Dog is a Member Of Genus Canines

The domestic dog is a member of genus canines that forms part of the wolf-like candies and is the most widely abundant carnivore. The dog and the extant gray wolf are sister taxa with modern wolves not closely related to the wolves that were first domesticated. The dog was the first domesticated species and has been selectively bred over millennia for various behaviors sensory capabilities and physical attributes.

Their long association with humans has led dogs to be uniquely attuned to human behavior and they are able to thrive on a starch-rich diet that would be inadequate for other caned species. Dogs vary widely in shape size and colors. Dogs perform many roles for people such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and military, companionship and, more recently, aiding handicapped individuals. This influence on human society has given them the sobriquet man's best friend.

A male canine is referred to as a dog, while a female is called a bitch. The father of a litter is called the sire, and the mother is called the dam. The process of birth is whelping, from the Old English word whelp the modern English word whelp is an alternate term for puppy. A litter refers to the multiple offspring at one birth which are called puppies or pups from the French pauper doll which has mostly replaced the older term whelp.

Dog intelligence is the ability of the dog to perceive information and retain it as knowledge for applying to solve problems. Dogs have been shown to learn by inference. A study with Rico showed that he knew the labels of over 200 different items. He inferred the names of novel items by exclusion learning and correctly retrieved those novel items immediately and also 4 weeks after the initial exposure. Dogs have advanced memory skills. A study documented the learning and memory capabilities of a border collie Chaser who had learned the names and could associate by verbal command over 1000 words. Dogs are able to read and react appropriately to human body language such as gesturing and pointing, and to understand human voice commands. Dogs demonstrate a theory of mind by engaging in deception. An experimental study showed compelling evidence that Australian dingoes can outperform domestic dogs in non-social problem-solving, indicating that domestic dogs may have lost much of their original problem-solving abilities once they joined humans. Another study indicated that after undergoing training to solve a simple manipulation task dogs that are faced with an insoluble version of the same problem look at the human while socialized wolves do not. Modern domestic dogs use humans to solve their problems for them.

Dog behavior is the internally coordinated responses actions or inaction of the domestic dog individuals or groups to internal and external stimuli. As the oldest domesticated species with estimates ranging from 9000 to 30000 years BCE the minds of dogs inevitably have been shaped by millennia of contact with humans. As a result of this physical and social evolution dogs more than any other species have acquired the ability to understand and communicate with humans and they are uniquely attuned to our behaviors. Behavioral scientists have uncovered a surprising set of social-cognitive abilities in the otherwise humble domestic dog. These abilities are not possessed by the dog's closest canine relatives or by other highly intelligent mammals such as great apes. Rather, these skills parallel some of the social-cognitive skills of human children.