University of Sask. researchers uncover details of dogs' lives throughout time

Two University of Saskatchewan professors have delved into the development of dog diets in a recent research paper.

Tatiana Nomokonova and Robert Losey’s article was published in the July issue of Science Advances.

Dog diets usually reflected that of their human companions, they found.

Focusing on archaeological evidence from Siberia, Losey and Nomokonova compared dog diets to what wolves were eating in the same time period. Lose told CTV News they found wolves often ate grass-fed animals.

“Wolves are large-bodied animals, they can hunt these types of prey effectively,” Losey said. “But dogs as they evolved through time became smaller and smaller. So, even seven or eight thousand years ago, they were quite a different animal than wolves. They were smaller, they had less strong jaws. They were probably less effective at running long distances and they were less effective at feeding themselves.”

Losey said dog diets showed localized patterns.

“Dogs who were living with people who were growing crops their diet look like they have crops in them. Those that were living with people on the seashore, hunting marine mammals, seals, sea lions, things like that have marine diets.”

He said the research began after they noticed that people were burying dogs like they would members of the family.

“We found evidence that people were burying some of their dogs seven or eight thousand years ago. They were treating them literally like members of the family. They were placing them in graves and cemeteries just like their other family members.

“This speaks to the intimate connection people have with their dogs. We thought this must carry out across all of their lives, including how their dogs were treated in life and including how they were fed by the people that they lived with,” Losey said.

“Overall, dogs have and continue to evolve within rapidly changing human niches, and our research highlights several important ways their lives and long-term histories have been shaped by cohabiting with humans,” the study stated.

According to the University of Saskatchewan website, researchers will continue to study the lives of dogs in other parts of the world.

“We are in the process of expanding our research to examine the life histories and evolution of dogs in North America, particularly on the Prairies and in the Arctic,” Nomokonova said.

“In both regions, we will be exploring how Indigenous people in these regions, including in Saskatchewan, cared for their dogs in the past, and how and when dogs were involved in tasks such as pulling sleds.”