text: assuming all the dogs in the world died or otherwise vanished, could the wolf be domesticated again today? i know the motivation would be there. many of us would want to recreate the dog. but would it actually be possible, do you think, to do so given the conditions, social, economic, geographic, environmental, etc. of the modern world? yes of course you could, it would probably take another 15,000 years of domestication to reach the same diversity dogs are at now but it could be done easily. in fact dogs are wolves at the molecular level, they are also classified as a subspecies of wolf. not to mention the fact that it would be easier to re-domesticate feral pariah dogs like dingos etc.... all they are is domesticated dogs that went back to the wild. i know it is possible... i know people who have formed friendships with wild wolves (not captive) and although it would take some time we could easily domesticate wolves and wild dogs and eventually re-create the domestic dog as we know it. as was previously mentioned it has already been done with foxes.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/tame_silver_fox  excerpt from wikipedia... speed of domestication current research indicates that domestication, or the attributes of a domesticated animal, can occur much more quickly[17] than previously believed. domestication of a wild dog may occur within one or two human generations with deliberate selective breeding. it is also now generally believed that initial domestication was through mutual desire. wild canines who scavenged around human habitations received more food than their more skittish or fearful counterparts. canines who attacked people or their children were likely killed or driven away, while those more friendly animals survived. canines would have been beneficial by chasing away other vermin or scavengers. with their sharp senses, they would also be valuable as an alarm against marauding predators. the relationship is theorized to have developed in this way. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dog#ancestry_and_history_of_domestication  in terms of their molecular biology, dogs are wolves (canis lupus) and the wide variation in their adult morphology probably results from simple changes in developmental rates and timing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/origin_of_the_domestic_dog  ps whats wrong with people?? it would take no genetic engineering, just a few generations of selective breeding...dogs are already wolves its not that far of a leap....