Eyewitness II; #105; Dog

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[Howling] [Tearing] Wolves by name. [Panting and tearing] But dogs by nature. These wild creatures are in fact close cousins of the world's favorite family pet. [Growl] The feared wolf has become the animal we think of as our best friend. [Growling] [Dog whimper] What do these two still have in common? [Growling] Are there any savage instincts left in this tamed and pampered playmate? If we could see the world through a dog's eyes, perhaps some of these questions would be answered. [Music] Wild or tame, all dogs retain the instinct for the hunt. And the muscle power to pursue. Whatever the quarry, all dogs thrill

at the sport of the chase. For their cousins in the wild, this is no playful game. Hunting dogs need stamina and speed, good sight, smell, and hearing, and effective teamwork. They're among the most successful predators in the natural world. Dogs were first trained for their hunting skills but they've strayed into human culture in many ways. As gods guiding ancient Egyptian souls to the afterlife and guarding Chinese temples. Even as loyal listeners advertising music, but we're wary of wild dogs, the sly fox, the trickster coyote, and the sinister pack of wolves. [Howling] Whether friend or foe, predator or pet, all dogs are from the same animal family: the canids. With long powerful jaws and sharp teeth, the weapons needed to catch large prey and chew through bones and carcasses.

[Barking and growing] They're also used to keep rivals in their place, to stop uninvited guests from stealing the meal, or to keep lesser members of the pack in line. [Whimpers] Within the hunting pack, coloring is critical. [Whimpering, yipping] Lone hunters like foxes can be plain, but in this pack, teamwork requires that each dog has a uniquely recognizable pattern. [Squeaking] Coats that distinguish them in the wild also distinguish them as pets. Whatever shape, size, or color - from wild hunter to a gentle pet - all dogs have clawed toes for digging, and their digging instincts can be put to good use. [Dirt shifting] Terriers were once trained to unearth rabbits, but today, as pets, they are more

likely to dig up mischief. When a dog follows its nose, it's actually being led by three key senses: Sight - a glimpse of the enemy sends them barking up the wrong tree. [Birds chirping] Sound - a bark can be a fierce threat, but it's also how canids make their long distance calls. [barking] [howling] [dog whining] The howls and yelps of wild dogs can be heard for several miles. [dogs barking] [Howling] [Dog claws clicking] Smell - this tells a dog more than all the other senses put together. It marks territory, wards off rivals, tells dogs who's who, [dogs sniffing] where they are, and why they're there. Smells can fully occupy a

dog until sound intervenes. [whistling] It's a human whistle, but the dogs get the message. What's the origin of this unique man-animal communication? It stems from the evolution of our present day pet. [music] From this modern day skeleton [crashing], go back 30 million years to its fossil ancestor. A dog- like creature that appeared as the last dinosaurs died out, gradually evolved - growing longer legs, a shorter tail, and losing a fifth toe, but keeping the same powerful skull and teeth. [Hinge opens and closes] This new creature was huge and menacing. It had become a dog we recognize: the wolf. Wolves have winning ways. They work together

stalking and hunting as a pack. [Growling] [Barking and whining] For two million years, they were the world's top dogs. But 18,000 years ago, at the time of the last ice age, wolves met their match in another hunter, also in a pack and chasing the same prey. Although arch enemies, man and wolf ended up joining forces. Some wolves changed sides, and wild dogs became human pets. [Dripping] The man-animal bond [howling] was so close, that legend tells of children being reared by wolves. Perhaps the most famous were Romulus and Remus, the mythical founders of Rome. Human babies may never have lived with wolf packs, but human adults certainly reared wolf pups. They tamed them, trained them, and bred them to hunt in a new pack.

In the wild, each dog has a role in the group, and they all follow one leader. [Wildebeest noises] That way, [animal noises] a pack of hunting dogs can bring down prey much more powerful than themselves. [Animal noises] Their large eyes spot the quarry. Their ears are alert to the yelp of command, to the clamor of messages from the rest of the pack. Carefully, they isolate their victim, leaving it no chance of escape. [Birds chirping] [Chanting] Dogs always hunt this way, even in a human bag. [Chanting] Instructions may come from a different leader, but the instincts are the same. [Yelling] Man and dog share the struggles of the chase, and the spoils of the hunt.

Such teamwork leads to fierce loyalty. Many dogs will perform amazing feats on behalf of their owners, and tales of their heroic deeds make good movies too. That's a good boy. That's a good boy. [Thunder] And when faced by riots in the streets, dogs help keep the peace as a pack animal, the dog is loyal to its leader, the handler. [Shouting] Helping to protect property and people from invasion or attack. That aggression is real, but it can be controlled by the handlers command. [Distant whistles] A dog's senses and instincts are invaluable to us in many ways, as blind people would confirm. [Brakes squealing] [Sheep baaing] Dogs know instinctively how to stock their prey. We've channeled this

instinct into a more useful skill: herding instead of hunting. [Whistle] No movement in the flock escapes the dog's quick eyes, while its ears are sensitive to the slightest [distant call] change in the shepherd's command. [Whistle] A sheep dog can detect the tone of a shepherd's whistle or voice up to a mile away. [Sheep baa] And the most difficult lesson the dog learns, to drive the flock away from the pack leader, the shepherd, which goes against all instinct. [Water rushing] It's possible only because of the dog's total obedience. [Music plays] What teamwork! The wisdom of one allied to the obedience and supreme senses of the other. [Dog panting] Eyesight, hearing, and the dog's most sophisticated sense: smell. Inside its nose are around 200 million smell sensitive cells, 40 times more than in humans. Through them, the dog's brain can pick up

signals from one molecule of scent in a million. It gives a dog a completely different picture of the world based on what it smells, rather than what it sees. [Scraping dishes] This kitchen looks empty to us, but for a dog, the view is different. It knows that a boy has walked through. We can make out the footprints, but already the sniffing detective knows much more. It can tell that the boy walked through the farmyard, past the pigsty, and across the neighbor's yard. All in the last half hour. Flowers are irrelevant to a dog, so their scent is meaningless. [Sizzling] But food is a serious matter. What to us is an empty plate is covered with the smell of chicken to a hungry dog. In the wild, this sense of smell is invaluable - the key to survival. The coyote can smell a lemming through a thick sheet of snow and ice. [Squeaking, grunting]

It knows exactly where to jump to find its prey. [Squeaking] We've made use of dogs' survival instincts when hunting for sport. We've bred fox hounds with a heightened sense of smell. Their drooping ears channel scent to the nose and they're trained to listen too. [Hooves clopping] Dogs quickly learn to interpret sound. [Horn] An instruction to the hound signals danger to this dog nearby. [Dirt moving] [Horse hooves] [Paws in grass] [Horn] The fox is a hunter, too, but knows when to turn tail and run for its [Horse hooves and dogs running]

life. [Horse hooves and dogs running] Spurning the way of the Spurning the way of the pack, the fox roams alone, listening for the murmurs of harvest mice and other creatures. [Birds chirping, insects buzzing] The fox can detect high-frequency sounds. The tiniest squeak is all the fox needs. [Mice squeaking] It doesn't have to see the baby nice, it already knows they're there. [Squeaking] After dark, the bat-eared fox also hunts by sound, listening for the scuffles of tiny insects. [Animal noises] [Paws in grass] In Czech legend, such movement in the corn is not the wind, but a wild dog's spirit to be chased and trapped in the last patch of corn,

then vanished forever. In the desert, all is quiet during the heat of the day. The fennec fox is listening, but also trying to stay cool inside of its fur coat. Huge ears act like car radiators, allowing heat to escape. But it's best to stay still to keep the body temperature down. In the Arctic, foxes have the opposite problem. In subzero temperatures they need to keep the heat in. That's why they have small ears and very thick fur. [Commands dogs] We've bred dogs to work in the same conditions. The Husky's special skills are strength and stamina. They'll pull this sled all day, panting, not from exhaustion but as a way of losing heat. And when it comes to skating on thin ice, [barking] dogs win paws down. It is said that huskies find the safest route across the snow and ice by sensing hidden danger, such as snow drifts and deep cracks. [Grates closing]

These are the finest athletes of the dog world: Greyhounds. With eyes like hawks, [dog whining] they were bred as lean, lightning fast hunting dogs. [Grate closes and opens] Now they chase a mechanical rabbit instead of real prey. [Cheering] Their speed comes from solid muscle on a lightweight frame. In most animals, muscle is less than half the body. In greyhounds, it's nearly two thirds. That explains why they can run at over 40 miles an hour. And so the winner gets a prize, just for following its instincts. Dogs even receive awards for bravery. They have been hailed as heroes for showing loyalty to their human companions. [Cheers] Taffy saved his young master from drowning in a frozen lake by racing off and bringing people to the rescue. [Clapping]

An early canine celebrity over a century ago, was Greyfriars Bobby. This devoted terrier sat by his master's grave every day for 15 years. The Second World War saw parachuting dogs dropped behind enemy lines to accompany raiding parties and join spy missions. Laika from Russia was the most famous canine traveler of all. In 1957, this dog was the first living creature to go up into space. And which is the brightest star in the sky? Sirius, the Dog Star. In ancient Egypt, it rose over the horizon during the annual flood of the River Nile. This made the land fertile again. So, the Egyptians worship this star for its life- giving properties. [Drums and music] Another of their gods, Anubis, had the body of a man and the head of a jackal.

His role was to prepare the dead for their entry into the underworld. Guide and Guardian. Recurring roles for the dogs of myth and legend. In ancient Greece, the three-headed hound Cerberus guarded the gates of Hell, keeping the living out and more importantly, the dead in. [Music plays] Dogs' superior instincts and senses have always been respected. But sometimes they're viewed with suspicion, and even fear. [Howling] [Clock chiming] This is led, in more recent mythology, to the dark and terrifying fusion of man and dog - the werewolf. [Snarling, ripping, tearing] [Snarling and howling] [Growing and ripping]

[Howling] Fiction, but perhaps with a thread of truth. Born of a time when wolves did run through our forests, such fantastic stories alerted us to real dangers. [Thunder crashes] But wolves were only threatening as our enemies. Once they had been trained to work with us, rather than against us, their aggression could be harnessed and put to use. [Growling] The Romans trained dogs as living burglar alarms and intruders were warned off by entrance mosaics. The earliest known sign saying "Beware of the dog." And since then, all sorts of dogs have been bred with an aggressive streak. [Sheep baa] In Italy's Abruzzi Mountains, sheep are protected by a very special dog. It's bred to protect the flock, but also to look like a sheep. [Sheep baa] The Maremma Sheepdog. Instinct tells any dog to

defend its pack, and in this case, the pack is the flock itself because this dog was raised as a lamb. [Music plays] A wolf in sheep's clothing. [Sheep baa] Just like those wolves of thousands of years ago, which learned to live with humans, these pups turn to sheep as a surrogate pack. [Baaing] [Music plays] And as with all creatures, the key lessons of life begin in infancy. Puppies learn through play how to interact with their siblings, and a jackal pup finds out that attention has to be fought for. And it learns to keep its place.

A wild street pup in Bali has to struggle to eat in live, scavenging scraps, and he quickly learns to fight for his food. [Barking and growling] [Barking and growling] [Snarling and barking] [Growling] Though not to the point of risking the very survival it's fighting for. [Barking, growling, whining] In a dog-eat-dog world, survival is everything. And that means learning lessons like submission, acceptance, and going hungry. [Barking] A dog eats as fast and as much as it can. It instinctively knows to "wolf" its food. [Squeaking] These feeding habits derived from wild dogs, which must eat fast

should a bigger rival appear - like a hyena. [Growling] [Hyena laugh] Eating food is also the best way to store it, and then transport it back to the den, where hungry puppies are waiting. They beg for food by licking the adult's mouth to trigger a regurgitated meal. So, next time a dog licks your face, you'll know it's looking for more than a kiss. In the Arctic, storing food is no problem. It's an open-air deep freeze; but, the arctic fox must eat as much as it can to stay alive in these harsh conditions. [Artic wind blows] Under their fur,

all dogs' bodies are warm and dry since they have sweat glands only in their feet. [Music plays] In Mexico, hairless dogs were bred and used as hot water bottles. People may find strange uses for them, but many pet dogs are chosen for one reason: style. [Music plays] Popular, useful, but not always welcome. Just as the wolf was drawn to human settlements in the ice age, so is one of today's wild dogs - the coyote. There's one dog that's made the opposite move.

Four thousand years ago, the Australian aborigines' pet dog returned to the wild. The dingo, which some native Australians identify as their ancestor, recalling a time when man, like the dingo, lived wild and free. Does today's pet dog feel wild and free? How strong are those wolfish instincts still running in its veins? [Music] [Music] Most dogs keep their wild side well hidden, appearing docile and domesticated to our eyes. They know their place. They've given up their freedom to join the human pack. [Music] [Whistle] Who's gained the most from this partnership? We have a loyal, affectionate, and obedient companion.

The dog has someone to play with, a comfortable home, and a regular supply of food. Our four-legged friend has all its needs met. We may think we're the masters, but which one of us is really top dog? [Music] Presentation of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by annual

financial support from viewers like you. To order a video cassette of this eyewitness episode, call PBS Video at 1-800-828-4PBS Or write to the address on the screen. [Music] This is PBS. The modern photographic techniques used in the Eyewitness series bring the animal world to life on the pages of Eyewitness Natural World. Companion book to the Eyewitness Series. Eyewitness Natural World is published by Dorling Kindersley. The price is $29.95, plus $5.95 shipping and handling. To order this colorful and informative visual guide, call 1-800-440- 2651. Credit cards are accepted.