How have dogs come to be humankind's best friends? This talk will trace dogs' social cognitive abilities through domestication, covering work with wolves, dogs, and dingoes to better understand how domestication has shaped dogs' psychology. We will explore some classic work in canine cognition that has been done around the globe, answering questions such as: Can dogs understand human communication? Can dogs communicate with us? and Do dogs love us? We will end with more recent work done here in the US exploring how dogs learn from us and how that compares to human children.