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[narrator] There are some dogs so noble,
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so heroic,
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they've done as much for humankind
as any person has.
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Like Laika, who gave her life
to expand our frontier.
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[newscaster] This dog may well be
the forerunner
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that points the way
to journeys to the moon.
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[narrator] And Frida, who rescued
a dozen souls buried under rubble.
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[reporter] …giving so many renewed hope
that even more lives would be saved.
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[narrator] And Kuno,
honored for running ahead into open fire
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and taking down the enemy.
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He'd saved lives when it mattered.
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[narrator] Today,
dogs are sniffing out COVID,
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invasive species,
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and cancer, as early as stage I.
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They lead the blind,
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cushion people's heads during seizures,
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and provide comfort when others can't.
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Clearly, humans and dogs
have a special thing going on.
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[man] Go.
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[narrator] And yet they're certainly
not the smartest animal.
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-[barks]
-[woman laughs]
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[dog whines]
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[narrator] Or our closest animal relative.
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So why, out of all species on Earth,
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are dogs man's best friend?
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And what does that say about us?
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[theme music playing]
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[man 1] It certainly appears
that the dogs are reasonably content.
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[man 2] Behind every pampered poodle
lies a long history of human intervention.
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[man 3] Little fellows don't know where
they're going, but they're on their way.
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[barking]
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Here's our new little baby, Miss Beazley.
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Oh. [laughs]
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[man] Are you enjoying being on TV?
You have no idea how famous you are.
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That's part of your charm.
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There are estimated to be
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over 800 million dogs
on the surface of this planet.
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[Gyllenhaal] And more than
half of them are pets.
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We're living in a time
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when humans are driving
thousands of species extinct,
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but there are a handful of species
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that have really figured out
how to get along with people,
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and dogs are the number one
example of that.
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And then when you look
at how dogs live with us,
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how well we take care of them,
at least at its best,
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I mean, it's a great life.
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Dogs were the first domesticated animal.
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[Gyllenhaal] Which is surprising.
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Our ancestors had all these nice
plant-eating animals roaming around,
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and yet, first up, they tamed wolves,
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meat-eating predators
that could kill them.
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No one knows for certain
how wolves and humans first got friendly,
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but one leading theory is…
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The scavenger hypothesis
talks about this idea
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that people would throw
that extra meat to wolves,
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and wolves would create this association
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that human beings aren't that bad,
through food.
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[Gyllenhaal]
Humans didn't just neutralize the threat.
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We created a new kind of protection.
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[Schell] So if you have wolves
on your side,
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even against other wolves,
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they'll provide signals of
"Hey, something is coming."
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So, before ADT became ADT, right,
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dogs were our security companions.
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[Gyllenhaal] And since
the friendliest wolves got more scraps,
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over generations,
the wolves got tamer and tamer,
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transforming into an entirely new species.
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In 1959, Russian scientist Dmitry Belyaev
tried to replicate that on another animal.
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[squeals]
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He rounded up a bunch of silver foxes
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and selected the tamest
to parent the next generation.
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And then he did the same with their pups,
and then their pups,
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and so on and so on.
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Fifteen generations later…
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[in Russian] The selection turned
what were once aggressive and sneaky foxes
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into animals as friendly as a dog.
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[Gyllenhaal in English]
Their biology had changed.
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They had about
half the amount of stress hormones
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as their wild ancestors.
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The adrenal gland
that produces those stress hormones
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had actually become smaller,
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and their serotonin levels increased,
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which produced happier animals.
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Their appearance changed, too.
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Their tails became curlier,
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their bodies rounder,
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and ears floppier,
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more juvenile facial features,
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increasingly adorable.
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And, well,
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more like dogs.
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[Schell] Cuteness unlocks
this parenting mode.
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So imagine a baby, right?
A really, really small infant.
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Your instincts are going to kick in
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to want to protect
that really small thing.
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[Gyllenhaal] Dogs replaced
the survival skills they lost
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with new ones,
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mainly pulling on our heartstrings.
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[Coren] The so-called puppy dog eyes
is an entreaty
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that dogs seem to reserve for people
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to get something,
to get a treat, to get a pat,
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or that kind of a thing.
Doesn't work on other dogs.
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[woman] Are you being bad?
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[Gyllenhaal] And we are suckers for it.
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[woman] But you're cute.
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[Gyllenhaal] One study at a shelter
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found that the more frequently
a dog used the puppy dog eyes,
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the more quickly they were adopted.
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[Schell] Right, baby, are you ready?
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[Gyllenhaal] Dogs pulled off
something extraordinary.
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Sit.
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[Gyllenhaal] Despite
a huge language barrier,
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they figured out how to talk to us.
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-Speak.
-[barks]
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See? He's trying to communicate
right then and there. He wants a treat.
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I talk with him and he…
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does what I ask him to.
Basically, that's how it is.
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It's easy to pick up on the body language
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after, you know, you've spent
so much time with them raising them.
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Tell me? What do you want? Thank you.
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So, we have a system here
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where if he wants something,
he will definitely let me know.
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They tend to have, like, little behaviors
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that'll, like, indicate what they want
or what they're trying to say.
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But I don't know. It's not always right.
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[Gyllenhaal] Dogs can communicate
dozens of feelings and desires.
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But here are the basics.
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There are some things
you can learn from the dog's barks.
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The first is whether the bark
is high in pitch.
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[high-pitched bark]
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[Gyllenhaal] That's a happy, happy dog.
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Or low in pitch.
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[low-pitched bark]
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[Gyllenhaal] A guarded dog.
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The next thing, are there a lot of them?
[barks twice quickly]
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[Gyllenhaal] Meaning
"I'm stressed or excited."
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Or are there few of them?
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[barks quietly]
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[Gyllenhaal] "This is mildly interesting."
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The pattern of the barks
is also important.
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[barking]
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That bark is basically
the "call the pack" bark.
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It means "Come over here
and check this out."
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[Gyllenhaal] But remember,
dogs descend from wolves,
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and if they spotted a deer
and alerted their pack by barking…
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They've lost their lunch.
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So dogs have, in fact, developed
wonderful body language skills.
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The dog's tail serves as
an emotional thermometer,
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which a dog uses
to tell you how he's feeling.
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Is it high or is it low?
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How is it wagging, okay? Fast or slow?
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[Gyllenhaal] You can also read
a lot of information in the ears.
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[Coren] Aggressive.
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Submissive.
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Relaxed.
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[Gyllenhaal] Humans are okay
at picking up these signals,
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but our relationship works because dogs
are extremely good at reading us.
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The dog's ability to smell
plays a big part in that.
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They are really wired to take in the world
through odor and through their noses.
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[Gyllenhaal] When they inhale,
the air doesn't just go to their lungs.
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Some of it splits off into a chamber
specifically for odor detection.
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It allows them to run
and smell at the same time,
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which we're not very good at.
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[Gyllenhaal] Depending on the breed,
a dog's sense of smell is around 10,000
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to 100,000 times better than ours.
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And when they're on a walk,
they're always on the lookout
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for the scent of another dog's pee.
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Or, as Dr. Otto would call it…
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"Pee-mail."
So, when every dog pees on the post,
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the dog gets all that information
about who was here, what they felt like.
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[Gyllenhaal] Dog pee
is like human Facebook.
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They can learn about
another dog's age, sex,
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mood, availability for mating.
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And if they've ever met before.
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This world that we experience
has these extra layers
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that our dogs experience
and we just don't know about.
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[Gyllenhaal] When you walk through
this room, you might notice:
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"That house plant
needs a little watering."
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"Looks like my husband
spent the afternoon on the couch."
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"And now he's baking.
What is that? Chocolate chip cookies?"
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"Seems like he's having
a pretty chill day."
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But a dog walking through that same space
might see things a little differently.
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"That plant has a disease."
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"There are bed bugs in that sofa."
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"Mom has her period."
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"Dad is making something with eggs,
vanilla extract, and flour."
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"Also, he's having
a low-level anxiety attack."
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Dogs can detect
all kinds of things we're feeling.
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Which may explain in part why
they're such effective service animals.
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Everything in her world was just
so overwhelming and so frustrating.
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And not being able to speak,
not being able to articulate
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what she needed, what she wanted,
what she was overstimulated by,
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she lived in a constant
state of frustration.
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[Gyllenhaal] The Clarkes
have five children
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and two of them,
Meadow and her brother Colton,
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are on the autism spectrum.
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[Maria] With Meadow,
the hardest part with her was
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she battled a lot
with self-injurious behaviors.
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Banging her head,
trying to break windows in our home,
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slamming chairs.
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Anything that you can…
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She could get her hands on, pretty much.
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[Maria] She was
a pretty violent little kiddo.
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Basically, all the medical professionals
wanted to do was to put her away.
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We had one doctor just tell us
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it would be easier for us
to just sign away our rights
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and put her into foster care,
and move on with our lives.
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[Joe] All right, come on.
Let's go. Come on, Coco.
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Let's do one, come on.
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[Gyllenhaal] The Clarkes learned about
a new intervention
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that had worked
for other children with autism.
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A service dog.
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[Maria] They're considered
mobility support dogs.
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Colton and Meadow
might just close their eyes
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because the world around them
is just too much.
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Ollie will just navigate him
through his environment.
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[Gyllenhaal] And they did more than that.
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[Maria] When the kids are feeling
overwhelmed, the dogs will nudge them…
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I love you, Ollie.
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[Maria] …cue the kids to sit down,
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and they'll lick their hands,
and just help them calm down.
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Mwah!
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The transformation that Meadow made
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as soon as she got Una was instantaneous.
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She stopped hitting herself right away.
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[Gyllenhaal] It was as if Una
didn't just sense how Meadow was feeling,
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but really understood it.
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[Maria] Good girl, Una.
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[Gyllenhaal] The kids felt less alone.
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I feel like, as a mom, you're supposed
to be the one that knows it all.
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And with our children, it's really hard.
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You never know what's too much,
what's not enough.
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Their dogs know
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just when to come in for a kiss
and when to back away.
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They know just when a touch
is too much and when it's not enough.
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-[Colton] Good job!
-They seem to always get it right.
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Come on. Grab your handle.
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[Gyllenhaal] And a recent study offers
a new clue as to why dogs
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seem so emotionally attuned to us.
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A team of researchers
had volunteers watch clips
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designed to make them feel things.
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Like the scariest part of The Shining…
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-Here's Johnny!
-[screaming]
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…and this infectiously joyful scene
from The Jungle Book…
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♪ The simple bare necessities ♪
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…while collecting their sweat.
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The sweat was then presented to dogs,
who were hooked up to heart monitors.
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This is a tube of fearful sweat,
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and this is a typical reaction.
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The dog's heart rate speeds up,
and it scampers away to a corner.
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And this dog is smelling happy sweat.
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It starts wagging its tail
and jumps, as if it wants to play.
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The pups seem to mirror
the emotions the volunteers had felt.
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When people do that,
really feeling what someone else feels,
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we call that empathy.
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You have to have your head to the camera,
not your butt.
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Come on. Sit back down.
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Good girl. There we are. Good girl.
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Okay, we're back.
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So, in psychology, we're often nervous
about giving animals human qualities,
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and I have been
a stern critic of that myself.
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The personal turning point for me
was bringing Xephos into our lives…
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Hello, sweetie.
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…and realizing that there was something
quite remarkable about this animal.
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And it wasn't her intelligence, but it was
her amazing capacity for affection.
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The scientific turning point
for me came in pieces.
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[Gyllenhaal]
One of the first came in 2016.
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I got hot dogs here for you. Excellent.
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[Wynne] There's a scientist,
Gregory Berns, who has trained dogs
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to lie perfectly still in MRI scanners.
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And so now you have the capacity
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to do these fantastically rich,
detailed images
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of the activity in the brain of a dog,
which had never been tried before.
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[woman] All the way.
There you go. Good girl.
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[Gyllenhaal] Once in the MRI, Berns' team
gave the dogs this signal, which meant…
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[Wynne] A piece of sausage is on its way.
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[Gyllenhaal] And another signal,
which meant…
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[Wynne] Your beloved human
is just round the corner
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and is gonna appear in just a moment.
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Great job, Zoe. Good job!
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[Gyllenhaal] In most cases, the dog's
reward center lit up the same amount.
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And one in five dogs…
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[Wynne] Find the expectation
of their human
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even more rewarding than the expectation
of a piece of sausage.
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So you do love me. [chuckles]
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[Gyllenhaal] Most dog owners
would hope so.
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Uh, yeah. He loves me.
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And I love him.
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I know they do. Absolutely.
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They love me every time I see them.
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Not all humans love me
every time they see me.
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Yes, my dog loves me.
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I do believe my dog loves me.
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He'd better love me. [laughs]
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How do you define love?
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[Gyllenhaal] We can't define love.
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That's why it's inspired great poetry
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00:15:25,133 --> 00:15:27,301
and the coolest '80s music videos.
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♪ What is love? ♪
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♪ Tell me is it really love? ♪
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♪ Is this love? ♪
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♪ I wanna know what love is ♪
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[Gyllenhaal] But if you were
to define love and make a checklist,
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liking someone more than a hot dog
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would be kind of
a bare minimum requirement.
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And empathy, which we know dogs have,
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would probably be on there, too.
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When you love someone,
you do things for them,
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and dogs obviously do that.
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And loyalty?
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Dogs check that box, too.
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But love is something more than that.
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It's this deep feeling of connection
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that makes the rest of the world
feel less important.
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And in 2015,
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researchers actually tested
whether dogs could feel that,
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by measuring their levels of oxytocin,
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00:16:17,351 --> 00:16:19,604
which is known as the love hormone
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00:16:19,687 --> 00:16:23,024
because it spikes in parents
and their babies when they hold them.
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And in newly enamored couples.
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[Wynne] They brought people
with their dogs into the laboratory,
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and they just had the person sit down
and look their dog in the eye.
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[Gyllenhaal] And it turned out
the levels of oxytocin go up
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in both sides of the partnership.
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00:16:40,208 --> 00:16:44,253
[Wynne] The love is embodied
in the hormones in their bodies.
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[Gyllenhaal] Researchers called this
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00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:52,678
an interspecies oxytocin-mediated
positive loop.
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00:16:52,762 --> 00:16:54,138
In science,
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00:16:54,222 --> 00:16:57,808
we feel this compulsion
to have a technical vocabulary.
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[Gyllenhaal] But we might as well
call it love.
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00:17:00,311 --> 00:17:02,980
One of my really good colleagues,
Dr. Bridgett vonHoldt
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at Princeton University,
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00:17:04,941 --> 00:17:06,859
is one of the leading experts
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00:17:06,943 --> 00:17:09,403
when it comes to all things canid genome.
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00:17:09,987 --> 00:17:13,157
[Gyllenhaal] She wanted to see
what really made wolves and dogs different
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at the most fundamental level,
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00:17:15,451 --> 00:17:19,247
and one gene, linked to openness,
jumped out.
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00:17:19,330 --> 00:17:22,792
That's why dogs have performed
so many heroic feats,
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00:17:23,543 --> 00:17:25,169
rescuing us from rubble,
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00:17:25,253 --> 00:17:27,588
and running ahead of us into open fire.
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00:17:28,381 --> 00:17:32,301
And that ancient selection process
that made dogs friendlier and cuter
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00:17:32,385 --> 00:17:35,346
coded an openness for love into their DNA.
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And that's their superpower.
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You can train rats
to do the exact same work.
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00:17:42,603 --> 00:17:44,438
That can be done, has been done.
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00:17:44,981 --> 00:17:48,192
But when you actually
want people to use those animals
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00:17:48,276 --> 00:17:51,195
to go out and find explosives, find drugs,
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00:17:51,279 --> 00:17:54,115
the dog is just
a thousand times easier to work with
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'cause the dog really wants
to be there helping you.
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I got married last week,
so I'm really thinking about love a lot.
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00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:01,998
[laughs]
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You have to love yourself
before you can love other people.
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00:18:05,710 --> 00:18:07,420
And what I find, though,
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00:18:07,503 --> 00:18:11,591
is that before I learned to love myself
quite so much, my dog still loved me.
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00:18:11,674 --> 00:18:14,135
-Franklin tiger.
-Franklin tiger.
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00:18:14,218 --> 00:18:16,596
[Maria] Our dogs don't care
how loud they scream
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00:18:16,679 --> 00:18:18,931
or how bad their day has been.
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00:18:19,015 --> 00:18:20,891
They-- They love them, too.
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00:18:22,184 --> 00:18:25,938
[Gyllenhaal] Archaeologists have found
an over 14,000-year-old grave
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00:18:26,022 --> 00:18:28,691
where two dogs were buried with a couple.
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00:18:28,774 --> 00:18:31,068
And another 12,000-year-old grave
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00:18:31,152 --> 00:18:35,072
where a woman was buried
with her hand resting on a puppy.
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00:18:35,906 --> 00:18:38,868
[Wynne] There's a book
by an ancient Greek called Arrian
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00:18:38,951 --> 00:18:41,162
from a little bit less
than 2,000 years ago.
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00:18:41,245 --> 00:18:42,997
And in there he talks about
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00:18:43,080 --> 00:18:45,166
how much he loved his dog.
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00:18:45,249 --> 00:18:49,545
These are pretty much the first books
that humans wrote about anything,
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00:18:49,629 --> 00:18:52,798
and they're writing about
how much they love their dogs
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00:18:52,882 --> 00:18:54,550
and how much their dog loves them.
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00:18:55,051 --> 00:18:58,846
[Gyllenhaal] Dogs evolved and prospered
because we took care of them,
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00:18:58,929 --> 00:19:02,099
but the comfort and connection
they gave us
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00:19:02,183 --> 00:19:05,144
may have been important
for our survival as well.
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00:19:06,062 --> 00:19:08,230
[Schell] I would say all of that evidence
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00:19:08,314 --> 00:19:12,860
does, in fact, say, "Yeah.
Deja loves us and we love her."
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00:19:13,611 --> 00:19:16,614
[Wynne] Everything
that any other living being
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00:19:16,697 --> 00:19:18,240
might do, might show,
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00:19:18,324 --> 00:19:22,078
in their behavior and in their biology,
and in their brains,
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00:19:22,870 --> 00:19:25,247
your dog shows all of those things.
379
00:19:25,331 --> 00:19:30,378
So, if you can be convinced
that any other living being loves you,
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00:19:31,003 --> 00:19:33,547
then you've gotta be convinced
that your dog loves you.
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00:19:34,674 --> 00:19:35,716
Don't you, sweetie?
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00:19:37,927 --> 00:19:40,721
[closing theme music playing]