Roxie A Cavalier King Charles Spaniel: The Evolution of the Modern Dog

ROXIE

“and I huffed and I puffed and I blew the house down”

The video above the video of me  playing with my toys is from Nature’s two-part special; Dogs That Changed the World. It is narrated by Academy Award-winner F. Murray Abraham. Dogs That Changed the World tells the epic story of the wolf’s evolution, how “man’s best friend” changed human society and how we in turn have radically transformed dogs.

Dogs That Changed The World (Part 1) – The Rise Of The Dog

From the tiniest Chihuahua to the largest St. Bernard, all dogs claim the wolf as their ancestor. Using DNA analysis and other research, scientists have now pieced together the puzzle of canine evolution, creating a fascinating picture of some of the essential dogs vital to the canine population. Part one chronicles the evolution of dogs and how they infiltrated human society.

Dogs That Changed The World (Part 2) – Dogs By Design

Some working dogs are able to use their skills to perform tasks they were bred for; there are still jobs today for herders, hunters and guard dogs. But as we multiply and transform the many breeds of dogs, honing their looks and their sizes, we also change our relationship with them, and theirs with us. How can we learn to cope with the hard-wired instincts of our pets, and what roles can they play in a world their ancestors would hardly recognize?  CC.

The Dogs That Changed The World  dvd is available at shop.pbs; which helps defray the costs of their educational programs.

NPR’S SCIENCE FRIDAY:Canine Mystery: How Dogs Became Man’s Best Friend  AIRED JANUAY 25/2013

Researchers have been using archaeological records and genetic studies to tease out clues about how dogs and humans came to live together, but they seem to tell different stories of how it happened.

Did dogs become domesticated 30,000 years ago, or was it a lot more recent? Did humans adopt wolf puppies into their lives, or was it the other way around? Did wolves simply become more tolerant of us? NPR’S SCIENCE FRIDAY, JAN 25/2013

GUESTS:Mark Derr is author of the book “How the Dog Became the Dog: From Wolves to Our Best Friends.

“Greger Larson is an evolutionary biologist and research scientist at Durham University in England.

LISTEN TO: Canine Mystery: How Dogs Became Man’s Best Friend