This is a conversation with the biologist Mark Beckoff,

Emeritus at the University of Colorado at Boulder,

about his experience with coyotes, studying coyotesotes and how that experience is analogous to canines

dogs such as your friendly household pet mine is a a spring or spaniel. Dogs are smart. Anybody who spent time

with dogs knows that. What Mark is going to for the next step is that they can adapt to anything, not just the tests they're given.

Here's Mark Beckoff. Understanding, Kainan's very smart, much, much smarter.

This is from a wonderful book I highly recommend, cheers you up, a

dog's world, imagining the lives of dogs and a world without humans. More of this later tonight.

Well, as a biologist, I look at learning as being a form of adaptation.

They can learn, they can do a lot.

I mean, a lot of lab studies that are done looking at how bright or how intelligent dogs are

Don't really tap into a lot of their potential because they're being faced with very

defined problems in a very controlled setting. So having studied coyotes for thousands of hours in the field, they're really bright, they're really adaptable, they can live in all these different communities and do things that people are shocked to learn that they can do.

I think dogs on their own have that potential that they will be able to adapt to a lot of different

social and non-social situations. So they'll learn animals with whom they can form bonds,

they'll learn who they should avoid,

they'll learn to hunt different animals in different ecological

niches and I think they'll be just fine there.

You know, a lot of people think we've selected out some of their adaptability and I think

down the line they'll tap into what they have and they'll also learn because I hate to say it because my biological

colleagues sometimes say what do you mean but dogs are smart they're adaptable.