Science of Dogs: "Breeds to suit our needs"
08/14/07 02:05 PM
By ED BARK
Being a Bark -- and the co-owner of two cats -- straddles your faithful correspondent between two contrary furry worlds.
This time the surname holds the cards. Explorer: Science of Dogs (Wednesday, Aug. 15 at 7 p.m. central on the National Geographic Channel) is a thoroughly fascinating look at what humankind has done to our four-legged "best friends." Sample stat: more than 80 percent of today's 400-plus breeds didn't even exist 150 years ago.
"The dog is malleable," says the one-hour special's all-business narrator. "We've tampered and tinkered with its look and character for centuries."
A dogo argentino, for instance, is 25 years in the making. It's specifically designed to fearlessly chase and pin down wild boars until its masters can kill these lethal farm predators. Otherwise it's a gentle breed, a cuddler with humans of all ages.
Sulimov dogs, bred only in Russia, are fine-tuned to sniff out explosives. Their creator is a guy named Sulimov, and only about 40 of the breed exist.
Salukis are designed to race -- at speeds of up to 40 mph for now. And a labrador retriever named Missy has been bred to broad jump into the water at Purina dog chow competitions. She's the reigning champ, and her two kids are being groomed to follow in her paw prints.
It's something of a Frankenstein's monster syndrome, with one in four of 20 million purebred dogs in the United States now afflicted with some form of genetic problem, according to the documentary. We see one dog obsessively-compulsively chasing her tail for hours on end. She's now in therapy, with doctors hoping to undo the human damage to her psyche.
Science of Dogs isn't overly judgmental, though. Many specially bred dogs perform valuable services. Canines are eager to please, after all, even if some humans tend to take way too much advantage of them.
It's definitely something to think about, though. Just a small change in a dog's IGF-1 gene can dramatically affect looks, size and temperament. So we'd best be very careful of biting off more than they can chew.
Grade: A-minus
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