Wolves at the Hair Salon, and the Long Road to Domesticated Dogs
A few years ago, when my wife and I were visiting family in a small coastal town in Maine, we heard a story that there was a hairdresser’s salon on Main Street whose owner kept wolves as pets—and that he often brought them to work. We had to see.
So we went to his storefront, and there they were, cuddled up between the two salon chairs where he and a partner were cutting hair. The wolves saw us come in, and immediately jumped up to check us out.
In an instant, my thoughts shifted from This is the coolest thing ever to This was a huge mistake, as their claws tapped on the shop’s linoleum floor. These were big animals, standing as tall as my hip as they approached. My wife and I exchanged a look, both of us wondering if we were in danger. I moved in front, and when the lead wolf reached me, it reared up to put its paws on my shoulders in what I can only describe as the most terrifying bro-hug I’ve ever experienced. Its bright and clear blue eyes were on level with mine, and even though I probably outweighed it by more than a little bit, the moment its front paws made contact, it gave me a definite shove backward.
If it had wanted to, it probably could have knocked me to the floor—easy prey for the other one that was quietly circling behind us.
But it didn’t. Scary as the greeting was, the wolves were only saying hello. After letting us scratch their necks, they returned to their spot on the floor and ignored us while we had the briefest possible conversation with the shop’s owner before hurrying out into the safety of the street.
From Wolves to Domestic Breeds
Maybe keeping wolves as pets seems like a bad idea. In the 1990s, National Geographic ran an article (which I’ve since had trouble locating) about the then-popular trend of raising domesticated wolves. It profiled breeders who were experimenting with mixing North American grey wolves with modern dogs—an attempt to fast-track the domestication process our stone-age ancestors began long ago.
As I remember it, the results of those experiments were unpredictable at best, dangerous at worst—often producing aggressive animals that couldn’t be safely kept with other pets and were sometimes hazardous to their owners.
Dogs were humankind’s first domesticated companions, but how that happened is still not perfectly understood. In the second episode of the rebooted Cosmos series, “Some of the Things That Molecules Do,” host Neil deGrasse Tyson simplifies the story: a few friendly wolves wander near human camps, and over generations, those wolves become dogs. It’s elegant and appealing—but current research suggests the truth is far messier.
The Science of Domestication: Still a Work in Progress
In a 2016 article for The Atlantic, science journalist Ed Yong explores new archaeological discoveries and preserved ancient DNA that are “reframing the debate around dog domestication.” The big question, he writes, is no longer when or where dogs were first domesticated—but how many times.
New evidence suggests there were at least two separate domestication events, one in Europe and one in East Asia. These gave rise to two distinct populations of early domesticated dogs. But they didn’t remain isolated. According to evolutionary geneticist Greger Larson at Oxford, a later wave of Eastern dogs migrated west and, through interbreeding, replaced many of the early European breeds.
So although today’s Eastern breeds are still descendants of those early Eastern dogs, most modern Western dogs also trace their ancestry primarily to these ancient migrants from the East.
This remains controversial. Some scientists still argue for a single domestication event somewhere in Eurasia, pointing to migration and mixing to explain genetic diversity. A 2021 meta-analysis of genetic data even favors the single-origin hypothesis. But Larson maintains that his conclusions, which draw from both genetics and archaeological records, offer a fuller picture.
The challenge, as Yong notes, is that no one really knows how quickly dog genomes evolve—so it’s hard to determine how long ago these lineages split just by measuring their genetic differences.
Who Were the Wolves That Became Dogs?
Interestingly, dogs and modern grey wolves remain close relatives, and can even interbreed. Yet, there’s no single group of wolves alive today that’s more closely related to dogs than the others. That means the wolves that gave rise to dogs are now extinct.
Researchers don’t yet know which ancient wolf species was the common ancestor of modern dogs. Candidates include the beringian wolf, the cave wolf, and others from the late Pleistocene—but poor DNA preservation in fossil samples makes the search difficult. And even if dogs were domesticated only once, it’s possible that more than one species of extinct canids contributed genetic material to the dogs we know today.
What an At-Home Dog DNA Test Can—and Can’t—Tell You
After all this talk of wolves and ancient canids, you might be wondering where your own pet fits into the picture. If so, there are several at-home dog DNA test kits available that can tell you more about your pet’s ancestry.
The two most highly recommended kits are the Embark Breed + Health test and the Wisdom Panel Premium home test. These compare your dog’s genome to massive databases of other dogs to help identify breed mix—especially useful for rescues and mutts. Some tests even trace back to so-called “village dogs,” which Embark defines as populations that “precede the formation of modern breed dogs.”
These tests can also provide valuable health insights. According to Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, DNA tests may help identify your dog’s risk for genetic conditions, sensitivities to medications, and other health markers—info you can easily share with your vet.
No, they won’t trace your dog’s lineage all the way back to the cave wolves of prehistory. But they will bring you a little closer to understanding the long and tangled story your best friend is a part of.
Closing the Circle
When I think back to that wolf standing eye-to-eye with me in a hair salon, I still feel the adrenaline. But I also feel a weird sense of continuity—that we, as a species, have been dancing with these animals for tens of thousands of years. Some were wild, some friendly, some dangerous. And some, like the one curled up next to you on the couch, are family.
