So many of us live with dogs. But did you know they’re evolutionary wonders? Brian Hare does. He’s the author with his wife, Vanessa Woods, of “The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think” and “Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity.” Hare founded the Canine Cognition Center at Duke University. The two will discuss their work Sunday evening at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe.
BRIAN HARE: Dogs have a lot to teach us about ourselves, and I'm interested in humanness and what it is to be human and the origin of humans. And a big part of our story as a species is not only that we've lived with dogs for over 10,000 years, but I think the process by which we became the most human human is one that is a lot like how dogs left their wolf-like ways and became domesticated.
KUNM: One of my favorite memes shows wolves around the ice age saying, "You're going to check out the humans at that campfire. What's the worst that can happen? And the next picture is labeled 1000s of years later, and it's usually like a multicolored poodle with a ridiculous costume, looking embarrassed. So, what does this get wrong, and what does it get right about evolution and our relationship with dogs?
HARE: What I think it gets right is it is a remarkable relationship, and it's a remarkable thing that happened. And just back up, and let's just take from an evolutionary perspective how incredible a successful species dogs are. Wolves, who are amazing, and I've worked with, and they're incredible, sadly, there's only a few 100,000 left. There's a highly endangered species of wolf in New Mexico, for instance, and anywhere where there are wolves, they're in trouble because of human encroachment on their spaces. Then flip the coin and look at the species that shares 99.9% of their DNA, and many people don't think is a separate species, and there's tens of millions all over the planet. They're on every continent you find people, and they really are one of the most successful mammals to have evolved. And like in that cartoon, the individuals who chose to have a relationship with humans, whether we laugh at it or respect it, or think, "Oh, what a mistake!” Boy, they really won evolutionarily.
KUNM: One of the trainers I used with my dog told me that dogs are opportunistic predators. I want to believe I am more than a meal ticket that my dog loves me. What can you tell me?
HARE: Your dog does love you, and there's science to back that up. I do think that the initial population of wolves that chose humans and chose to overcome their fear and approach humans, a big part of that was they were encountering a super predator that was leaving a lot of garbage and a lot of waste that was really yummy food to them. So I do think that one of the first features of our relationship is food, and it remains that way. However, what has been demonstrated is that love that we feel towards our best buddies, there is a physiological response that has been measured. There is a neurohormonal pathway that is known that happens between human and dog that is the same as between parents as they bond with their offspring. And it is thought, based on the best evidence currently, that it really is that this bonding pathway is kind of special to the human dog relationship, and dogs have really hijacked, in a way, our social bonding pathway we have with our young infants. And so that physiological feeling and psychological feeling of love that we have towards our own family members, we can have towards dogs as a result.
KUNM: What can humans learn from dogs?
HARE: I'm not any different than anybody else. You know what is so great is when you come home and your dog is just always happy to see you. And you know there's that great saying about it's not you know what people learn from you or how much you gave them, it’s how you make them feel. And oh my gosh, I mean, how do dogs make you feel? They make you feel loved. They make you feel accepted. They make you feel needed. They're just always ready to go have fun. And you know, if you're going to go with them, oh, that's just awesome. And so you know, in an age where we have all these ways to isolate ourselves, to hide from one another in terms of in physical space, I think it's just a reminder that being together is a huge part of what makes dogs great and what they love, and it's a big part of what makes it great to be a human. We're pretty good at it too. We just got to try a little harder, and I think everybody wins as a result. So that's what I think the big takeaway would be.
Brian Hare, who will join his wife and co-author Vanessa Woods at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in Santa Fe on Sunday to discuss their work with David Quammen, author of "Breathless," "The Tangled Tree," "Spillover," and "The Song of the Dodo." It’s part of the project Being With Animals.
