Are dogs physiologically similar to wolves?

How many times have you heard this from a canine health professional, family, or friends?

While dogs have a shared a now extinct ancestor with the Grey Wolf, over their 40 000 years of domestication alongside human beings, dogs have evolved physically, physiologically, and in their gastrointestinal system to become omnivorous scavengers with the same gut microbiota as humans.

The following are the most serious, conclusive scientific researches and published publications, discusses how dogs evolved from wolf ancestors to domesticated omnivorous scavengers capable of thriving on a high-starch, meat-free diet.

Classification

Omnivorous Scavenger

Diet of choice

Able to thrive on any nutritionally sound diet

Published research on starch digestion in dogs

Science has proven how mutations in key genes occurred allowing increased starch digestion in dogs relative to wolves.

These results indicate that early ancestors of modern dogs could thrive on a diet rich in starch which constituted a crucial step in the early domestication of dogs.

This also strengthened the theory that dogs have lived alongside man for 40 000 years + and they have fully adapted to our way of eating genetically, and are more likely to benefit from our healthy plant-based diets than from a high meat-based ancestral diet.

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Wolves split from their ancestors genome 27,0000 to 40,000 years ago

The genomics of selection in dogs and the parallel evolution between dogs and humans are demonstrated in this very interesting, eye-opening study, published on 14 May 2013.

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Diet Shaped Dog Domestication

This biology article demonstrates that dogs are omnivores and how their digestive systems have developed and been modified by the human diet.

Genomic analysis reveals that dogs and humans walked similar evolutionary paths

Article citation " They now produce longer chains of specific digestive enzymes that are adapted for digesting starches and grains – not meat".

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An experimental meat-free diet maintained haematological characteristics in sprint-racing sled dogs

Very few dogs have greater energy needs than sprint-racing huskies. Accordingly, a 2009 study published in the British Journal of Nutrition compared the health, and in particular, the haematological parameters (focusing on red blood cell counts) of six such dogs fed a meat-free diet with six others maintained on a commercial meat-based diet for 16 weeks, including 10 weeks of competitive racing.
Haematology results for all dogs were within the normal range throughout the study and the consulting vet assessed all dogs to be in excellent physical condition. No dogs developed anaemia. On the contrary, red blood cell counts and haemoglobin values increased significantly over time in both groups.

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Current knowledge about the risks and beneﬁts

of raw meat–based diets for dogs and cats

There are no published level 1, 2, or 3 studies of nutritional risk or benefit of raw meat feeding to dogs or cats.
In addition, raw food poses a substantial risk of infectious disease to the pet, the pet’s environment, and the humans in the household.
Lisa M. Freeman, DVM, PhD, DACVN; Marjorie L. Chandler, DVM, MS, DACVN, DACVIM; Beth A. Hamper, DVM, PhD, DACVN; Lisa P. Weeth, DVM, DACVN

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All-meat diets for dogs aren't complete nor healthy, Anton Beynen, 2015

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Are dogs physiologically similar to wolves?

Published research on starch digestion in dogs

Wolves split from their ancestors genome 27,0000 to 40,000 years ago

Diet Shaped Dog Domestication

An experimental meat-free diet maintained haematological characteristics in sprint-racing sled dogs

All-meat diets for dogs aren't complete nor healthy, Anton Beynen, 2015

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