Everybody, welcome to another episode of Shaped by Dog. I am Susan Garrett. And today,

we're going to talk about how Hollywood has made life incredibly difficult for dogs.

Now, I'm not talking about the fact that, you know, certain movies popularize different breeds

that maybe aren't the best pets for everyone.

That's not great either.

And maybe I will do a podcast on how to know what breed of dog

would be good for you. What I'm talking about is the personification that they give these dogs.

They imply dogs in movies have human characteristics,

like Benji, who solved a kidnapping. How many times did Lassie run and tell mom and dad that

Timmy fell down the well.

And what's wrong with Timmy that he keeps falling down wells?

And quite honestly, the truth about dogs is if Timmy fell down that well,

he's very likely going to stay there if it's going to be dependent upon the family dog to go and tell somebody.

Now, there are anomalies.

There are definitely truth stories of heroic events that dogs have done.

I'm not going to take that away.

But that's not the norm.

Hollywood has set up this expectation that dogs understand English, that they understand

full sentences, that they understand past tense and present tense and have a college degree

and can solve kidnappings. And they've set this magical relationship. As soon as a dog comes from the

pound, there's this magical relationship that the dog knows what we want and how to live the

right life and do the right thing all the time. Sometimes that happens.

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