Dog And The Child

The domestic dog was originally classified as Canis familiaris and Canis familiarus domesticus by Carolus Linnaeus in 1758, and was reclassified in 1993 as Canis lupus familiaris, a subspecies the gray wolf Canis lupus, by the Smithsonian Institution and the American Society Mammalogists. Overwhelming evidence from behavior, vocalizations, morphology, and molecular biology led to the contemporary scientific understanding that a single species, the gray wolf, is the common ancestor for all breeds domestic dogs; however, the timeframe and mechanisms by which dogs diverged are controversial. Canis lupus familiaris is listed as the name for the taxon that is broadly used in the scientific community and recommended by ITIS, however Canis familiaris is a recognised synomym.
Domestic dogs inherited a complex social hierarchy and behaviors from their wolf ancestors. Dogs are pack hunters with a complex set behaviors related to determining each dog's position in the social hierarchy, and they exhibit various postures and other means nonverbal communication that reveal their states mind. These sophisticated forms social cognition and communication may account for their trainability, playfulness, and ability to fit into human households and social situations, and these attributes have earned dogs a unique relationship with humans despite being potentially dangerous apex predators.