Where do domestic dogs originate from?

What is the origin of man's best friend and when did the friendship begin? The common domesticated dog is a subspecies of the gray wolf. The gray wolf is an ice age survivor originating during the Late Pleistocene around 300,000 years ago. The gray wolf can be linked back even further to a small weasel-like mammal called Miacis about 60 million years ago, which is the ancestor of all canids (i.e. dogs, coyotes, jackals, wolves and foxes), however Miacis is irrelevant to what we're talking about today. To sum up, DNA sequencing and genetic drift studies reaffirm that the gray wolf shares a common ancestry with the domestic dog.

This raises another question: how did humans, who haven't been around for that long, manage to influence the creation of so many breeds of domestic dogs? According to an uncited source from Wikipedia, the domestication of the gray wolf took place in a handful of events roughly 15,000 years ago in central Asia. Also according to Wikipedia, archaeology has placed the earliest possible domestication at about 30,000 BC and, can confirm that they were already domesticated by 7,000 BC.

However, according to About.com, dog history has been studied recently using mitochondrial DNA, which suggests that wolves and dogs split into different species around 100,000 years ago. Nevertheless, the author notes that "another recent study" suggests that the entire population of dogs today are descended from three females near China about 15,000 years ago. A burial site in Germany called Bonn-Oberkassel has joint human and dog interments dated to 14,000 years ago. K. Kris Hirst states that 13,000 year BC date is the probable date of domestication.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, fossil remains suggest that five distinct types of dogs existed by the beginning of the Bronze Age (around 4500 BC). They were the mastiffs, wolf-type dogs, pointing dogs, sight hounds (such as the Saluki or greyhound) and herding dogs. Illustrations of dogs dating from the Bronze Age have also been found on walls, tombs, and scrolls throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North America.

Dogs were interbred to enhance their powerful attributes. Fleet-footed sight hounds were revered by noblemen in the Middle East, while in Europe powerful dogs such as the mastiff were developed to protect home and traveler from harm. Many breeds are extremely ancient, while others have been developed as recently as the 1800s.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
http://archaeology.about.com/od/domestications/qt/dogs.htm

"Dog." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 8 May 2009 <http://school.eb.com.au/eb/article-15458>.

McGinnis, Terri. "Dog." World Book Online Reference Center. 2009. 8 May 2009.