There are more than 25 million dogs just in the United States, and no one knows how many more millions there are throughout the world. Where did they all come from, and how is it that there are so many kinds? Actually, the Bible doesn't say much about them, but we can be sure they were included when, on the sixth day of creation, God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle... and beast of the earth after his kind; and it was so" (Gen. 1:2424And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. (Genesis 1:24)).
"Cattle" as used in this verse does not just refer to cows, but includes many other animals that we call "tame" or "domestic" animals. It would seem that some dogs may have been included in this group. Others may also have been created separately as part of the group called "beasts of the earth," referring to what are now wild animals, living apart from people. We cannot say positively it was this way, but we know that there are wild animals today in the dog family, such as wolves, coyotes, dingoes, jackals and hyenas of Africa, all of which had their original start on that day of creation. But through the thousands of years since then, tame dogs have been companions of men, women, boys and girls all over the world. Most tame dogs have a nature which wants to love and be loved and will be a loyal friend in any circumstance.
There are so many varieties because when puppies have been born they sometimes have the combined looks of a male dog of one kind and a female dog of another kind and so don't look exactly like either of the parents.
People who raise dogs sometimes do this on purpose in order to produce a new variety. But it is important to remember, whether wild or tame, a dog is always a dog. Even though it may have changed its looks from the original, it still belongs to the dog family as created by God. We all know that a dog and a cat can never mix families (species), any more than a horse and cow can. God created them to continue "after their kind" and they can never change this pattern, although God does allow them to mix within species which somewhat changes their looks into what we call "a new breed."
In the next article we will explore the special and unusual ways of some tame (or domestic) dogs that are helpful to mankind.