About man's use of dogs for hunting

>It might have affected the RATIO of that type food eaten also, if it
>increased the quantity, so in that case it might have made an impact on
>overall nutritional profile. Again, I'm curious like you if anyone has
>estimates of how long we've actually hunted with dogs.

One interesting idea I've heard mentioned is that the shift in types of
foods eaten might have been not only away from plant sources, but away from
muscle meat and toward depot fat and fatty organs (brain and marrow).  It
has been theorized that dogs made us such successful hunters that we were
able to preferentially consume the most nutrient rich and fatty parts
(greatest source of energy), thus allowing our energy-expensive (20% of
total expenditure, I think) brains to grow to their present size.  The
impact of this theory would, of course, depend on how long dogs have been
used.  The trend in research seems to be pushing the dates of earliest use
further and further back.  Someone (I think Katherine Rosenthal?) gave the
estimate of at least 125,000 years in their last posting to this list.

B. Lischer