One theory is that ancient humans trapped the pups of ancient wolves, raised them as pets, and used them to hunt. (priceonomics.com)
You may not consider dogs to be the same species as the wolf, but it is pretty clear that dogs was derived from ancient wolves. (retrieverman.net)
Almost all wolfiness scores below 10 are from ancient wolf genes that have been passed down multiple generations — possibly even dating back to 15,000 years ago when people began domesticating wolves! (caninejournal.com)