Why Cant We Get Attached To A Wolf

University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 2013 Why Wolves Are Forever Wild, but Dogs Can Be Tamed in Science Daily

This article talksabout an experiment done by biologist Kathryn Lord to answer the question of why dogs can become so close to humans and be trained to live withthem even as “man´s best friend” while wolves can´t. After experimenting with some dog and wolf pups, Lord suggests that the reason lies in theperiod when they first start the socialization with the world, or the called “critical period of socialization”. According to the observationof 43 dog pups and 11 wolf pups, it was confirmed that they both develop at the same time the sense of smell(after 2 weeks of age), hearing(4weeks), and vision(after 6 weeks). On the other hand, when it comes to the critical period of socialization, it’s been observed that the wolf pupsundergo this period at the age of two weeks, while the dog puppies do it after, with 4 weeks of age. Due to this fact, it has been discoveredthat he wolf puppies are still blind and deaf during this stage, badly relying on their smelling skills, while dogs enter this phase much moreprepared. According to this, it’s been revealed that even if both dogs and wolves have many similarities genetically, they are also very differentwhen it comes to socialization, which leads them to different developmental paths. This allows us to get more close to the dog then to the wolf.