By Obiabin Onukwugha and Ngozi Eyeh
The Dog is domestic mammal of the family Canidae belonging to the order Carnivora. It is a subspecies of the gray wolf, Canis lupus, and is related to foxes and jackals.
Dog is one of the two most ubiquitous and most popular domestic animals in the world aside cat.
According to reports, dogs have lived more than 12,000 years with humans as a hunting companion, protector, object of scorn or adoration, and friend.
Human beings have played a major role in creating dogs that fulfill distinct societal needs. Though details about the evolution of dogs are uncertain, researchers say the first domesticated dogs were hunters with keen senses of sight and smell.
Yoruba call it “Ajá”, Hausa calls it “Kare”, while to the Igbos, it is “Nkita.”
Asides contributing to human emotional and mental health wellbeing through friendship and companion, dogs also play a great role in the wellbeing of the planet’s ecosystem.
Dogs have an incredible nose with a sniffing ability that is said to be 10,000 to 100,000 times stronger than a human’s nose. Thus organizations worldwide have learned how to use the dog’s sniffing abilities for greater good, including wildlife conservation.
Using their enviable sniffing abilities, rescue dogs have become an invaluable tool for protecting pristine habitats and eradicating invasive species.
Reports say, the University of Washington’s Conservation Canines has been training rescue dogs since 1997 to sniff out the faeces of threatened and endangered wildlife species (much like the narcotics detection dog methods use for airport security).
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These species include tigers, orcas, fishers, spotted owls, bears, wolves, jaguars, and even Pacific pocket mice.
By sniffing out the poop of these animals, dogs help researchers examine the health and DNA of these threatened and endangered species so they can monitor population levels.
Also, China’s anti-smuggling bureau has trained its first Labradors team to sniff out tiger parts, elephant ivory, rhino horns and a number of other endangered species products to help combat illegal wildlife trading.
Big Life uses their rescued tracker dogs to follow scent trails that lead to poacher hideouts in and around many national parks in Africa through rhino-horn and ammunition detection.
Another wild life Organization, WD4C trains dogs to detect biological threats, including invasive species of plants, animals, invertebrates, and diseases that “have an unlimited potential to self-replicate,” making them incredibly costly and dangerous to local ecosystems and the economy.
Dogs like other animals also have incredible folklore and traditional stories and beliefs around them.
It is said that once upon a time in the animal kingdom, a tortoise challenged the dog to a race contest. The dog laughed out hard and mocked the tortoise of being the slowest animal.
As the D-day of the contest drew close the tortoise prepared delicious meals and positioned them at every kilometre. So when the whistle blew the dog paced out. On its way, the dog saw the food and thought in his heart that he had given the tortoise a good distance so it sat down to eat. While eating the tortoise walked past but the dog ignored it.
This continued and to a point, the dog suffered overfeeding and fell asleep. By the time it woke up, the tortoise had reached the final mark.
With this story therefore, the dog is portrayed as an animal that can easily be distracted. It is also from the story that the popular saying, “slow and steady wins the race”, emanated.
Dogs give birth to live young, called puppies. The females have mammary glands, and they suckle their offspring. Dogs pregnancy can vary between 56 – 70 days.
