The experts at Alaska Dog Works share this moment in dog history:
The ancient Mesopotamians were the first human societies known to deify dogs and include versions of dogs among their gods and their religious practices. Later, cultures across the world and the ages would do the same thing. Dogs, dog-human hybrids, and dog-related imagery played a role in mythology in Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Aztec, Norse, and Hindu cultures.
[Pictured: Anubis warming the heart of the deceased, northern wall of the burial chamber, Tomb of Sennedjem, Egypt.]