When Were Dogs First Domesticated? Ask The Qaraq and the Maya Factor

Book Two of 1001, The Reincarnation Chronicles launches 10/01 2025, and with it comes 77 new past life stories.

One of my faves is the story of the first two dogs to be tamed by cave people. Sahara and Amar, the troubled romantic leads of their soul group, recall the love story of these two dogs, their prehistoric reincarnations. Sahara and Amar are separated, but their passion heats up again with these tales. Their friends and neighbors, the souls they have interacted with lifetime after lifetime, their qaraq, are rooting for these two old dogs to get back together.

The First Pets

Prehistoric humans domesticated dogs starting around 14,000 BC. That’s the theory, but given how much farther back in time we have found evidence of hominid species, I wonder if tails wagged much earlier than that. But I followed my research and set my cavedog story well after the stories about the Borzi clan that appear in The Qaraq. Book Two, The Qaraq and the Maya Factor, continues the Borzi tales, which are much darker than the bittersweet cavedog legends.

As a sneak peek into Book Two before it launches on 10/01, enjoy a sneak peek into the love story of the first two domesticated dogs.

The Tale of Saaaar and Argmhm, the First Cavedogs

            I was in an inverse fight for territory with that other dog.  I wanted him further into my territory, but he wanted me further into his.  He sat on that hill for hours, waiting for me to come up there.  I knew there were packs of two-leggers there.  There was no way I’d trot my behind up to him.  Eventually he came down to me, and I led him into the wood.

            The first time we saw each other it was like no other dog or wolf had ever existed.  He bounded right down his hill, straight for me.  Instinctively, I backed into the wood, but did not bare my teeth.  He had a strange gentleness I had never experienced in any woodland beast.  I called him Argmhm — that was the sound he brought out of me.  Argmhm mounted me.  My senses opened, my hide tingled, as Argmhm covered me with his warm, furry body.  But then I felt trapped, unable to move.  My pack was nowhere near.  I panicked, freed myself, and ran away, deep into the wood.

            After that, Argmhm would appear on his hill, I would nip in and out of the forest edge, and then he’d come after me, further each time.  Or he mounted me by the swamp, and as my heat rose he jumped off and made me follow him back to the hill.  We wanted each other badly, but neither of us accepted the other’s territory.  Eventually we found a secluded hollow halfway between our lairs.  He mounted me fiercely, time and again, making up for our stubbornly wasted foreplay.

            I fell out of heat just as Argmhm came no more, as if he knew the change was upon me.  I was curious where he had gone, and I was lonesome.  I braved the edge of the wood and saw him once more atop his hill.  Each time he saw me lurking he lowered his head and walked away.  He would return several times and repeat this action.  Later, Argmhm came down the hill toward me and then retreated back up out of sight.  He made wondrously soft sounds that vibrated my heart.  I have heard dogs howl, I have heard them growl, but never such mournful, alluring cries.

            Argmhm wanted me to follow him home.  Would he defend me against the two-leggers up the hill?  How had he survived?  I had to follow him eventually — but how?  Unlike these ridiculous cats with their oversized fangs who prowl under the moon, two-leggers sleep at night.  A dog will sleep anytime, day or night, the sensible thing.  I would find Argmhm’s lair under cover of darkness.

            One late afternoon I teasingly pretended I was ready to follow him.  I stalled, continued my game into twilight, and then darted into the wood.  He waited a while, then returned home, leaving a fresh scent.  Darkness fell and I tracked Argmhm’s magnificent aroma up the hill into an area with cliffs and ledges.  Carved into the cliff walls were caves from which eerie lights glowed.  My fur trembled: the two-leggers slept here.  How could Argmhm’s tracks lead this way?

            Gathering my courage, I peeked into a few caves and was surprised by the sleeping bodies on the floors, the silence, the peacefulness.  I gained confidence, continued my curious searching, and after many caves discovered the end of Argmhm’s trail.

            There he was, curled up in a ball at the foot of an animal fur, under which slept two small two-leggers, a male and female child.  The smell of freshly roasted meat was everywhere, setting my nostrils aflame with hunger.  A sparking circle of fire and smoke crackled at the cave’s center.  I wanted to howl for joy at seeing my mate, bark with desire for a piece of meat, growl at the children for trapping Argmhm.  But I dared not.  How I wanted to curl up next to him!

            It was too strange.  A dog lying with two-leggers!  Argmhm was not captive or endangered.  He chose to make his pack with two-leggers.  Disturbed, I dashed back down into the wood.

            The next days were tortuous.  On the one hand, Argmhm was no longer a dog to me, but a non-creature against everything I knew to be natural.  On the other hand, I felt new urges in my body that required his attention, that demanded the quiet protection he found with the two-leggers.

            The next time I saw Argmhm he recognized my dilemma.  He explained his life with the two-leggers with his soft language of sounds.  He too had been born in the wood.  But the two-leggers had rescued him from starvation. Intensely curious, the children had begged their clan to bring him home to the cave.  They gave him warmth and playfulness and … love.  Whispered, this last idea was unfamiliar.  But my body understood the lure of the children, the welcome of family.  

            I was bearing Argmhm’s pups.

            Argmhm was wild with fervor.  I had to come into the cave now.  We would be the first!  I thought he was saying it was our first litter.  He clarified that he was the first dog to live with two-leggers (I could not argue).  No other creature had entered this world, not even gentle mammoths (too large) or wily cats (too independent).  We would have the first litter raised with cave dwellers.

            Argmhm’s words had a prophetic power over me, for though I could not come into the sight of two-leggers yet, I soon had need of them.  Because of my disturbed emotions my body became sick and unpredictable.  My pack growled at me with worry, and smelled Argmhm on me.  I crept from my lair to Argmhm’s hill too many times for my health.  My pups were in danger.

Oh no! More to Come

Will Argmhm succeed in bringing Saaaar into his humans’ cave? Will their pups survive? Will the love story bring Sahara and Amar back together? Or will the past life romance contain as much ambivalence and tension as the present day relationship?

Find out in The Qaraq and the Maya Factor, coming this Fall. The fantasy novel also follows the qaraq as they lose their power to recall past lives and stop learning how they have interacted over their karmic history. The qaraq has to discover what is blocking them, why this veil has many layers, and how to overcome it.

What’s the Maya Factor?

Want to know more about what the Maya Factor is? And how it devastates the qaraq? Join The Maqaraqan, the newsletter of The Reincarnation Chronicles, and receive a free gift, the Maya Challenge. It will tell you how trapped in everyday illusions you are, or how connected you are to higher awareness. It’s fun, gorgeous, and a little enlightening….

If you’d like to start out with The Qaraq, the first book in The Reincarnation Chronicles, you can get it here for only $0.99. Read all about how Sahara finds her qaraq unexpectedly in the suburbs of New Jersey. Holy Whole Foods! Get it before the 1001 series reincarnates as Book Two.

If you liked this post, learn more about the series with The Maqaraqan (see footer).

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