01x01 - Dog Genius

[bunniefuu]

Dogs!

We live with 400

million of them.

Lovable!

Playful!

And cunning.

They use our homes.

And eat our food.

They watch, listen, and smell,

gathering intel for

their doggie database.

Why?

Because their

lives depend on it.

And have for

thousands of years.

Dogs come from wolves.

Around 14,000 years

ago, a pack of wolves

must have decided that

hunting was too much hard

work, and decided to eat some

human's leftovers instead.

So they began hanging

around people.

They stopped hunting and

started scavenging, and then,

they started working for us.

Ultimately dogs and humans

struck a food for hire deal.

They help us.

We throw them a bone.

A partnership that changed

the course of history,

for both people and dogs,

and in turn, created a species

that is completely

focused on us.

Today this relationship

is still going strong.

Mabel, come here!

Meet Mabel, a

six-year-old beagle mix.

You got it, yeah.

Like most dogs,

she has a nose for people.

And meet the Pressley's.

Nelson.

Ellen and Daniel.

And Sue.

Mabel's research subjects.

Sue works in an office;

Nelson works at home.

One day Nelson noticed

Mabel was up to something.

I noticed that Mabel

was sort of on stake-out for

Sue and that she would be

at the door clearly looking,

clearly waiting and this

was before Sue would be

anywhere on my radar.

Hi.

Mabel's not alone.

Dogs seem to know ahead

of time when their owners

are coming home.

Its 5:12 PM.

Sue shuts down her

computer and exits the office.

Mabel lies on the couch.

5:36: Sue boards the bus.

Mabel, still on the couch.

6:05: Sue's bus

nears the stop.

Suddenly Mabel perks up.

Jumps off the couch.

Takes up a position

by the door.

And the rest of the family?

Not a clue.

Except Mabel.

As always, it's a

tail-wagging reunion.

Hi, baby.

How'd Mabel do it?

Dogs' long distance hearing is

four times better than humans.

Our ears barely register

all the sound waves.

But for Mabel, the signal

is loud and clear.

Scientists have shown dogs

memorize the sound of the make

and models of their

owner's vehicles.

And learn the rhythm

of their footsteps.

Mabel has learned to connect

the sound of the bus with Sue

returning home.

And she's very

happy to see her.

It's a far cry from

her wolf ancestors,

who mostly kept their distance.

How did we get

from that, to this?

A Russian experiment

may have the answer.

It's 1959.

Russian scientists are

trying to tame foxes.

They breed the most

social foxes together.

So that each generation of

foxes becomes friendlier

and friendlier.

But the experiment produced

some other remarkable results.

After a few generations,

the foxes started to

look like dogs!

Floppy ears.

Curly tails.

Multi-colored coats.

The foxes also stopped

being afraid of people.

They became playful

and affectionate.

Eventually, they even

learned to follow commands.

The same transformation from

wolves to dogs was happening

with the foxes.

Only much quicker.

The Russians were breeding

for friendlier foxes.

But what they also got

were smarter foxes.

Ones that could learn from us.

And maybe, understand us.

Dogs are masters at

understanding us.

And our body language.

Two cups, both

smelling like treats.

Hide a treat in one.

Place them in

opposite directions.

Now point.

Does the dog get the hint?

The study shows dogs will read

our body language correctly

90% of the time.

Even six-month-old puppies

catch on pretty quickly.

Dogs may be born with

the ability to

understand our gestures.

Dogs also pay close

attention to our eyes.

The researcher puts a treat

on the ground and tells a dog

named Maura not to eat it.

Then she sits, eyes wide open.

Maura obeys.

Next, she closes her eyes.

Will Maura sneak the treat?

You betcha.

Dogs seem to know

what we're thinking.

Are they really that smart?

Dogs can learn many things.

To play catch.

Or fetch.

Or carve on the boardwalk.

Now take an ordinary

dog and train it to do

extraordinary things.

Do you get a genius?

This is canine camp.

Where puppies learn to lend

a helping paw, as doorman.

Good boy.

Handyman.

Good boy, that's it.

And rescue worker.

Push.

NARRATOR And in an

emergency, they're trained

to nose punch a 911 button.

Yes, good boy.

For just a

couple of treats.

Good boy!

These dogs will be

there night and day to help

people with disabilities.

But first, they have to

learn the right mind set,

says Canine Assistance

founder, Jennifer Arnold.

Our dogs have

to love what they're doing

because we don't punish

them when they don't do it,

so fear is not a reason

for them to comply.

And

when they leave us and

they go home with their

recipient, when

the recipient says,

"Will you pick this up

for me," well, I mean,

it's all up to the dog.

Yes, good boy.

Come on, guys, go!

Jennifer

creates super dogs.

She trains them for

the first year and half of

their lives, and develops

their bodies and minds in

a specialized way.

She starts 'em young.

The first day of

school, Jennifer turns

them upside down,

sits them on a cold towel

and stimulates their paws.

A newborn puppy's brain is

turbo-charged for learning.

Some scientists think these

brain-teasing exercises help

them learn even faster.

And get them prepared, for

when the real training begins.

Come

on, pups, let's go!

A few weeks

later: they are brought

together for more

training in the puppy room.

During these critical

first months,

just about everything

they learn.

Yes, good job!

Will stay

with them forever.

Yes, good kids.

Excellent, very nice.

Here, they face the

same challenges they'll have

in the real world.

They are taught about

light switches.

Who's gonna get that light?

Yes, good light, good job.

Other

household pets.

And even themselves.

That's it!

Many things can

be scary for young puppies.

So they are trained to

overcome their fears.

Come on,

let's go, let's go, let's go!

This is a pretty

intimidating thing to

encounter, especially

for a puppy.

Good job, good job!

And so, I mean, you see a

lot of dogs who are afraid of

stairs or afraid of certain

hallways or certain rooms

in the house.

And

during this critical time

when they could be going

through a fear period, we want

to introduce them to as much

things that are difficult,

challenging as possible.

Yeah, good job!

So we want them to get used

to just about everything.

And if they can do this,

everything else should be

a piece of cake, right?

The puppies

are then introduced to

the big wide world.

Each one is taken on

a guided tour of

our human environment.

Look at that!

Good girl.

Ready? Let's go baby.

It's critical that young

puppies get out to the

grocery store, to, you

know, ride the train,

to go to the airport, buses,

do all those things that they

may do in their adult careers.

Milk.

Oh, what's that?

What's that? Do you hear that?

At 18 months, it's

time to match them up with

their new owners.

And apply all that rigorous

training to a brilliant career

assisting humans who need help.

Perhaps changing

someone's life forever.

Graduation day is the day

that they finally feel

like they've found

their slot in the world.

These dogs are

such life-savers.

I'm so happy for the people

who are getting them.

The more we

understand dogs' ability to

learn, the more we

try to teach them.

But how much can they learn?

And how smart can they get?

This is Rico, a dog who

has learned an awful lot.

In fact, he's rewritten the

book on dog intelligence.

Rico knows at least 200 words

for objects and will fetch

each one correctly on command.

On this German variety

show, a couple hundred

toys are laid out.

The host picks a

card, the heart.

Can Rico find it?

But that's

just the warm up.

He can also find objects for

words he doesn't even know.

Here, Rico's asked

to fetch an unfamiliar toy,

a soccer ball,

with a nonsense name

attached to it, the BVB.

He eliminates all the

objects he knows, and

what's left is, Wunderbar!

Rico can figure out answers

by the process of elimination.

It's called fast mapping.

Children start to fast

map at age two or three.

Say a toddler knows what a

pig is and what a cow is.

Now throw in another

animal he's never heard of,

say a c*ck.

Ask, where's the c*ck?

It's not the cow,

it's not the pig,

it has to be this new

thing in the middle.

It's something scientists

thought only humans could do.

But no one told Rico and

his super smart dog brain.

Are other dogs like Rico?

One scientist is determined to

find out, using video games.

But not just any kind.

Dr. Freidericke Range has set

up a game with two choices

for her dogs.

If the dog chooses

the right picture,

it gets a tasty treat.

Some are really good at it.

But others, not so much.

Guinness is Dr. Range's

smartest dog so far.

The screen shows

her two objects.

A briefcase, and a gift box.

If Guiness picks the

briefcase, she gets a treat.

If she picks the gift box.

The screen turns

red, and no treat.

Guiness quickly learns to

always pick the briefcase.

Now a bowl of milk

appears on the screen.

She doesn't know if it's

a good or bad choice.

But she knows the gift

box is a bad choice.

Which would you

choose for a treat?

Bingo!

Now for a harder test,

the briefcase is back,

now its paired

with a telephone.

Now for a harder test, she

remembers the briefcase

is full of dog biscuits.

But here's the hard part,

the telephone comes back,

but the briefcase is

replaced by a coffee cup.

She has to guess between

two objects she's never

picked before.

She remembers the telephone

was next to the briefcase,

and the telephone

means no treat.

So by process of elimination,

the cup means treat time.

This is how Guiness is able

to memorize all the objects.

It may seem like a

simple game to us,

but few animals have been

able to demonstrate such

impressive mental abilities.

Dogs also have incredible

senses that are much more

developed than ours.

Dog ears are like an

onboard surveillance system.

Swiveling in

multiple directions.

They have 20 muscles that

raise and rotate the ear,

and pinpoint the

sound's location.

They then channel the sound

waves to the brain.

And the types of sounds dogs

hear would blow our ears away.

They can hear frequencies

two to three times above

our hearing range.

In order to reach the

highest note a dog can hear,

you'd have to add 48

more keys to the piano.

It would be impossible for

humans to pick up sound from

the last 20 keys.

But a dog's ears are nothing

compared to its nose.

They are ten times better at

analyzing smells than us.

Dogs smell by

separating out odors.

For us, a pot of stew

smells like, a pot of stew.

For them, it smells like

carrots and meat and onions

and all the spices.

They smell each

ingredient separately.

It's called odor layering.

And of all the super

schnozzes out there,

it's the bloodhound's

that is truly the most amazing.

Their noses are ten times more

sensitive than the average dog,

and 1,000 times more

sensitive than our noses.

They have a stubborn

personality too.

Centuries of selective

breeding have yielded a kind

of super sniffer.

Southern California:

The bloodhound g*ng.

Nose on patrol.

Today's challenge,

the find Cindy.

Hey, Cindy, I just need

you to open the gauze pad,

wipe your arm with it.

Cindy

plays the suspect.

Put the

gauze pad in the bag for me.

Thanks.

After a scent

swipe, she takes off,

on a half-mile

course around campus.

Two hours later,

trainer Tedd Hamm gives

Rosie one small whiff.

And she's off,

tracking Cindy's path.

Lucky for Rosie,

humans are smelly.

Each person's odor is unique,

like a scent fingerprint.

Rosie inhales the air just

above the ground and vacuums

in the scent molecules.

Rosie's nose contains a

mountain range of folds.

Millions of receptor cells

collect the scents.

Then to a bulb shaped

part of the brain

that's works as

an odor analyzer.

The bigger the bulb,

the better the sniffer.

Humans also have a bulb.

But the bloodhound's

is 40 times larger.

They're so good,

that they can smell a

single drop of sweat in a

seven mile radius!

In this part of Los

Angeles, there are

millions of sweaty people.

The bloodhound may be

able to smell them all.

As Rosie trails Cindy,

other scents compete

for her attention.

But she's stays on track.

In just under ten minutes,

Rosie finds her.

Bloodhounds are very

useful to police.

These K-9 officers claim

their dogs are so good,

they can follow a

criminal just by smelling

a b*llet casing.

Even after he jumps

into his getaway car.

This is

Donnie the Doberman.

A dog that communicates

with his toys.

Carol Young adopted

Donnie from a shelter when he

was about four years old.

Nobody really knows what

was going in his life

other than the fact that he

was found on the streets,

living out of trash cans.

He was

afraid of doors and he didn't

know how to go upstairs.

I had to teach him.

So there was a period of about

six months of adjustment to

say the least

between both of us.

After Donnie

settled in to Carol's home,

an extraordinary thing

started to happen.

Carol gave Donnie many

stuffed toys to play with.

But instead of chewing

them up, he arranged

them into patterns.

He's really

got a thing about triangles.

For instance, this triangle

right here is all frogs.

And then

this particular triangle,

he made sure that all

the toys were face up.

These are all bone triangles

and he would do many of those

around the yard.

All frogs.

Or all monkeys.

All face up or face down.

It was very strange.

Is he a dog artist?

Was Donnie trying

to say something?

If so, what was it?

Soon his creations changed

from shapes into scenes.

Each toy had to

touch, or hold hands.

Often one had an arm

around the other.

This

is definitely my favorite.

Here it is with a

Teddy bear and a frog

with the arm around.

When he made this arrangement

was the day after that he

first let me put my

arm all the way around

him and hold him.

And

the next day he arranged

his toys like that.

It was time to

call the professionals.

Dr. Barbara Smuts

studies animal behavior.

She agreed to observe Donnie.

She was interested,

but cautious.

Of

course, anyone could

have arranged those toys

in those interesting patterns

and then taken a picture and

said, "Donnie did it."

She rigged

up video cameras,

capturing Donnie in the

act, from start to finish.

Here Donnie creates

two parallel lines.

He thinks about where to put

the duck, changes his mind,

and puts it back in line.

Voila, a masterpiece!

Three there.

Three there and five here.

Wow.

That's pretty,

pretty neat, isn't it?

I still can hardly

believe that he did this,

those kinds of creations.

They're so specific.

Donnie may be trying

to create a new family.

Or make new connections

with people.

I think he's creative.

There's an emotional

component to what he's doing.

This is just how he

happens to express himself.

What an awesome animal.

For over 10,000 years,

dogs have played a huge

part in our lives.

They learn about us.

And we learn about them.

We know each

other well enough

to be the best of friends.