Cross Breeds

how did cats and dogs become domesticated animals?

I think that cats, dogs, and animals like those evolved or something from wild animals, but how did they become domestic?

Public Comments

1. cats and dogs probably began to hang out around people to take advantage of the food humans had. dogs could eat the garbage, bones and excrement people left behind them and cats could hunt the rodents attracted to human settlements by people's storing grains, seeds and nuts. at this point they WERE wild animals. eventually people found them useful enough to control through taming, breeding for different traits, and protecting them. this is domestication.
2. The same way that all animals become domesticated, or not. Basically, they must have the temperament that is in a certain range, a certain acceptable range. Zebras fall outside of that range, on average. They must also be able to read human intentions, to a greater or lesser degree. Dogs do this very well, on average; pigs, though they are quite intelligent, do it much worse, on average. They also must be useful to humans, one way or another, though they may not retain their usefulness for ever.