I own an Airedale and I am fairly sure they are still used on wild pigs and bear(I hope this isn't wishful thinking), and they hold yearly hunting tests in Ohio, for those who want to go that route. As far as the wolf/dog connection, I remember reading that someone "tracked" the DNA of the breeds and found that  the Poodle was the closest relative to the Wolf. It makes a lot of sense when you think about  the Poodles great intelligence.
Chris

Ray Audette wrote:  Prior to dogs being used, humans had to perform this dangerous task themselves resulting in rodeo-like injuries in Neanderthals and requiring much stouter spears which were also used to deliver the killing blow.  It has been said that one man with a pack of dogs can out-hunt 20 men without dogs.  With the game safely held at bay, multiple killing strikes can be mad from a safe distance using projectile weapons.  It's so easy to hunt with dogs in this manner that it's illegal in all 50 states being deemed "unsportsmanlike".

>
> It's interesting that 15,000 generations passed before the DNA for tameness ( tolerance for other species) resulted in morphologically correct dogs just as 15,000 generation passed before modern DNA resulted in the earliest morphologically correct modern humans.