Quotes from Raymond Coppinger

More importantly, modern dogs simply don't behave like modern wolves. Popular dog "experts" like Cesar Millan may tell you that a good dog owner needs to play the role of the alpha wolf, the dominant pack leader. But the fact is that dogs don't live in hierarchically organized packs. Indeed it's doubtful that most wolves live this way.

But without people, the village dog and pampered pet alike would soon disappear—dogs would become extinct.

Some of the service-dog organizations raising animals for the disabled, for example, will start five hundred to a thousand well-bred puppies a year—only to have less than 50 percent achieve an appropriate level of working ability.

Thus the behavioral ecologist wants to measure four major costs for any animal or species: the costs of design, foraging, reproduction, and hazard avoidance.

The reason the earth can support a population of 850 million "village dogs" is because human beings have—inadvertently—provided them with a niche. This