The Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a scant forty miles from where Urban Hound is currently located, with hopes, dreams and two dogs, an English Mastiff and an English Springer Spaniel.  Often hailed as America’s first dogs, the logic behind bringing the two breeds seems clear enough, one to guard and protect and the other to aid in hunting.  Or, more likely, a pilgrim would’ve been a broken hearted mess if they had left their special pooches behind, but that’s the sort of stuff that gets left out of the history books.

We’re all grateful for our dogs, those past and present.  But what sort of gratitude should we have for dogs that helped our ancestors?  And I’m not just talking about America.  I was watching the History Channel’s mini-series Mankind this past week and right there, in the opening sequence, they discuss Homo Sapiens relationship with Canis Lupus as one of the turning points in the history of man.  Listen, I’m not going to get too melodramatic here (the dorky dog trainer syndrome as I like to call it), but rather offer the suggestion that, at the dinner table on Thursday we expend a bit of gratitude toward man’s best friend, and the part they’ve played in our continuing story.