where did dogs come from?

Question: where did dogs come from?
- Keywords:
  animal,
  dog,
  evolution
Asked by blunt to Asif, Laura, Lena, Sean, Viv on 14 Mar 2012.
- Laura Waters answered on 14 Mar 2012:
  
  Dogs have been bred very carefully over a short period of time from the wild. It is amazing how many breeds we have now that we didn’t have two or three hundred years ago.
- Sean Murphy answered on 14 Mar 2012:
  
  DNA evidence suggests that dogs and wolves split into different species in the middle east about 100,000 years ago. We started having dogs as pets about 15,000 years ago.

Question: where did dogs come from?