system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: At what point in history did we decide cats and dogs can be domestic animals? They had to start out in the wild at first. What made us choose them over others?

At what point in history did we decide cats and dogs can be domestic animals?  They had to start out in the wild at first.  What made us choose them over others?
gpt
Some wolves were friendly enough that early man learned to "trade" food with them, and in exchange the wolves stuck around and provided security and possibly even helped in the hunt. Wolves are social animals like humans, so there was a level of innate understanding that we could build on. Over time, their descendants were bred for friendliness and various working tasks... eventually, they moved right in with us.

As for cats... I've heard it described that they're the only animal that domesticated themselves. Wild cats learned to associate humans with food and shelter... eventually, any offspring that was friendlier and more domestic were kept and less friendly ones were tossed out. Over many generations, this resulted in the fat, furry, lazy bags of evil we know as domestic cats today.