According to new genetic research, most modern dogs still carry small fragments of wolf DNA – a reminder that their journey from the wild to our homes is not as distant as it might seem.

The study, published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analysed the genomes of nearly 2,700 canids, including ancient and modern wolves, village dogs and familiar pedigree breeds.

The takeaway? Even after thousands of years living alongside humans, dogs have not completely lost their genetic ties to wolves.

Of course, this does not mean your dog is secretly plotting a return to the forest. The wolf DNA identified by researchers is tiny, often less than 5% of a dog’s genome.

What makes this study especially interesting is that the wolf DNA detected does not come from the very beginning of dog domestication. Dogs split from wolves at least 20,000 years ago, but the research suggests that dogs and wolves continued to interbreed long after dogs had already become, well, dogs.

In other words, there were occasional reunions along the evolutionary road, and some of those genes quietly stuck around.

The numbers are striking: about 64% of modern dog breeds examined showed detectable wolf ancestry, and every single free-roaming village dog in the dataset carried some wolf DNA.

And this applies even to small breeds. Chihuahuas, famously fearless for their size, clocked in at around 0.2% wolf ancestry, a statistic many dog owners will find deeply validating.

Unsurprisingly, breeds intentionally created by crossing dogs and wolves in recent history – such as the Saarloos or Czechoslovakian wolfdog – showed much higher wolf ancestry. But the real headline is how widespread these faint traces are across everyday pets.

But why would wolf genes hang around at all? The experts suggest that some of these inherited fragments may have served as a kind of genetic toolkit, helping dogs adapt to new challenges as they spread across the world alongside humans.

• Sharper sniffing for survival: In village dogs, wolf ancestry was enriched around genes linked to smell receptors, which could have helped free-roaming dogs forage and scavenge more effectively around human settlements.
• High-altitude hardiness: Wolf genes are known to help dogs cope with extreme environments. Case in point – the Tibetan mastiff carries a wolf-derived gene that helps it handle low-oxygen conditions at high elevations.

Does wolf DNA explain why some dogs are aloof, stubborn, or intensely focused on scents? The researchers did find links between higher wolf ancestry and certain breed descriptions, such as being more reserved or wary of strangers. Breeds with lower wolf ancestry were more often described as friendly or outgoing.

But the scientists stress that these descriptions come from kennel-club standards written by humans, not controlled behavioural experiments. Training, environment and individual personality still matter far more than a sliver of ancient DNA.

Experts outside the study also note that detecting very small amounts of ancestry is technically challenging, which is why debates about exactly how much wolf DNA remains in dogs are ongoing.

That said, most agree the findings add another layer of richness to the story of how dogs became our companions.

So, the next time your dog locks onto a scent trail with laser focus, or lifts their head at a distant howl on television, it is not unreasonable to think you are seeing a tiny flicker of an ancient past – one that stretches back to wolves, campfires, and the very first partnerships between humans and dogs.