The domesticated dog is reckoned to be have come from the wolf. Over the years breeding and evolution within the species has led to many types of dogs of all shapes and sizes. The relationship with man has helped the intelligence of these domesticated dogs.

• Relationship with man – Dogs have shown an uncanny desire to work with humans. They are prepared to work hard for food. The relationship has been going on for centuries. Dogs are used as helping companions for the blind and disabled in the house and out of the house. Dogs are used by the Police to track down criminals, find guns and drugs. Dogs go to “school” to learn from us and help us and they enjoy it.
• Learning ability – Their brains can for example associate sounds with a particular make and model of car. They have a desire to get to know us. Chimps cannot learn from humans to the same degree as dogs. You can point to hidden food with your finger and a dog will mostly get the hint. Dogs will even get the message from us hinting with our eyes. Dogs understand our body language and process the information correctly. Dogs can “fast map”. They can learn new objects by eliminating the existing objects they know about. This was thought to be only a human ability. Dogs have shown these problem solving skills in trials with computer games. Dogs express their emotions through the wag of their tail. The dog talks to the world through the tail and the world talks to the dog face first.
• Hearing – Dogs have incredible hearing with ears that have a degree of ear mobility that helps them to rapidly pinpoint the exact location of a sound. Eighteen or more muscles can tilt, rotate and raise or lower a dog’s ear so that they can swivel and track the sound. Their hearing is about four times more powerful than humans so they can hear up to four times the distance that humans are able to. They can hear frequencies two or three times higher than we can. You would need to add another 48 keys to the piano. The last 20 keys we couldn’t hear at all!
• Smell – The nose of a dog is amazing. To us a pot of stew smells just that. To a dog it might smell like carrots, meat, onions and spices. They smell each component separately. The blood hound has a sense of smell 10 times that of an average dog and 1,000 time better than our sense of smell.

God has charged us with the care and protection of His animal creation. The dog has become one of our best friends in the animal kingdom and gives back so much. This may be why so many people have dogs as part of their “family”.

Categories: Animals