| Summary: | The history and global abundance of domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) provides a rich
opportunity and an ideal model for interdisciplinary research. The evolutionary history of dogs
demonstrates unprecedented changes across all levels of biological organization. These include
diversification from highly social, pack-dwelling wild carnivores (extant gray wolves, C. lupus),
to increased dependence on humans (domestication), to modern in-home colonization featuring
close physical proximity to humans (interspecies bonding). The young, emerging field of “canine
science” comprises diverse biological disciplines including evolution, genetics, cognition,
behavior, physiology, comparative medicine, and ecology, drawing on studies of both natural
and experimental systems and scaling across all levels of biological organization, from genomes
to ecosystems. However, limited connections bridge the various fields associated with canine
science, though in every branch it is recognized that this species is one of the most
phenotypically variable mammals. Yet there has been growing interest in integrating the insights
from genomic evolution with those from ecophysiology and ecology, thus facilitating a more
biologically comprehensive perspective of dogs. In particular, integrative, mechanistic, and/or
ecological studies have been generally underrepresented. To address these emerging interests, we
have collected the most compelling questions in the field of canine biology and present avenues
of current and future research. This paper serves to both orient the reader to this special issue, as
well as offer a forward-looking perspective from biological sub-disciplines to highlight current
and future goals in canine research.
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