1
00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:02,960
Speaker 1: Are you with me on this is your dog, your

2
00:00:03,120 --> 00:00:06,160
Speaker 1: fur baby? You worry about what they're eating or if

3
00:00:06,160 --> 00:00:10,000
Speaker 1: they're anxious, maybe even throw birthday parties for them, or

4
00:00:10,039 --> 00:00:13,560
Speaker 1: even buy clothing for them. Yikes, So how did your

5
00:00:13,640 --> 00:00:17,680
Speaker 1: pup evolve from a man eating wolf? I'm Patty Steele.

6
00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:21,919
Speaker 1: From predator to furbaby in twenty thousand years? Next on

7
00:00:21,960 --> 00:00:29,920
Speaker 1: the backstory. We're back with the backstory. Now for us

8
00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:33,440
Speaker 1: dog lovers, is there anything better than your best friend

9
00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:38,200
Speaker 1: looking at you with those liquid puppy eyes? Science back's

10
00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:41,640
Speaker 1: that feeling. Researchers say that when our dogs stare into

11
00:00:41,640 --> 00:00:45,479
Speaker 1: our eyes, we have the same hormonal response that bonds

12
00:00:45,560 --> 00:00:49,240
Speaker 1: us to our human babies. It's the release of that wonderful,

13
00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:53,160
Speaker 1: feel good hormone oxytocin, and dogs get their own blast

14
00:00:53,200 --> 00:00:55,880
Speaker 1: of oxytocin when they look at us. Well guess what.

15
00:00:56,480 --> 00:01:00,160
Speaker 1: It is the only known hormonal bonding effect between humans

16
00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:05,160
Speaker 1: and any other species. Now, experts say we didn't domesticate dogs.

17
00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:07,880
Speaker 1: They did it to themselves because it got them what

18
00:01:07,959 --> 00:01:12,040
Speaker 1: they needed. One dog expert at Duke University says dogs

19
00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:17,600
Speaker 1: have literally hijacked the human bonding system. Okay, so let's

20
00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:23,039
Speaker 1: go back maybe twenty thousand years ago. You're part of

21
00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:26,600
Speaker 1: a hunter gatherer society, which means yeah, hunt for me,

22
00:01:26,920 --> 00:01:29,839
Speaker 1: and then you find like wild veggies, fruits and nuts

23
00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:34,080
Speaker 1: to eat. But it's not a safe life. You're wandering

24
00:01:34,120 --> 00:01:39,440
Speaker 1: through woods, jungles, and fields searching for food. Predators like

25
00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:44,640
Speaker 1: wolves are watching you day and night. Some of the wolves, though,

26
00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:48,320
Speaker 1: noticed something more valuable about you other than you being

27
00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:52,200
Speaker 1: a quick meal. They watch your social interactions and the

28
00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:56,120
Speaker 1: ability to feed and protect one another, and most importantly,

29
00:01:56,440 --> 00:02:01,040
Speaker 1: they munch on your discarded leftovers. The friend when slowly

30
00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:05,120
Speaker 1: move physically closer to you and eventually find a way

31
00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:08,480
Speaker 1: to hit you up for food. Yeah, that's right. The

32
00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:11,720
Speaker 1: first incidents of begging at the table or by the fire,

33
00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:14,920
Speaker 1: and they notice as they get closer to you, you

34
00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:17,920
Speaker 1: protect them and take care of them when they're injured

35
00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:21,560
Speaker 1: or sick. We humans start to bond with them as well,

36
00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:25,600
Speaker 1: because we notice that having wolves nearby and feeding them

37
00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:28,880
Speaker 1: most of their friendly makes them like us, and they

38
00:02:28,919 --> 00:02:33,320
Speaker 1: in turn protect us from other aggressive animals. Plus they

39
00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:37,040
Speaker 1: give us companionship. Over the course of thousands of years,

40
00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:42,720
Speaker 1: these wolves change genetically. They develop facial muscles and characteristics

41
00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:46,320
Speaker 1: that attract us, the ability to make those puppy eyes,

42
00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:50,280
Speaker 1: which wolves can't do. In fact, the bonding we do

43
00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:54,160
Speaker 1: with our pooches through looking into each other's eyes is

44
00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:59,120
Speaker 1: actually interpreted by a wolf as hostility, and these evolving

45
00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:04,080
Speaker 1: wolf dogs begin to take social cues from us. Did

46
00:03:04,200 --> 00:03:06,519
Speaker 1: did you ever point at something and say go get it?

47
00:03:06,639 --> 00:03:11,120
Speaker 1: Bosco and your dog actually follows where you're pointing. Wolves

48
00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:16,120
Speaker 1: can't do that. Even our closest relative in the animal world, chimpanzees,

49
00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:20,680
Speaker 1: can't do that either. Why they just don't relate to

50
00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:24,520
Speaker 1: us like dogs do. You can literally spend twenty four

51
00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:27,160
Speaker 1: hours a day with a wolf puppy, raise them really

52
00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:30,280
Speaker 1: close to you, but they're just never attracted to people.

53
00:03:30,880 --> 00:03:33,440
Speaker 1: They don't really want to be with people. They mostly

54
00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:37,320
Speaker 1: want to be with wolves. Dogs are the exact opposite.

55
00:03:37,360 --> 00:03:41,080
Speaker 1: Most of them naturally love and trust people and even

56
00:03:41,120 --> 00:03:45,280
Speaker 1: other animals. Over time, the genes that promote friendliness, which

57
00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:48,440
Speaker 1: wolves don't really have, as well as those that give

58
00:03:48,520 --> 00:03:53,080
Speaker 1: dogs breed specific things like soft fur, fluffy ears, and tails.

59
00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:55,760
Speaker 1: The ability to help us hunt and to guard us

60
00:03:56,320 --> 00:03:59,120
Speaker 1: all evolve based on their need to please us and

61
00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:02,280
Speaker 1: get a reward on our end. It was based on

62
00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:06,200
Speaker 1: our very desires for the perfect companion. We've also spent

63
00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:10,360
Speaker 1: thousands of years sort of reinventing our dogs into everything

64
00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:13,800
Speaker 1: from Great Danes and Saint Bernard's to little bundles of

65
00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:18,479
Speaker 1: fluff like teacup poodles and Yorkis. Forget this, Some dog

66
00:04:18,560 --> 00:04:21,920
Speaker 1: breeds share a bigger percentage of wolf DNA than others.

67
00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:26,360
Speaker 1: Some are obvious, like huskies and melamutes. But there's one

68
00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:29,400
Speaker 1: more breed that has more wolf DNA than almost any

69
00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:34,240
Speaker 1: other breed, the tiny little fluffballs called chitsus. How funny

70
00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:38,839
Speaker 1: is that we love these beings? In fact, our language

71
00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:42,279
Speaker 1: shows how crazy about dogs we've gotten. The word puppy

72
00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:46,920
Speaker 1: comes from the French word prompey or doll, and archaeologists

73
00:04:46,920 --> 00:04:51,080
Speaker 1: say that human beings began burying themselves with their dogs

74
00:04:51,080 --> 00:04:54,720
Speaker 1: after their deaths as long as fourteen thousand years ago.

75
00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:58,680
Speaker 1: Now that's love. At the end of the day, it

76
00:04:58,839 --> 00:05:02,320
Speaker 1: is survival of the friendlies, say the experts, and that

77
00:05:02,360 --> 00:05:05,440
Speaker 1: may explain why there are about two hundred and fifty

78
00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:09,240
Speaker 1: thousand not very friendly wolves on earth, but close to

79
00:05:09,320 --> 00:05:13,440
Speaker 1: a billion lovable and loving dogs, eighty million of them

80
00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:17,560
Speaker 1: in the US alone. That desire to please is something

81
00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:21,520
Speaker 1: dogs and a lot of humans cultivate in themselves because

82
00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:24,720
Speaker 1: ultimately it's a path to getting what you want and

83
00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:28,720
Speaker 1: to survive. So now I think I'm going to go

84
00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:32,000
Speaker 1: grab some treats and stare into both my dog's big

85
00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:44,080
Speaker 1: brown puppy eyes. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstory is a

86
00:05:44,120 --> 00:05:48,320
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is

87
00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:52,800
Speaker 1: Doug Fraser. Our executive producer is Steve Goldstein of Amplify Media.

88
00:05:52,880 --> 00:05:55,880
Speaker 1: We're out with new episodes twice a week. Thanks for

89
00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:59,360
Speaker 1: listening to the Backstory. The pieces of history you didn't

90
00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:00,400
Speaker 1: know you need to know.