Why Does My Dog Love Me?
CrowdScience
BBC
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 January 2018
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dogs have been living and working with humans for thousands of years. But they’re much more than just pets. As any dog owner will tell you, the bond we have with our canine friends is often so strong that they feel more like family.
So how is it that dogs have come to fit so seamlessly into human life?
That’s what CrowdScience listener Peter Jagger in the UK wants to know, and Marnie Chesterton is off to sniff out some answers. She starts by revisiting a previous episode of CrowdScience based in Sweden, where she saw the dog-human bond come alive during a moose hunt. She then heads to the Dog Cognition Centre in Portsmouth to discover how a unique and often unconscious communication system helps our dogs to understand us. Finally, Marnie finds out about the fate of dogs that are no longer wanted by their humans. After thousands of years of domestication, can they ever live without us?
Presenter: Marnie Chesterton Producer: Anna Lacey
(Photo: Image of young girl with her dog, alaskan malamute. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
| 0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.5 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:31.6 | Hello there and welcome to Crowd Science from the BBC. I'm Marnie Chesterton and I'm here to take all of those science, life, universe questions you're just itching to ask and give them a good scratch. |
| 0:43.7 | If you're new to our podcast, then thanks for downloading. |
| 0:46.3 | I'm really pleased you've joined us. |
| 0:48.4 | And if you like what you hear, we've got a whole back catalogue of programs for you to binge listen whenever you fancy a bit of enlightenment. |
| 0:57.8 | Now one of our episodes last year was about dogs which we explored at the request of Canadian listener Simon Saint-Ange. |
| 1:05.6 | He asked why there are so many different kinds of dog, and we're going to revisit some of that |
| 1:10.4 | today, but we're also going to be following the scent of a new |
| 1:13.8 | related question which we've had from listener Peter which he sent to crowd science |
| 1:18.7 | at BBC.co. UK. |
| 1:21.6 | Hello crowd science my name is Peter Jagger and I'm calling you from Hull in the |
| 1:26.6 | UK. What I like to know is why dogs fit so seamlessly into human life. What I'd like to know is why this is a question that appeals to you, Peter. |
| 1:38.0 | This question comes about because as a boy, as a family family we had a Labrador and he lived to be 14 and a half and |
| 1:48.6 | totally integrated into a human family. I have family portrait up on the wall in my |
| 1:56.6 | dining room and it's my mom my dad then it goes brother brother, |
| 2:01.3 | me brother, brother, me, |
... |
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