For other uses, see Dog (disambiguation).

Domestic dog Temporal range: 0.015–0 Ma

PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N

↓ Pleistocene – Recent

Yellow Labrador Retriever, the most registered breed of 2009 with the AKC More images of dogs.

Conservation status

Domesticated

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Carnivora

Family: Canidae

Genus: Canis

Species: C. lupus

Subspecies: C. l. familiaris[1]

Trinomial name

Canis lupus familiaris[2]

Synonyms

Species synonymy[show]

The domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris),[2][3] is a subspecies of the gray wolf (Canis lupus), a member of the Canidae family of the mammalian order Carnivora. The term "domestic dog" is generally used for both domesticated and feral varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and pet animal in human history. The word "dog" may also mean the male of a canine species,[4] as opposed to the word "bitch" for the female of the species. The present lineage of dogs was domesticated from gray wolves about 15,000 years ago.[5] Though remains of domesticated dogs have been found in Siberia and Belgium from about 33,000 years ago, none of those lineages seem to have survived the Last Glacial Maximum. Although DNA testing suggests an evolutionary split between dogs and wolves around 100,000 years ago, no specimens prior to 33,000 years ago are clearly morphologically domesticated dog.[6][7][8] Dogs' value to early human hunter-gatherers led to them quickly becoming ubiquitous across world cultures. Dogs perform many roles for people, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting