Disclaimer: By no means can i say that this is genuine, merely speculation about an interesting phenomenon.
So I came across
this article and it made me curious. The fact of Ethiopian wolves interacting with primates in a rather peaceful manner, as well as the scientists' speculation of that being the forerunner of the domestication of dogs made me think. Could similar interactions on an ancestral level cause their descendants (modern humans) to identify as canines? And that in turn, learning behavior from their canine neighbors helped the primates to develop the basis of therianthropy?
Mind you, this is all speculation and I really don't have much more to support this, but I'm curious as to what the rest of you think