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00:00Every human society has dogs.
00:30We've got more dogs than children.
00:34Everybody knows we domesticated them.
00:38They're our creation.
00:40We do with them as we please.
00:49But see it from the dog's point of view, and it's a totally different story.
00:54Because there's far more to dogs than meets the eye.
00:59This story starts in New Guinea, the world's largest tropical island just north of Australia.
01:24The reason for being here is Dr. David Paxton, an Australian vet.
01:32David Paxton has written a revolutionary new history of the dog.
01:36He claims the dog was not domesticated by humans.
01:39It domesticated itself.
01:41In fact, the dog may have helped to domesticate us, and most incredibly, only by the dog doing
01:47all this did we gain the power of speech.
01:51The dog, therefore, is responsible for the whole of human civilization.
01:59Needless to say, such claims made by a vet from the back of beyond have not gone down
02:03well with the academic establishment.
02:06In the PhD program, you have to give seminars, and I invited a number of people, and one was
02:13a professor who was not associated with my school, but had a secondary sort of association,
02:20and he actually thought it was a hoax.
02:23I think, if I remember correctly, the seminar, I labelled it the invisible paw, because after
02:29all, you know, Adam Smith's invisible hand theory for economics, and I was just saying
02:34that there's an invisible paw in human affairs too.
02:38And I had to go and see him and explain that I was just not some nutter, that I actually
02:43had a logical case to put.
02:49Most people regard the relationship between humans and dogs as too trivial even to think
02:54about.
02:58But David Paxton believes years of observing the people and animals in these villages, rather
03:03than in Manhattan or London, have allowed him to see clearly the startling
03:07importance of the dog in the story of mankind.
03:16For David Paxton, the emotional content of this trivial relationship was the first clue
03:22that there was something far deeper going on.
03:25The dog knows you?
03:27He's friendly?
03:28The key thing is that people don't realize that they have an interdependence with the dog,
03:34much deeper than an ownership relationship.
03:37We put up with them chewing things or making messes or whatever.
03:42We bring them up within our houses more or less as children.
03:47We grieve over them when they die.
03:53For Paxton, this is not simply a recent social relationship, it's biological.
03:58He argues that the long time span of evolution has cemented the relationship deeply into our
04:04minds and the dog's mind.
04:06This idea has captured the imagination of others thinking about people and their pets.
04:12David Paxton's work has been fascinating and personally it caused a complete rethink of the relationship
04:21between humans and dogs for me.
04:24I was thinking at the time about the roles that dogs play in our lives now and I think this
04:30is where many people are stuck.
04:32We tend to take them for granted.
04:34They're always there and in many ways this dog ownership or pet ownership thing is disregarded
04:40as a human construct, as something that's fairly trivial.
04:43What David Paxton's ideas did for me is really put it in context and made me realise how important
04:50this relationship with dogs really might have been and I believe is.
04:56But overall David Paxton's ideas could not be more at odds with the traditional wisdom.
05:02The accepted story comes from archaeology which says around 14,000 years ago as modern humans
05:09began a settled existence, man, using his natural genius, decided he would domesticate the dog.
05:17From that moment on the dog was putty in our hands and certainly made not one jot of difference
05:23to our own evolution and this more or less is the brief history of the dog that David Paxton
05:30has turned upside down.
05:32Obviously nobody switched on the light bulb on a certain day 14,000 years ago.
05:39There had to be a process of evolution before that happened and it's silly to think that
05:43that process was not rich until civilisation appeared.
05:49If I was to put a figure on it I would have to think that dogs and human beings have been
05:55together in a relationship for more than say 100,000 years.
06:02Paxton's insistence on the dog's antiquity put him out in the academic wilderness.
06:11Extraordinary confirmation that the dog is ten times older than previously thought came last
06:16year from DNA screenings of 300 dogs, wolves, jackals and coyotes.
06:24The analysis also finally confirmed the wolf as the ancestor of the dog and revealed that
06:3075% of all modern breeds of dog come from a single maternal ancestor, a mother of all dogs,
06:39100,000 years ago.
06:45What had been dismissed as the meanderings of a nutter now had a basis in solid fact.
06:51His thoughts of setting the relationship between dogs and humans way back to 100,000 years
07:01ago.
07:02When I first started talking to him three, four years ago we didn't even have the mitochondrial
07:06DNA evidence that we do now.
07:08It was purely speculative based on the importance of the relationship now.
07:12The fact that he has been proven right by mitochondrial DNA analysis really makes you think my god there
07:19must be something to this.
07:23Pushing the origin of the dog back ten times further than previously thought immediately
07:28creates a tantalizing coincidence.
07:31For 100,000 years ago we were still evolving ourselves.
07:40Suddenly it seemed possible that our evolution could be intertwined with that of the dog evolving
07:46from its wolf ancestry.
07:51But why would we get involved with such a dangerous animal unless, as a British zoologist believes,
07:57it wasn't our choice.
07:59It was the wolves.
08:03Originally wolves came into human settlements purely because there was food to be had from
08:10scavenging around the side of the campfire if you like.
08:12These would have been perfectly wild wolves.
08:14These are not domestic dogs at all.
08:15They would have just been opportunists.
08:16They would have just been catching up on a free meal if you like.
08:19I don't believe that people went out and thought what a good idea it would be to have some wolves
08:25around.
08:26They're really horrible big things which bite you when you get too close to them.
08:29I think the wolf introduced itself to begin with and the relationship developed from there.
08:48So we have the dog because the wolf chose us.
08:55Yet it seems an unlikely team.
08:57Ferocious, bone-crushing wolves and skinny, clawless humans.
09:07What allowed us to overcome our differences was a crucial similarity.
09:20We were both social animals with complex social communication.
09:26Human beings communicate with one another subconsciously by the use of body language.
09:35We use speech to communicate subtleties and meaning and to transmit information.
09:41But the emotion and the feeling behind what we're saying is transmitted by our gestures,
09:46by movements of our face, by movements of our hands, shoulders and so on.
09:50Wolves don't use very much vocal communication apart from howling which they do at a distance.
09:55They just concentrate on this body language.
09:57They have a very subtle use of their ears, their head, the jowls, the hackles on their
10:03back, their tails, the height at which they carry themselves above the ground, which conveys
10:07a multitude of meaning to other wolves.
10:10And if you look at it, it's fairly clear, without actually having a translator on hand,
10:15what all of these things or a lot of these things mean.
10:18So, in a sense, we had a common language already.
10:24We had our body language that they could pick up on.
10:26They had their body language that we could pick up on without the necessity for any kind
10:30of training or verbal communication between the two species.
10:33And therefore, the two species could start communicating right from the word go.
10:51Wolf and human societies coexisted because they could at least understand each other.
11:01Certainly, it seems that some group of wolves at some point formed this alliance,
11:08this genetic pact, certainly not realising, but in essence it was as if they realised
11:14that they were going to be better off linked together than their brethren that were left
11:18off alone.
11:19And as it's turned out, of course, that's been the case because wolves today are few and
11:24far between and have to be kept in sanctuaries.
11:26Dogs are in almost every household.
11:33The wolf dog simply moved in and made its home in our home, according to David Paxton.
11:44The dogs just simply evolved because human beings created home bases.
11:57Now, that meant that there was waste products that could feed other animals.
12:04The evolving dog would have had certain characteristics that enabled it to live in human habitation,
12:11such as sociability and the liking for comfort and the ability to eat strange foods
12:16and to make do with very little.
12:19In evolutionary terms, it would have been a better niche
12:22than being out there with all the other predators chasing game
12:25that was very fast and difficult to kill.
12:27So, the dog opted to let someone else do the hunting and so on.
12:32It may not have been exactly a noble existence, but that's what it did and it survived well.
12:36And, basically, I would see it as more or less infesting the human home base.
12:45Echoes of this 100,000 year bond between the dog and people can, says David Paxton,
12:51still be seen in villages everywhere in the world.
12:54Generally speaking, the dogs are running their lives, people are running their lives,
13:01it just happens that they share the environment.
13:03So, according to modern science, we are not at the centre of the universe,
13:17humanity is not the pinnacle of creation, and now we find we didn't even domesticate the dog.
13:24More galling still, we probably spent 40,000 years trying and failing to get rid of this pest.
13:32Right up until very recently, we've been totally overpowered by two main ideas.
13:37One is that God created all the animals for us and, therefore, naturally, we must have imposed whatever will we had on them.
13:49The other is that humans were supreme and through the, and this is more this century,
13:54but through our own evolution and evolutionary superiority, we, therefore, created things like dogs,
13:59we created agriculture, we created other animals that have been useful to us.
14:06It's a totally turning it on its head type of experience to think that we had no choice about the dogs.
14:12Dogs chose us.
14:15The dog was now poised to change the face of humanity.
14:19This is what the mother of all dogs looked like.
14:38The Australian dingo is a living relic of the kind of animal that David Paxton believes changed the course of human history.
14:46The canine missing link.
14:54Today, the wild dingo is in danger of extinction.
15:00In Australia, a man inevitably called Bruce Jacobs has a personal mission to preserve the purebred dingo.
15:09For all their baby-killing reputation, Bruce lives and sleeps in harmony with 100 of them.
15:14Hello, old girl.
15:15And Dad got one when I was four.
15:18So I've always had a dingo.
15:21But then I started to realise the plight of the dingo.
15:25Out in the mainland Australia is virtually doomed in a few years by interbreeding with other dogs gone bush.
15:34So you lose the purest strain.
15:35So what I'm trying to do with a few others is keep the purest strain.
15:40So that's why I've got a dingo farm.
15:44It's been proven that the dingo was the first domestic dog.
15:48To me, he's the most valuable dog on this earth because he's the base stock of every breed of dog on the earth.
15:54Oh, they're like people in dog suits. They really are. They're like human beings in a dog suit.
16:04A hundred thousand years ago, the early dog took to infesting our campsites, stealing our scraps.
16:19If the dog had simply been getting a free lunch, the relationship would never have lasted to become what it is today.
16:28We had to be getting something out of it too.
16:31And whatever it was, it changed the course of human history.
16:35One of the strongest ideas about why this symbiosis would have been so successful for so long is that they bark, they set up a noise and they alert you of something coming.
16:49And you don't have to believe all the most far-fetched ideas and hypotheses about this relationship to understand that those groups that had this early warning system lying around their camp would have been better off than those that didn't have it.
17:03There was a noise that didn't have it.
17:25Is that a right wing nut?
17:27So Paxton's idea is that without either us or the dogs being aware of it, the mere presence of a pack of noisy scavengers gave us a critical evolutionary advantage.
17:47Today, we think of ourselves as powerful technological people.
17:59But stripped of all our technology, humanity is physically very vulnerable.
18:04You can imagine the people in the settlement carrying out much the same sort of functions as they would in any small village situation of cooking and cleaning, disposing of things, generally getting on with their day, which may well have included hunting, but certainly would have included gathering.
18:26The dog brought us a zone of security inside which our children could enjoy the long childhood in which they learn what makes us powerful.
18:40Together, dogs and people became greater than the sum of their parts.
18:58The dogs I can see just simply being there, hanging around on the edges, hoping to find some little piece of food which might have even been human faeces.
19:16Even being human faeces, the dog's role would have been quite important in keeping the camp clean.
19:22What we're really seeing here is two societies which are interdependent in terms of needing each other for their own well-being, but which operate virtually independently.
19:35The critical moment in our evolution happened long before the dog became a pet.
19:45When it was still little more to us than a pest, it had already played its part.
19:51This theory of how and when humans and dogs teamed up may be the answer to one of the great mysteries of our own evolution.
20:19For over a hundred thousand years, we were not the only large-brained, tool-using, fire-making human species.
20:35We lived side by side with Neanderthals.
20:39We survived, but they became extinct. Why?
20:57Scientists have suggested many causes for the death of the Neanderthals, yet none of them are wholly satisfactory.
21:11One leading anthropologist is convinced Paxton's idea may hold the key.
21:17Neanderthals and sapiens were about equally advanced. They had similar stone tools, similar modes of life.
21:27Neanderthals buried their dead. They used fire.
21:31They presumably took care of their old people because we had some buried skeletons of people who were extremely aged.
21:40They were real human beings.
21:44The brain sizes of the Neanderthals and of the earliest homo sapiens were about the same.
21:50They both averaged about 1,500 cubic centimeters, which is larger than the main brain size of any living people.
21:58They were overlapping from about 120,000 to about 30,000 years ago.
22:07And it was obviously going to take something quite special to dislodge them.
22:12You know, some people envisage warfare, you know, homo sapiens striding into Europe, knocking the Neanderthals on the head.
22:19I don't think anything of the kind. In fact, Neanderthals faded out because the sapiens were doing something better.
22:28Just, were doing the same sorts of things, just that little bit better and out-competing them.
22:33And I think they were enabled to do them a little bit better because they had a companion to do it with.
22:40If homo sapiens had noisy dogs and Neanderthals didn't, this might have been enough to give us the edge over them.
22:51But the dog has far more than just a bark. It has a fine sense of smell, a sense significantly missing in us.
23:00The Neanderthal nose, I'm afraid this specimen is largely reconstructed, but it's very clear from what's left of the nose that it was just enormous.
23:11Protrusive, wide, high, and you can see it's as if the whole middle part of the face has been pulled forward like that.
23:21You know, as if it was made of rubber and somebody just pulled the middle forward.
23:25Whereas if you look at the homo sapiens, you see the face is much flatter.
23:29It's partly a difference in the height of the face, but a difference in the enormous size of the Neanderthal nose compared to the sapiens nose,
23:37and the difference in the projection, the whole projection of the Neanderthal face.
23:43When you look at the primary sensory stations, for instance, the olfactory bulbs, the sense of smell,
23:52we have the smallest olfactory bulbs of any primate.
23:57Neanderthals probably had a far more acute sense of smell than us.
24:03Yet sapiens, a weaker creature with a poor sense of smell, survived.
24:09Now, it just doesn't make evolutionary sense for a species to survive the way human beings have survived without a good sense of smell.
24:19Because after all, we were on the open spaces, we weren't like a mole underground losing its sense of sight or anything.
24:26We needed that sense of smell for our own survival.
24:29And yet we know that sapiens did lose the sense of smell.
24:35But at the same time, sapiens gained the more powerful capacity for complex speech, which crucially, Neanderthal never did attain.
24:45David Paxton saw a connection, and it's here he pushes the argument further than anyone else.
24:51The Neanderthal had the voice box that we have, but it couldn't have made the words that we make, partly because it had a big loose tongue and a great big muzzle.
25:03So it couldn't have controlled its vocal apparatus enough to make words.
25:10And words, of course, are how we survive and how we organise.
25:14Now, a big head can manage to hold many functions at once.
25:18It can perhaps have a big snout and a big sense of smell, big ears.
25:22All sorts of senses can fit on this skull.
25:24The disadvantage is that if you've got a heavy skull and thick muscles around the neck and all the rest, you don't actually have the flexibility to move your jaw around to the degree that you would need to have complex speech.
25:37Paxton argues that we were able to fine up our heads and abandon whatever was left of our sense of smell and perhaps of hearing as well,
25:46because some other animal was doing the job for us, because the dog was doing the job for us.
25:52Sapien's great advantage over Neanderthal was a flat face and a small, agile mouth, which, Paxton argues, evolved because the dog relieved us of the need for a big muzzle.
26:07This is the mighty difference that the dog made to our success.
26:12Now, that's a pretty big hypothesis.
26:19I must say I'm not ready to say one way or t'other.
26:23I think it's a fascinating idea and it's one that we really need to throw out there and see what people make of it.
26:30It was only after these tumultuous events had taken place that the second chapter of the new history of the dog began.
26:39By 14,000 years ago, the scavenger had become the pet.
26:47Having inveigled its way into our camps, the dog's next masterstroke was to get at us via our children.
26:58All mammalian mothers, from mice to elephants, including dogs and humans, have an inbuilt nurturing instinct.
27:06And the smart thing about dogs evolving to live with us was that their success was boosted by evoking our nurturing behavior.
27:14A dog with love-me goo-goo eyes, eyes like those of a human child, stood a better chance of survival than a dog with a fierce wolfish glint.
27:32The key to the dog's success hinged on the way that all young mammals look.
27:41These are the typical characteristics of the young. Proportional to an adult, the head is much larger than the rest of the body.
27:50They have these beautiful, big, attractive eyes. And let's face it, they're full of the cuteness factor.
27:55If you look at human babies, they show exactly the same characteristics. They have these large heads, big eyes, and they're very appealing.
28:12And the idea is that particularly perhaps the women of the tribe would have found little puppies, little wolf puppies,
28:20and wanted to look after them and brought them back to the camps, and probably sneakily them in as well.
28:26Enjoy looking after young creatures.
28:50One of the characteristics of young is not just that they look cute, but they're also much more open to new experiences.
29:00The juveniles of any species are very playful. They are willing to approach new things, probably reckless in many ways.
29:10And that's a big problem if you're an adult wolf. But if you're a dog that has to live in and around humans,
29:15then those animals that have those characteristics of being playful, sociable, all the rest,
29:20are far more likely to go in and live amongst the camps.
29:28This flexibility through their socialisation period really allowed a degree of understanding
29:36to develop between humans and dogs that doesn't develop with other animals.
29:40Now, we have plenty of other domestic animals that we can learn to read their behaviours, their signs, and so on.
29:46But something happens between dogs and people which is quite extraordinary.
29:55By choosing the cutest looking and friendliest puppies, we inadvertently helped the dog evolve to be better at exploiting us.
30:03No one really knows if domestication of the dog was simply a matter of its becoming more friendly.
30:11Could it really be that simple?
30:14This mystery has been solved by an astonishing 40-year long experiment on domestication.
30:26Dr. Ludmilla Trut and her colleagues at an experimental farm in central Siberia have compressed what took nature 100,000 years into mere decades.
30:41They have witnessed the transformation of a wild animal into not just a tame animal, but one that actually is domesticated.
30:49The silver fox is a cousin of the dog.
30:54Like any wild animal, it's usually aggressive and afraid of people and can't respond to human affection.
31:01To mimic evolution, the experiment was simplicity itself.
31:07Only those that didn't bite were allowed to breed the next generation.
31:20This was the typical reaction at the beginning of the experiment.
31:24Even though all the animals now have been bred in captivity,
31:28we breed some to show the kind of reactions the wild animals have.
31:32They have meticulous records of every fox, its lineage and its behavior.
31:45And they had total control over which fox is bred with which.
31:49By taking complete control of every animal's life, they achieved in 40 generations something that had happened to the dog accidentally over 100,000 years.
32:02These tame ones are the result of 40 generations.
32:12But the original aggression disappeared after only three or four generations.
32:20After that, the experiment tried to increase the positive reaction.
32:24After five generations, they had created foxes that had lost the worst of their fear and aggression.
32:38But they were still a long way from being domesticated.
32:40Then, the experiment yielded a fox whose nature had been fundamentally altered.
32:50A small step for a fox, a giant leap for fox kind.
32:54In 1970, 71, 72, these significant changes appeared in the positive emotional reaction, the dog-like reactions.
33:08I remember the animals very well.
33:13They were descended from the famous female Laska.
33:17She was an amazing female.
33:19The predilections for humans she showed was just like a dog.
33:24She would look devotedly into humans' eyes.
33:28And the first animals who displayed this positive reaction to humans were the offspring and descendants of Laska.
33:38They even responded to their names.
33:41After ten generations, the wild fox had been transformed from a creature afraid of humans to one, like the dog, which craved human contact.
33:59The wild fox had sent to the wild fox.
34:18To the wild fox, it was a sweet-hearted animal.
34:21It's always the worst animal.
34:23To the wild fox, it was a sweet animal.
34:24To the wild fox, it was a wild fox.
34:26To the wild fox, it was a wild fox.
34:27she wants to drag me right into the cage it's so obvious to drag me towards her
34:36she wants me to play with her did you see it she's wagging her tail look at her eyes look at her face
34:57the first physical changes happened in parallel with profound behavioral changes
35:22it was only after the tenth generation they began to have these physical changes the obvious sign was
35:39the white spot on the head no one had ever seen a white spot on the head before it was a sign of a
35:46profound change inside the organism the changes in behavior were just the visible tip of deeper
36:00psychological changes the experiment had irrevocably altered the balance of chemicals that control the
36:07animals behavior and emotions the researchers had discovered the root of domestication after Alaska
36:18they finally had not just tame foxes but truly domesticated foxes animals that were themselves
36:25born childlike in their openness and playfulness
36:29for wild foxes the period of friendly socialization stops when they are two months old and the adult brain
36:44biochemistry for fear develops playful contact with its environment is replaced by avoidance and fear
36:59in the tame foxes in the tame foxes this friendly period never does end they stay playful and never do
37:11become fearful the Russian experiment had proved that simply breeding for friendliness
37:28they could tap into the deepest level of the fox's brain unhinging the animals natural adult instincts and kept it
37:36forever young trapped in a playful childlike state that playful state the essence of domestication is
37:46is what binds us to the dog still
37:49the ancient bond between humans and dogs has been translated into the modern world man and his hunting companion has become man and his playmate
38:08dog and man after 100,000 years together really are best friends
38:15dog and man after 100,000 years together really are best friends
38:23the husky may look like a wolf but it's more closely related to the toy poodle than its noble ancestor
38:30ancestor. We now breed dogs to make them look the way we want. We even breed them to act
38:38the way we want. Mike Bradbury and his huskies live for racing.
38:45We've got this excitement, this huge excitement, because this is what they live for, the start.
39:01And they're watching this team getting ready and they whoosh out the shoes, you know, and
39:05then they're just going ballistic. We've got all this panic going on, and I got that blazer,
39:12the athletic one that jumps up soon. He's, he literally just goes straight up in the air
39:19like this, about three, four feet. He just keeps jumping up like this, and he doesn't know what he's doing, he's just going mental.
39:24They run and live for just, just live for running. And they do it on pure adrenaline, but also they're
39:45athletes, they don't even think about messing around. But they still know that if you're working in a race,
39:50and there's an effort off them on the slopes, you know, because the training is always with the heavy rig. So the racing is easy.
39:56You've got a great, you've got a great feel between you, you know.
40:04The relationship between the racer and his huskies reminds us that alongside human ideas of pet ownership,
40:10the dogs themselves have remained true to the deeper relationship that allowed us and them to
40:17come together in the first place. Sit down, Skeeter. Sit. Sit. Skeeter. Sit. Well, dogs being descended from wolves have a very
40:24clear appreciation of pack structure. What they've been able to do is to translate the wolf pack structure
40:30into a kind of mixed species pack. They can have relationships with other dogs, which may be dominant
40:35or subordinate. And they can also have relationships with people. Come on, boys. They can think of
40:40themselves as some sort of hybrid wolf person, if you like. Somewhere inside their brains is some sort
40:45of idea that they are a mixture of the two. And so the company of either will do.
40:55You've got to be very, very right on top of them. Not beat them or anything like that, but just be in charge.
41:00And they know, because you're alpha male, if you're a really dominant alpha male, like I try to be,
41:05then you can be, you can do it.
41:10I mean, if I'm annoyed with them, because they're making a lot of noise or they're getting fighting
41:15or, because they're like kids, I mean, you've got to remember that a dog is like a child, but the
41:19child grows up and the dog never does. So it's always got that mental level, you know?
41:25Dogs' behavioural development has essentially been slowed down compared to that of the wolf,
41:29so that even an adult dog is still behaviourally, perhaps a one-year-old, as far as wolf behaviour is
41:34concerned.
41:37This is the intelligent guy. And he was always alpha male. And he was a lead dog, but he became
41:42too clever for his own good, you know? He started telling me what he was going to do.
41:48This chap is, he's thick. He's a lovely dog. Kite. But he is a bit thick. But what a worker,
41:55you know? I mean, if you give him a heavy weight to pull, he's the one that loves just digging in.
41:59In a way, we've got inside the modern dog's brain because we've bred them to actually want
42:09to do what we want them to do.
42:11They want to do what we want them to do.
42:16They want to do what we want them to do.
42:17They want to do what we want them to do.
42:18They want to do what they want them to do.
42:19They want to do what they want them to do.
42:20They want to do what they want them to do.
42:21They want to do what they want them to do.
42:22They want to do what they want them to do.
42:23They want to do what they want them to do.
42:24They want to do what they want them to do.
42:25They want to do what they want them to do.
42:26They want to do what they want them to do.
42:27They want to do what they want them to do.
42:28They want to do what they want them to do.
42:29They want them to do what they want them to do.
42:30They want them to do what they want them to do.
42:31They want them to do what they want them to do.
42:32Today, intensive breeding has created over 800 different kinds of every size, shape, and temperament.
42:48No animal seems less natural, less dignified than the dog.
42:53It seems there is nothing we can't do to the dog.
43:02Inside the mind of every modern dog, there lurks the suspicion that it's still a wolf.
43:20These are city dogs that mostly live solitary lives with their owners.
43:33The ancient pack lives of wolves resurrected only when their minder brings them a couple of hours of freedom.
43:39Well, I am the leader of the pack, absolutely.
43:47And this is very important that everybody realizes that.
43:51Obviously, they have to follow what I indicate.
43:59Dogs still communicate with us mostly as they did 100,000 years ago.
44:04The language they use brought wolves and humans together in the first place.
44:09Dogs still understand it, but we've forgotten we even speak it.
44:19Every owner thinks that dogs can understand human words,
44:22but most pet dogs don't really understand the words that we're saying to them at all.
44:27What they're reacting to when we communicate with them is what we're doing in form of gestures while we're talking.
44:34So, yes, owners think they're talking to their dogs.
44:36They think they're talking to them, and the dogs are understanding the words.
44:39The dog is understanding most of what's going on, at least the emotional content of what's there.
44:43But what the dog is picking up on is the way that the owner is saying these things,
44:47the gestures that the owner is using, the facial expressions the owner is using while he or she is talking.
44:52I certainly understand. They sense a lot, and I see how much they could change depending on my mood,
45:05and how much enthusiastic and happier, and how much more they run and they play when I am euphoric,
45:13and how quiet they are when I am sort of sad or tired.
45:22So, in the end, if this story is proved true, from the nose of the dog has come the whole edifice of human civilization.
45:29What has the dog got out of it? Have we given the dog a place of honor to befit its role in our evolution?
45:35Well, no.
45:37Okay, it's got to be that black dog, Mike. It's got to be that black dog, because I don't see nothing here.
45:42According to Animal Welfare, dogs are the most common animal victims of human cruelty and abuse.
45:49In the USA alone, every year, five million dogs are abandoned and have to be put down.
45:56If I don't take them, they're going to turn them loose in the street. And that's even worse.
45:59Because they'll be in the street, sometimes walking on three legs, sometimes two legs.
46:03So if we don't do this, who's going to do it?
46:06Come on, Max.
46:08The fact is that for every station in human life, there's an equivalent dog.
46:13For every pauper, there's a stray.
46:16For every millionaire, there's a pampered pooch.
46:19Oh, it tickles and tickles and tickles.
46:24Gizmo gets liver treats, cookies, bows, coats, leashes. She's pretty much spoiled.
46:36We cut the toenails, we clean the ears, then we give them shampoo, we fluff dry them, and get them ready for the haircut.
46:43And after the haircut, we put the cologne, we put the ribbons, you know, little bows on the hair, and they're ready to go home.
46:51Just what is it that you want to do?
46:54Well, we want to be free.
46:56We want to be free to do what we want to do.
46:59And we want to get loaded.
47:00And we want to have a good time.
47:01And that's what we're going to do.
47:02Well, wait, baby, let's go.
47:04We're going to have a party.
47:05I don't want to lose your love.
47:08I don't want to lose your love.
47:17I don't want to lose your love.
47:54A lot of people argue that, okay, we've dumbed down the dog, we've turned them into these mad, degenerate, goofies, in our own image and for our own means. But if you look at it the other way, in fact, from an evolutionary point of view, linking up with us has been tremendously successful.
48:14Those wolves that call themselves dogs are not in danger. But those wolves that wanted to be out there in the snow howling, they're in trouble.
48:27For richer, for poorer, for better, for worse. We're in this thing together.
48:37There are a number of features that have been identified as making animals particularly domesticatable. One of them is being not at all fearful, being quite sort of phlegmatic about things.
48:56You want animals that are low on aggression. I mean, the last thing you want is to have your throat ripped out in your sleep.
49:04There's a good argument that a lot of domesticated animals are not as smart as their wild brethren, that they need to be fairly docile to live in with humans and basically accepting whatever happens to them.
49:16You could argue, in fact, that all the characteristics I've described for animals being domesticatable are entirely true of humans as well.
49:25And in fact, many people have said that humans were domesticated too.
49:30And perhaps they were domesticated by dogs.
49:46The evidence is mounting that the catastrophic changes that destroyed much of the planet 65 million years ago may have come from within.
49:58Volcanic activity stands accused in killer Earth.
50:02Next Tuesday's Equinox at 9 o'clock.
50:16Just what is it that you want to do?
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