Awesome Animals (2020) s01e01 Episode Script

1
Dogs!
We live with 400
million of them.
Lovable!
Playful!
And cunning.
They use our homes.
And eat our food.
They watch, listen, and smell,
gathering intel for
their doggie database.
Why?
Because their
lives depend on it.
And have for
thousands of years.
Dogs come from wolves.
Around 14,000 years
ago, a pack of wolves
must have decided that
hunting was too much hard
work, and decided to eat some
human's leftovers instead.
So they began hanging
around people.
They stopped hunting and
started scavenging, and then,
they started working for us.
Ultimately dogs and humans
struck a food for hire deal.
They help us.
We throw them a bone.
A partnership that changed
the course of history,
for both people and dogs,
and in turn, created a species
that is completely
focused on us.
Today this relationship
is still going strong.
Mabel, come here!
Meet Mabel, a
six-year-old beagle mix.
You got it, yeah.
Like most dogs,
she has a nose for people.
And meet the Pressley's.
Nelson.
Ellen and Daniel.
And Sue.
Mabel's research subjects.
Sue works in an office;
Nelson works at home.
One day Nelson noticed
Mabel was up to something.
I noticed that Mabel
was sort of on stake-out for
Sue and that she would be
at the door clearly looking,
clearly waiting and this
was before Sue would be
anywhere on my radar.
Hi.
Mabel's not alone.
Dogs seem to know ahead
of time when their owners
are coming home.
Its 5:12 PM.
Sue shuts down her
computer and exits the office.
Mabel lies on the couch.
5:36: Sue boards the bus.
Mabel, still on the couch.
6:05: Sue's bus
nears the stop.
Suddenly Mabel perks up.
Jumps off the couch.
Takes up a position
by the door.
And the rest of the family?
Not a clue.
Except Mabel.
As always, it's a
tail-wagging reunion.
Hi, baby.
How'd Mabel do it?
Dogs' long distance hearing is
four times better than humans.
Our ears barely register
all the sound waves.
But for Mabel, the signal
is loud and clear.
Scientists have shown dogs
memorize the sound of the make
and models of their
owner's vehicles.
And learn the rhythm
of their footsteps.
Mabel has learned to connect
the sound of the bus with Sue
returning home.
And she's very
happy to see her.
It's a far cry from
her wolf ancestors,
who mostly kept their distance.
How did we get
from that, to this?
A Russian experiment
may have the answer.
It's 1959.
Russian scientists are
trying to tame foxes.
They breed the most
social foxes together.
So that each generation of
foxes becomes friendlier
and friendlier.
But the experiment produced
some other remarkable results.
After a few generations,
the foxes started to
look like dogs!
Floppy ears.
Curly tails.
Multi-colored coats.
The foxes also stopped
being afraid of people.
They became playful
and affectionate.
Eventually, they even
learned to follow commands.
The same transformation from
wolves to dogs was happening
with the foxes.
Only much quicker.
The Russians were breeding
for friendlier foxes.
But what they also got
were smarter foxes.
Ones that could learn from us.
And maybe, understand us.
Dogs are masters at
understanding us.
And our body language.
Two cups, both
smelling like treats.
Hide a treat in one.
Place them in
opposite directions.
Now point.
Does the dog get the hint?
The study shows dogs will read
our body language correctly
90% of the time.
Even six-month-old puppies
catch on pretty quickly.
Dogs may be born with
the ability to
understand our gestures.
Dogs also pay close
attention to our eyes.
The researcher puts a treat
on the ground and tells a dog
named Maura not to eat it.
Then she sits, eyes wide open.
Maura obeys.
Next, she closes her eyes.
Will Maura sneak the treat?
You betcha.
Dogs seem to know
what we're thinking.
Are they really that smart?
Dogs can learn many things.
To play catch.
Or fetch.
Or carve on the boardwalk.
Now take an ordinary
dog and train it to do
extraordinary things.
Do you get a genius?
This is canine camp.
Where puppies learn to lend
a helping paw, as doorman.
Good boy.
Handyman.
Good boy, that's it.
And rescue worker.
Push.
NARRATOR And in an
emergency, they're trained
to nose punch a 911 button.
Yes, good boy.
For just a
couple of treats.
Good boy!
These dogs will be
there night and day to help
people with disabilities.
But first, they have to
learn the right mind set,
says Canine Assistance
founder, Jennifer Arnold.
Our dogs have
to love what they're doing
because we don't punish
them when they don't do it,
so fear is not a reason
for them to comply.
And
when they leave us and
they go home with their
recipient, when
the recipient says,
"Will you pick this up
for me," well, I mean,
it's all up to the dog.
Yes, good boy.
Come on, guys, go!
Jennifer
creates super dogs.
She trains them for
the first year and half of
their lives, and develops
their bodies and minds in
a specialized way.
She starts 'em young.
The first day of
school, Jennifer turns
them upside down,
sits them on a cold towel
and stimulates their paws.
A newborn puppy's brain is
turbo-charged for learning.
Some scientists think these
brain-teasing exercises help
them learn even faster.
And get them prepared, for
when the real training begins.
Come
on, pups, let's go!
A few weeks
later: they are brought
together for more
training in the puppy room.
During these critical
first months,
just about everything
they learn.
Yes, good job!
Will stay
with them forever.
Yes, good kids.
Excellent, very nice.
Here, they face the
same challenges they'll have
in the real world.
They are taught about
light switches.
Who's gonna get that light?
Yes, good light, good job.
Other
household pets.
And even themselves.
That's it!
Many things can
be scary for young puppies.
So they are trained to
overcome their fears.
Come on,
let's go, let's go, let's go!
This is a pretty
intimidating thing to
encounter, especially
for a puppy.
Good job, good job!
And so, I mean, you see a
lot of dogs who are afraid of
stairs or afraid of certain
hallways or certain rooms
in the house.
And
during this critical time
when they could be going
through a fear period, we want
to introduce them to as much
things that are difficult,
challenging as possible.
Yeah, good job!
So we want them to get used
to just about everything.
And if they can do this,
everything else should be
a piece of cake, right?
The puppies
are then introduced to
the big wide world.
Each one is taken on
a guided tour of
our human environment.
Look at that!
Good girl.
Ready? Let's go baby.
It's critical that young
puppies get out to the
grocery store, to, you
know, ride the train,
to go to the airport, buses,
do all those things that they
may do in their adult careers.
Milk.
Oh, what's that?
What's that? Do you hear that?
At 18 months, it's
time to match them up with
their new owners.
And apply all that rigorous
training to a brilliant career
assisting humans who need help.
Perhaps changing
someone's life forever.
Graduation day is the day
that they finally feel
like they've found
their slot in the world.
These dogs are
such life-savers.
I'm so happy for the people
who are getting them.
The more we
understand dogs' ability to
learn, the more we
try to teach them.
But how much can they learn?
And how smart can they get?
This is Rico, a dog who
has learned an awful lot.
In fact, he's rewritten the
book on dog intelligence.
Rico knows at least 200 words
for objects and will fetch
each one correctly on command.
On this German variety
show, a couple hundred
toys are laid out.
The host picks a
card, the heart.
Can Rico find it?
But that's
just the warm up.
He can also find objects for
words he doesn't even know.
Here, Rico's asked
to fetch an unfamiliar toy,
a soccer ball,
with a nonsense name
attached to it, the BVB.
He eliminates all the
objects he knows, and
what's left is, Wunderbar!
Rico can figure out answers
by the process of elimination.
It's called fast mapping.
Children start to fast
map at age two or three.
Say a toddler knows what a
pig is and what a cow is.
Now throw in another
animal he's never heard of,
say a cockatoo.
Ask, where's the cockatoo?
It's not the cow,
it's not the pig,
it has to be this new
thing in the middle.
It's something scientists
thought only humans could do.
But no one told Rico and
his super smart dog brain.
Are other dogs like Rico?
One scientist is determined to
find out, using video games.
But not just any kind.
Dr. Freidericke Range has set
up a game with two choices
for her dogs.
If the dog chooses
the right picture,
it gets a tasty treat.
Some are really good at it.
But others, not so much.
Guinness is Dr. Range's
smartest dog so far.
The screen shows
her two objects.
A briefcase, and a gift box.
If Guiness picks the
briefcase, she gets a treat.
If she picks the gift box.
The screen turns
red, and no treat.
Guiness quickly learns to
always pick the briefcase.
Now a bowl of milk
appears on the screen.
She doesn't know if it's
a good or bad choice.
But she knows the gift
box is a bad choice.
Which would you
choose for a treat?
Bingo!
Now for a harder test,
the briefcase is back,
now its paired
with a telephone.
Now for a harder test, she
remembers the briefcase
is full of dog biscuits.
But here's the hard part,
the telephone comes back,
but the briefcase is
replaced by a coffee cup.
She has to guess between
two objects she's never
picked before.
She remembers the telephone
was next to the briefcase,
and the telephone
means no treat.
So by process of elimination,
the cup means treat time.
This is how Guiness is able
to memorize all the objects.
It may seem like a
simple game to us,
but few animals have been
able to demonstrate such
impressive mental abilities.
Dogs also have incredible
senses that are much more
developed than ours.
Dog ears are like an
onboard surveillance system.
Swiveling in
multiple directions.
They have 20 muscles that
raise and rotate the ear,
and pinpoint the
sound's location.
They then channel the sound
waves to the brain.
And the types of sounds dogs
hear would blow our ears away.
They can hear frequencies
two to three times above
our hearing range.
In order to reach the
highest note a dog can hear,
you'd have to add 48
more keys to the piano.
It would be impossible for
humans to pick up sound from
the last 20 keys.
But a dog's ears are nothing
compared to its nose.
They are ten times better at
analyzing smells than us.
Dogs smell by
separating out odors.
For us, a pot of stew
smells like, a pot of stew.
For them, it smells like
carrots and meat and onions
and all the spices.
They smell each
ingredient separately.
It's called odor layering.
And of all the super
schnozzes out there,
it's the bloodhound's
that is truly the most amazing.
Their noses are ten times more
sensitive than the average dog,
and 1,000 times more
sensitive than our noses.
They have a stubborn
personality too.
Centuries of selective
breeding have yielded a kind
of super sniffer.
Southern California:
The bloodhound gang.
Nose on patrol.
Today's challenge,
the find Cindy.
Hey, Cindy, I just need
you to open the gauze pad,
wipe your arm with it.
Cindy
plays the suspect.
Put the
gauze pad in the bag for me.
Thanks.
After a scent
swipe, she takes off,
on a half-mile
course around campus.
Two hours later,
trainer Tedd Hamm gives
Rosie one small whiff.
And she's off,
tracking Cindy's path.
Lucky for Rosie,
humans are smelly.
Each person's odor is unique,
like a scent fingerprint.
Rosie inhales the air just
above the ground and vacuums
in the scent molecules.
Rosie's nose contains a
mountain range of folds.
Millions of receptor cells
collect the scents.
Then to a bulb shaped
part of the brain
that's works as
an odor analyzer.
The bigger the bulb,
the better the sniffer.
Humans also have a bulb.
But the bloodhound's
is 40 times larger.
They're so good,
that they can smell a
single drop of sweat in a
seven mile radius!
In this part of Los
Angeles, there are
millions of sweaty people.
The bloodhound may be
able to smell them all.
As Rosie trails Cindy,
other scents compete
for her attention.
But she's stays on track.
In just under ten minutes,
Rosie finds her.
Bloodhounds are very
useful to police.
These K-9 officers claim
their dogs are so good,
they can follow a
criminal just by smelling
a bullet casing.
Even after he jumps
into his getaway car.
This is
Donnie the Doberman.
A dog that communicates
with his toys.
Carol Young adopted
Donnie from a shelter when he
was about four years old.
Nobody really knows what
was going in his life
other than the fact that he
was found on the streets,
living out of trash cans.
He was
afraid of doors and he didn't
know how to go upstairs.
I had to teach him.
So there was a period of about
six months of adjustment to
say the least
between both of us.
After Donnie
settled in to Carol's home,
an extraordinary thing
started to happen.
Carol gave Donnie many
stuffed toys to play with.
But instead of chewing
them up, he arranged
them into patterns.
He's really
got a thing about triangles.
For instance, this triangle
right here is all frogs.
And then
this particular triangle,
he made sure that all
the toys were face up.
These are all bone triangles
and he would do many of those
around the yard.
All frogs.
Or all monkeys.
All face up or face down.
It was very strange.
Is he a dog artist?
Was Donnie trying
to say something?
If so, what was it?
Soon his creations changed
from shapes into scenes.
Each toy had to
touch, or hold hands.
Often one had an arm
around the other.
This
is definitely my favorite.
Here it is with a
Teddy bear and a frog
with the arm around.
When he made this arrangement
was the day after that he
first let me put my
arm all the way around
him and hold him.
And
the next day he arranged
his toys like that.
It was time to
call the professionals.
Dr. Barbara Smuts
studies animal behavior.
She agreed to observe Donnie.
She was interested,
but cautious.
Of
course, anyone could
have arranged those toys
in those interesting patterns
and then taken a picture and
said, "Donnie did it."
She rigged
up video cameras,
capturing Donnie in the
act, from start to finish.
Here Donnie creates
two parallel lines.
He thinks about where to put
the duck, changes his mind,
and puts it back in line.
Voila, a masterpiece!
Three there.
Three there and five here.
Wow.
That's pretty,
pretty neat, isn't it?
I still can hardly
believe that he did this,
those kinds of creations.
They're so specific.
Donnie may be trying
to create a new family.
Or make new connections
with people.
I think he's creative.
There's an emotional
component to what he's doing.
This is just how he
happens to express himself.
What an awesome animal.
For over 10,000 years,
dogs have played a huge
part in our lives.
They learn about us.
And we learn about them.
We know each
other well enough
to be the best of friends.
Captioned by
Cotter Captioning Services.