The ancient ancestor of the modern domestic dog is the wild wolf of the pre-LGM (Last Glacial Maximum: ca 26,000–19,000 years BP). Until recently, the earliest well-preserved and well-documented remains of early domestic dog all came from European contexts dating to no earlier than ca 14,000–9,000 years ago. Recent research, however, has provided a canine skull from the Upper Palaeolithic site of Goyet (Belgium) with a direct age (that is, an date made on the skull itself rather than on artefacts found with the skeleton) of ca 36,000 cal. BP. This skull, however, has physical traits which do not allow for a clear determination of whether this particular animal represents the remains of a very early domesticated dog or a completely wild wolf. More certain, is the well-preserved remains of a ‘dog-like canid’ from Razboinichya Cave (Altai Mountains, Siberia). These remains are dated to ca 33,000 cal. BP, and most interestingly, seem to represent a group of dogs which were in the process of being domesticated by the local people before climatic and cultural changes associated with the LGM disrupted their transformation into domesticated animals. Consequently, this particular line of dogs does not have any direct domesticated ancestors.

This data, along with other lines of evidence, demonstrates that dog domestication was a multi-regional process—that is, groups of people in various areas domesticated their local dog populations creating their own domestic breeds, rather than a single group of dogs being domesticated on one occasion by one group of people, and then these animals being transported around the globe. In the Australian context, we have the now-native dingo which was transported here from East Asia by Indigenous Australians around 5000 years ago.