Eyewitness II; #105; Dog

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Of. Rules by name. But dogs by nature these wild creatures are in fact close cousins of the world's favorite family pet. For. The fear wolves has become the animal we think of as our best friend. Look up what it means to still have in common. 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. Wilder tain all dogs retain the instinct for the hunt. And the muscle power. To pursue. Whatever the quarry. All dogs through

the sport of the chase. For their cousins in the wild. This is no place for game hunting dogs need stand alone and speak good sight and smell and hearing and effect of all there are among the most successful predators in all natural world. Her. Dogs were first trained for their hunting skills but they've strayed into human culture in many ways. As God's guiding ancient Egyptian souls to the afterlife and guarding Chinese temples. Even as loyal listeners advertising music but were wary of wild dollars the sly fox the Trickster coyote and the sinister pack of us. Around. Whether friend or foe. Predator or pet. All dogs are from the same animal found. The cage. With long powerful jaws and shock to the weapons needed to catch large prey and choose through bones and Caucasus.

All right all. Right. 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. Within the hunting pack coloring is critical. Lone hunters like foxes can be plain with a list pack teamwork requires that each dog has a uniquely recognizable pattern. Codes 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 toads for Dig. And their digging instincts can be put to good use. 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 sent him barking up the wrong track. Sounds a marker there fear stress but it's also how canids make their long distance call. The howls and yelps of wild dogs can be heard for several miles. Or. Smell. This tells a dog more than all the other senses put together his macho character. Whines off rivals tells dogs Who's Who where they are and why they're there. Smells can fully occupy a

dog until Sounders evenings. It's a human whistle but the dogs get the message which the origin of this unique man animal communication. It stems from the evolution of our present day pet. From this modern day skeleton. Go back 13 million years to its fossil ancestors. 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. This new creature was huge and menacing. It had become a dog. The war. Wounds had winning ways. They work together

stocky. As a. Thank. God. I dug. For 2 million years. They were the rules. Top dollars. But 18000 years ago at the time of the last ice age the rules met their match. Other leaders also in the past and chasing the same prey although arch enemies man and Wolf ended up joining forces as some moves changed sides and wild dogs became human pets. The man animal legend tells of children being reared by wolves. Perhaps the most famous were Romulus and Remus the mythical founders of role. Human babies may never have lived with wolf packs. But human adults certainly reared wolf pups they tamed them trained them and bred to hunt a new pack.

In the wild. Each dog has a role in the group and they all follow one leader. That way a pack of hunting dogs can bring down prey much more powerful than themselves. Thanks their large eyes upon the glory. Of God. Their ears are alert to the yellow of command to the club. Messages from the rest of the pack. Carefully. They isolate their victims leaving it no chance of escape. Dogs always hunt this way even in a human bag. Instructions may come from a different leader. But the instincts are the same. Man and dog share the struggles of the chase and the spoils of the hunt.

Such teamwork leads to fierce loyalty. Many dogs move perform amazing feats on behalf of their owners and tales of their heroic deeds make good movies too. And when faced by riots in the streets dogs help keep the peace as a pack and the dog is loyal to its niggers. The handler. Was helping to protect property and people from invasion or attack that aggression is real but it can be controlled by the handlers command. A dog senses and instincts are invaluable to us in many ways as blind people would confirm. Dogs know instinctively how to stock their prey. We've channels this

instinct into a more useful skill herding instead of hunting. No movement in the flock escapes the dogs pretty tires when its ears are sensitive to the slightest change in the shepherds command. A sheep dog can detect the tone of a shepherd's whistle or voice up to a mile away. And the most difficult lesson the dog learns to drive the flock away from the pack leader. The shepherd which goes against all instinct. It's possible only because of the dog's total obedience. Hannah Montana. The wisdom of one allied to the obedience and supreme senses of each other. Eyesight. Hearing. And the dog's most sophisticated sense smell. Inside its nose are around 200 million small sensitive cells 40 times more than in humans. Through them the dog's brain can pick up

signals from one molecule of scent. He gives a dog a completely different picture of the world based on what it smells rather than what it sees. Just this kitchen looks empty to us like for a dog the view is different. It knows that the boy has walked through. It. We can make out the footprints but already the sniffing detective knows much more he 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. Feed but food is a serious matter what to us is an empty plate is covered with the smell of chickens to a hungry dog. In the wild this sense of smell is invaluable. The key to survival. The coyote can smell a miming through a thick sheet of snow and ice.

It knows exactly where to jump to find its prey. We've made use of dog's survival instincts when hunting for sport. We bred fox hounds with a heightened sense of smell their drooping ears channel sent to the gnomes and their trained to listen to. Dogs quickly learn to interpret sounds. The instruction to the hound signals danger to this dog nearby. Love Foxy's a hundred two but knows when to turn tail and run for.

A while. Spurning the way of the pack. The fox rooms alone listening for the murmurs of harvest mice and other creatures. The fox can detect high frequency sounds the tiniest squeak is all the Fox needs. It doesn't have to see the baby nice. It already knows they're there. After dark the baddie or the Fox also hunts by sound listening for the scuffles and sex. Wow. 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 and. 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. We've bred dogs to work in the same conditions. The Huskies special schools our 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 dogs when 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. These are the finest athletes of the dog. Greyhound bus. With eyes like hawks they were bred as lean lightning fast hunting dog times. They chase a mechanical rabbit instead of real prey. Was. This speech. Comes from subtle muscles. Like with friends. In the past. Muscle is less than half the body. In great. Use its nearly two thirds. That explains why they can run it over for a month. 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.

Taffy said his young master from drowning in a frozen lake was racing off and bringing people to the rescue. An early canine celebrity over a century ago was great fires Bobby this devoted terrier set 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 joined spy missions from Russia was the most famous canine traveller 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 journey and will flood the River Nile.

This made the land fertile again. So the Egyptians worship a star for its life giving properties another of their gods a new bas 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 service guarded the gates of hell keeping the Living out and more importantly. The dead. And. The dogs superior instincts and senses have always been respected. But sometimes they're viewed with suspicion and even fear. This is led in more recent mythology to the dark and terrifying fusion of man and. The werewolves.

Ah the. Was. All. Fiction but perhaps with a thread of truth born of a time when wolves did run through a forest. Such fantastic stories alerted us to real dangers. But rules 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. The Romans trained dogs as living burglar alarms and intruders were warned off by entrance mosaics. The earliest known signs saying Beware of the dog. And since then all sorts of dogs have been bred with an aggressive

streak. In Italy's a brood see mountains. She was protected by a very special dog its afraid to protect the flock but also to map like a sheep. The Maremma sheepdog. He still tells any Don to defend its past and in this case the pack is the flock itself because this dog was raised as a lamb. A war. In sheep's clothing. Just like those wars of thousands of years ago which man to live with humans. These cops turned to sheep as a surrogate pack. 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. I did learns to keep its place. A wild street pup in Raleigh has to struggle to eat in live scavenging scraps and he quickly learns to fight for his food. As well. But. I don't have. To. Do that. Though not to the point of risk in the very survival that's fighting for a. Girl. In a dog you know dog world survival is everything. And that means learning lessons like submission acceptance and going hungry.

A dog eats as fast and as much as it can. It instinctively knows to Wolf it's food. These feeding habits derived from wild dogs which must eat fast should a bigger rival appear. Like a hyena. Because eating food is also the best way to store it and then transported back to the den where hungry puppies are waiting. They legs by licking the trigger and regurgitated. 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 under their fur. All dogs bodies are warm and dry. Since they have sweat glands only in their feet. In Mexico or hairless dogs were bred and used as hot water bottles. People may find strange uses but many pet dogs are chosen for one reason. Copy the.

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. 4000 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. The NOAA does today's pet dog feel wild for the strong are those little fish and Steve still running in its layers the air. The air. Most dogs keep their wild side well hidden appearing da silent domesticated to

our eyes. They know their place. They've given up their freedom to join the human back. People moved from this partnership. These have a loyal affectionate and obedient companion. The dog who has someone to play with the comfortable home no regular supply of food. Our four legged friend has all its needs now I. Mean I think we're the master. But which one of us is really top dog. Presentation of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and bi annual

financial support from viewers like you to order a video cassette of this eyewitness episode called PBS video at 1 800 8 to 8 for PBS. Or write to the address on the screen. Says PBS. The modern photographic techniques used in the eye witness series bring the animal world to life on the pages of eye witness natural world companion book to the eye witness series eye witness natural world is published by Dorling Kindersley. The price is twenty nine ninety five plus five ninety five shipping and handling to order this colorful and informative visual guide. Call 1 800 4 4 0 2 6 5 1 credit cards are accepted.