From Wolves to Wall Art: The Incredible Story of Dogs

Debra Palmen
May 14
4 min read

Every second of every day, somewhere in the world, a puppy is born. Awww, puppies.

But stop cooing and do the math – that’s 86,400 puppies. Every day. That’s 315,360,000 puppies every year. By anyone’s standards that’s a lot of puppies. Awww, puppies.

You might think most grow up in third world countries, where unrestricted breeding leads to many neglected strays. That happens, to the terrible detriment of those animals. But the world’s largest dog population is actually in America, with France not far behind. In Australia, 39% of households own a dog, and 24% of all British households.

Today the World Canine Organisation recognizes 340 breeds of dog. This species is more diverse in shape, size, and variety than any other mammal on Earth. But all of them originated from the same source. The eeniest weeniest Chihuahuas, solid St Bernards, low-slung Corgies and Dachshunds, leggy Great Danes, and enormous Mastiffs, all claim the wolf as their direct ancestor.

Even as recently as 2016, conflicting research papers disputed where and when wolves were first domesticated. The one thing everyone agrees is that all breeds of dog are descended from wild ancestral wolves and were the first domesticated animal.

Over time, the human-canine relationship has grown ever-closer. Dogs have a far greater range of barks compared to wolves, and many experts believe they evolved this “vocabulary” to better communicate with humans.

That’s not as far-fetched as you might think. Studies have shown your average dog is as smart as a two-year-old child, and can learn up to 250 different words and the same number of gestures. Dogs are better than any other animal at recognizing humans’ physical gestures.

What about interpreting emotion? Humans and dogs are the only species who seek visual clues from another’s eyes, and dogs only display this capacity with humans. They’ve learned to read human faces effectively, particularly “their” humans.

In fact, dogs apparently place great emphasis on eye contact with their humans. Unintentionally hilarious tests by the Budapest Family Dog Project involved owners instructing their dogs to not take a desirable treat from a plate.

While the owners were looking, all dogs obeyed. But when owners gave the instruction and then closed their eyes, every single dog immediately took the treat, with the owner sitting right there. As soon as you’re not looking the instruction doesn’t count, especially when yummy food is involved. Sound familiar, dog owners?

When considering real-life famous dogs, a few big names spring to mind:

Hachiko was hugely famous in Japan, but is now also loved around the world. He accompanied his owner to the train station every morning and waited for his return each evening. One day his owner died at work. But Hachiko waited for him at the train station for the rest of his life, growing old and frail, but waiting, waiting for his beloved owner to return to him. In 1935 he died alone on the street outside the station, still waiting. His faithfulness has come to symbolise the highest level of loyalty.

Fido literally means Faithful One in Latin. He was the Italian version of Hachiko, waiting patiently at a bus stop for 14 years after his owner was killed.

Greyfriars Bobby was a well-known Scottish example of a dog’s unwavering loyalty, spending every night at his owner’s grave for 14 years.

Laika the Soviet space dog, was the first animal to orbit Earth. She started life as a stray dog in Moscow but was trained for the Soviet space program and went into space aboard Sputnik 2. No provision was made for her return though, so it was intended poor Laika would die in space. What wasn’t revealed until 2002 was that Laika actually died from heat exhaustion only a few hours after launch. Belka and Strelka, two Russian mixed breeds, later went into space aboard Sputnik 5 and safely returned to Earth, becoming the first living beings to survive an orbital flight.

If you collected everything you could that featured a dog you would immediately amass a huge collection of a bit of everything, and much would be tatt. But there are high-quality, vintage pieces that are attractive and increasing in value.

From advertising ephemera, art, ceramics, metalware, antique collars, soft toys, and even sewing paraphernalia, there’s a huge selection. They’re detailed in the Dogs chapter of Fabulous Beasts & How to Collect Them, Vol 1. Even if you can’t enjoy a real dog in your life, the range of good quality, vintage canine collectables means you can at least have one (or 100 or 1,000) with you in spirit.

I'm often asked if we have any pictures suitable for children's rooms, and today I’ve added several charming images of dogs to the website, that would totally fit the bill.

More critters will be added to the site soon, but for now you can see the full selection of dog images here: https://www.frenchandvintage.biz/pictures-repro-for-children.