For centuries, the Canaan Dog continued his unlimited life in the wilderness, but in 1935 world events conspired to bring him back to the human community. Not only was the Second World War brewing, an independent Jewish state was approaching. Isolated Jewish settlements in Palestine needed guard dogs to withstand desert conditions, and the area’s military sought desert-resistant guard and patrol dogs. Rudolfine Menzel, professor of animal and comparative psychology at Tel Aviv University, was asked to design a dog that would meet these needs. Her original plan was to work with established breeds, but her mind’s eye kept imagining the Canaanite dogs she saw in the desert. They had survival skills and that was what it took.