Ethnocynology (HUMANS & DOGS THROUGH TIME) with David Ian Howe

Ancient dogs! Domestic wolves! Anthropology! Archaeology! It’s all Ethnocynology: when humans and dogs started living and working together. The wonderful and iconic David Ian Howe is an educator and professional archaeologist whose focus is canines and people. So let’s curl up and be cute – like dogs – as we listen about breed histories, what evidence we have for doggies being friends, how wolves tamed themselves, why our relationships with canines make us what we are, talking dogs, if it’s fair it ask your dog to love you back, corn paws, and why your dog is trying to make fetch happen.

Listen via Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Podbay, Podcast Addict, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Visit David’s website and his podcasts, The David Ian Howe Show & Ethnocynology with David Ian Howe

Follow David on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Patreon and Bluesky

A donation went to the Native American Humane Society


Links to things we discussed:

Creation Myth via TikTok

First Nations, First Dogs: Canadian Aboriginal Ethnocynology by Bryan D. Cummins

Musical Dogs: A Review of the Influence of Auditory Enrichment on Canine Health and Behavior

Dietary variation among indigenous Nicaraguan horticulturalists and their dogs: An ethnoarchaeological application of the Canine Surrogacy Approach

On the Origin of our Favorite Subspecies: The Biological Implications of Dog Domestication on Modern Humans

Dogs are sensitive to small variations of the Earth’s magnetic field

How do soundboard-trained dogs respond to human button presses? An investigation into word comprehension

Do dog breeds differ in pain sensitivity? Veterinarians and the public believe they do

Current Advances in Assessment of Dog’s Emotions, Facial Expressions, and Their Use for Clinical Recognition of Pain

Cultural awareness for veterinary clinicians

The Evolution of Urban Australian Meat-Eating Practices

Shut up and pet me! Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) prefer petting to vocal praise in concurrent and single-alternative choice procedures

What petting a dog can do for your brain

Interspecies transmission of emotional information via chemosignals: from humans to dogs (Canis lupus familiaris)

Wikipedia: Dog meat

Dogs can discriminate between human baseline and psychological stress condition odours

Effects of contact with a dog on prefrontal brain activity: A controlled trial

True Colors: Commercially-acquired morphological genotypes reveal hidden allele variation among dog breeds, informing both trait ancestry and breed potential

On the Communicative Function of Body Odors: A Theoretical Integration and Review

Dogs poop in alignment with Earth’s magnetic field, study finds

Dingoes in the Victorian Alpine Region

Brachycephalics: ‘Once a problem is seen it cannot be unseen’

Exploring meat-eating practices in Mumbai and Sydney with a view towards encouraging a reduced-meat diet

Wikipedia: Greenland Dog

Guiness Book of World Records: Oldest Dog Breed

The history of Coast Salish “woolly dogs” revealed by ancient genomics and Indigenous Knowledge

Arctic-adapted dogs emerged at the Pleistocene–Holocene transition


Other episodes you may enjoy:

Lupinology (WOLVES)

Canine Speech Pathology (DOGS WITH BUTTONS)

Felinology (CATS)

Experimental Archaeology (ATLATLS)

Momiology (MUMMIFICATION)

Egyptology (ANCIENT EGYPT)

Classical Archaeology (ANCIENT ROME)

Mythology (STORYTELLING)

Indigenous Cuisinology (NATIVE COOKING)

Radiology (X-RAY VISION)

Delphinology (DOLPHINS)

Functional Morphology (ANATOMY)

Zymology (BEER & YEAST)

Columbidology (PIGEONS)


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Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake Chaffee

Managing Director: Susan Hale

Scheduling Producer: Noel Dilworth 

Transcripts by Aveline Malek

Website by Kelly R. Dwyer

Theme song by Nick Thorburn

History, AnimalsAlie Ward