The Beeb's "The Secret Life of Dogs"

Not sure why I haven't seen this before.













Some gratuitous comments on the video above:

1. Aggression in foxes and wolves is genetic and cannot be nurtured out and is in fact passed on to offspring. What's that say about human sociability/aggression and nature vs. nurture?

2. Some people get dogs so they can have someone around the house to fetch them their slippers but I think what this show is saying is that they could just get a two year old child to do that stuff.

3. If I was that monkey in the cage doing that pointing experiment I'd be like I'm going to do the exact opposite of what you want until you let me speak to my lawyer.

4. Not to accuse the dogs of cheating or anything but how did the experimenter know the dogs weren't just following their noses, as opposed to the woman's finger or eye direction, to figure out which bowl the treat was under? If I were a dog, I'd follow my nose. I don't trust other people's fingers.

5. That bit with the foxes looking more like dogs as they were bred to be tamer was interesting. That must mean if we start breeding nicer people, they'll start growing fur all over their bodies, walk around on all fours and bark a lot more?

6. The Russian fox breeder may have mistaken aggression on the part of the foxes with "I'm effin pissed because I don't want to spend my short life in this damn cage only to have my brain dissected and my skin peeled off for someone's coat collar".