section_path: Roles with humans
section_name: Roles with humans
paragraph_text: Roles with humans
  
  The domesticated dog apparently originated as a predator and scavenger. Domestic dogs inherited complex behaviors, such as bite inhibition, from their wolf ancestors, which would have been pack hunters with complex body language. These sophisticated forms of social cognition and communication may account for dogs' trainability, playfulness, and ability to fit into human households and social situations, and probably also their co-existence with early human hunter-gatherers.
  
  Dogs perform many roles for people, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and the military, companionship, and aiding disabled individuals. These roles in human society have earned them the nickname " man's best friend " in the Western world. In some cultures, however, dogs are also a source of meat.