Ancient cultures all over the world have documented evidence that dogs were an important part of life. Look into the Egyptians’ relationship with their dogs, the royal dogs of ancient China and Japan, and the dogs of ancient Rome.

Dogs have saved countless lives as our guardians and have served nobly in times of war ever since ancient Rome.

Today, they not only add light and laughter to countless families as a friend, companion, confidant, bed-warmer and night watchman…..but they guide the blind, assist the disabled, give people with seizure disorders a new lease on life, they search for disaster victims, people who get lost in the woods, they help find illegal drugs being smuggled into other countries, they find bombs and other explosives…..there have even been dogs trained to detect cancerous skin lesions on humans, long before the cancer began to spread.

There probably isn’t any accurate, documented evidence of when the term “man’s best friend” came into play, but regardless of when the phrase popped up, it’s obvious dogs have been an integral part of human society for thousands of years.