Scientific name: canis lupus familiaris
People have been keeping dogs as pets for thousands of years. Dogs can be used to herd animals like sheep, and if they are well trained they will obey commands like sit and fetch.
Dogs come in a huge variety of different colours and sizes, from tiny Chihuahuas right up to huge dogs like the Great Dane. A female dog is called a bitch and a baby dog is called a puppy. Modern dogs were domesticated from wolves, and were originally kept as hunting companions.
A dome is a shape that is half a sphere. One side of a dome is flat, and is the shape of a circle. If you turn a salad bowl upside down it is dome shaped. A dome made out of shapes that doesn't have a smooth surface is a geodesic dome.
Something is domestic if it relates to house and home. An animal is domestic if it is tame or has been bred to serve people somehow.
The opposite of domestic is industrial. The opposite of tame is wild.
Dis forDomesticated
Domestication, sometimes called taming, is the process of changing a breed of plants or animals so that it suits the needs of humans better. Most farm animals and pets are domesticated, as are a lot of backyard plants and crops grown for food.
A breed of plants or animals is changed by a process called selection, where only the most suitable members are allowed to breed, so that the features humans want are passed on to the next generation.