Day 18: Dogs Decoded

One of the first topics I wanted to learn about when I started this documentary quest was dogs. I've been a dog-walker for 4 months now, and the more time I spend around the dogs the more questions I have. I didn't grow up with dogs, so this is the first time I've gotten to know dogs individually. I'm blown away by how strong their personalities can be. Some of my dogs are really smart, some seem quite dim, some are well mannered, some are quite rude. I quickly became interested in finding out what factors shape a dog's personality.

Trying to understand the brains of dog owners would be even more difficult...

Dogs Decoded is a well put together doc about the history of dog domestication and how it affected human's evolution from hunter gatherer to civilized culture. It also discusses what factors separate dogs from their more wild cousins, wolves and foxes.

What I learned: 2 cool pieces of knowledge. There are more pet dogs in the world than babies. What? Crazy, right? More dogs than babies. Also, there is a chemical that the brain releases when humans play with dogs (or pets in general) that is also released when humans engage in sex or mothers begin to breastfeed. It's called oxytocin, or the 'cuddle hormone', and it explains why we get so much enjoyment from playing or petting dogs. Likewise, dogs release certain chemicals of joy and pleasure when petted or given attention.

What I liked: So much puppy footage!! I loved all the widdle puppy dawgs.

What I didn't like: I found some of the findings a bit dubious. Discussions about how much of the current dog was shaped by nature or nurture is just too hard to finalize in an hour long documentary. Also, some of their findings were just hard to visualize on screen. They showed a dog that could understand over 200 words (the owner would say "get your bear" and the dog would grab the stuffed bear"). I bet if I saw this in real life I'd be much more impressed but on film it left out too many factors that could have influenced the dog's understanding. Plus how many takes did they have to do before it got all the right animals in order?

On the plus side I found my dream job: a science organization in Germany that strictly tests the intelligence of dogs to chimps. Sign. me. up.

Couple other observations:
Though it was an American-made film, everyone they interviewed in the doc was British. Why? I let this distract me way more than it should have.
They interviewed a handful  of faithful dog owners. I found that the ones that were interviewed by themselves seemed 50% more like the stereotypical overly obsessed pet owner than the ones filmed with friends or family. Moral is, don't gush about your pets when you're alone.
One dude they interviewed claimed that it was because we learned to domesticate dogs that we could properly handle cattle, which in turn allowed us to start living in one place and not be nomadic. Without domesticated dogs we wouldn't have modern society, he said. Strong statement dude.
A team of scientists in Europe are breeding foxes to see what traits they share with the common dog. They are breeding out aggressive genes to see what happens. Within 2 or 3 generations the foxes started acting, and even looking, like house dogs, all due to just selective breeding.
The same scientists then did the opposite, and only bred foxes with super-aggressive traits.Genetically altered super-angry foxes?  Sounds like the plot to a terrible horror movie, right?

Though it was a good doc, it didn't answer the specific questions I'm looking for. So the search continues for more dog docs.

The documentary can be found on netflix.

Totally unrelated but I can't stop watching this commercial. Doesn't even have a car in it.