The canine (Canis familiaris[4][5] or Canis lupus familiaris[5]) is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also referred to as the home canine, it's far derived from an ancient, extinct wolf,[6][7] and the current wolf is the canine`s nearest residing relative.[8] The canine changed into the primary species to be domesticated,[9][8] with the aid of using hunter-gatherers over 15,000 years ago,[7] earlier than the improvement of agriculture.[1] Due to their lengthy affiliation with humans, puppies have extended to a big quantity of home individuals[10] and won the cappotential to thrive on a starch-wealthy food plan that could be insufficient for different canids.

In 1758, the Swedish botanist and zoologist Carl Linnaeus posted in his Systema Naturae, the -phrase naming of species (binomial nomenclature). Canis is the Latin phrase meaning "canine",[15] and beneathneath this genus, he indexed the home canine, the wolf, and the golden jackal. He categorised the home canine as Canis familiaris and, on the following page, categorised the gray wolf as Canis lupus.[2] Linnaeus taken into consideration the canine to be a separate species from the wolf due to its upturning tail (cauda recurvata), which isn't always discovered in some other canid.[16] 
 
In 1999, a take a look at of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) indicated that the home canine can also additionally have originated from the gray wolf, with the dingo and New Guinea making a song canine breeds having evolved at a time while human groups have been greater remoted from every other.[17] In the 1/3 version of Mammal Species of the World posted in 2005, the mammalogist W. Christopher Wozencraft indexed beneathneath the wolf Canis lupus its wild subspecies and proposed  extra subspecies, which fashioned the home canine clade: familiaris, as named via way of means of Linnaeus in 1758 and, dingo named via way of means of Meyer in 1793. Wozencraft covered hallstromi (the New Guinea making a song canine) as any other name (junior synonym) for the dingo. Wozencraft stated the mtDNA take a look at as one of the publications informing his decision.[3] Mammalogists have stated the inclusion of familiaris and dingo collectively beneathneath the "home canine" clade[18] with a few debating it.[19] 
 
In 2019, a workshop hosted via way of means of the IUCN/Species Survival Commission`s Canid Specialist Group taken into consideration the dingo and the New Guinea making a song canine to be feral Canis familiaris and consequently did now no longer investigate them for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.[