear, this lineage is believed to have been domesticated from an extinct population of gray wolves, which is expected to be more closely related to dogs ...