How the First Dogs Came to Be Estimates indicate there are about 525 million dogs living in the world today. In the United States alone, adoring people own approximately 78 million dogs of which there are 340 different recognized breeds. Along with these astounding statistics often comes the question of how this all came to be; where and when did this begin to happen? The gray wolf, enduring the blades of the most cutting media in the world, has been...