January 9, 2026
Who’s the good boy—us?
Wolves Became Dogs
From wild hunters to couch pups—did they tame us too
TLDR: An article explains how wolves evolved into dogs alongside humans. Commenters turn it into a showdown: title drama, paywall dodging, jokes about “Bob,” and a sharp debate over whether dogs domesticated us and the ethics of breeding friendliness—making clear this human–dog bond shaped both species.
The Economist’s holiday deep-dive into how wolves turned into dogs had the comments section howling—and not because of the science. First, the meta meltdown: one user fumed that Hacker News messed up the headline, shouting “HN title-destroying rules strike again,” while another dropped an archive link like a treat to dodge the paywall. Cue the memes: a commenter pointed at “Bob” with a vacant, happy-dog grin—“he’s been domesticated, I tell you”—and suddenly everyone’s seeing their coworker’s Slack profile pic as proof.
But the hottest debate wasn’t about dogs at all—it was about us. One thoughtful voice asked if wolves shaped humans, too: did living with pack animals make our tribes tighter and our hearts softer? In other words, who domesticated whom? That’s where it got spicy. A darker take surfaced about fur farms breeding friendliness in animals—making killing them harder—sparking a blunt ethics clash between “selective breeding builds trust” and “this is literally cruelty.”
Underneath the drama, the crowd largely agrees: dogs didn’t just become pets; they became partners, co-evolving with humans into something bigger than hunter and prey. Whether you’re team “Bob is proof” or team “pack psychology changed us,” this thread is basically a love story between two apex predators turned roommates—with a side of headline rage and paywall parkour.
Key Points
- •The article examines how wolves became domestic dogs, framing it as a symbiosis between humans and canines.
- •It emphasizes the interspecies partnership of two hyper-predators: humans and hounds.
- •A quotation attributed to Frederick the Great highlights longstanding cultural views of canine loyalty.
- •The feature appears in The Economist’s Christmas Specials, with the print headline “Your flexible friend.”
- •It is listed as an 11-minute read and associated with the December 20th 2025 edition.