very interesting programme about genetics and dogs

I watched it with my spaniel. She woke up when the wolves howled. She's a lovely dog but a very long way away from wolves.
Breeding is fascinating. She is a typical show type cocker, so like the one I shared my life with 40 plus years ago. That's the thing about responsible, careful breeding, breed characteristics will out.

If our previous cat heard a wolf howl on television, she would jump up into DH's armchair, if she wasn't already there, and try to hide behind him.

At that time we lived in Copenhagen, where there are only wolves in the zoo.

Now we live in the south of Jutland, near the border to Germany and wolves have started moving up into Denmark for the first time since the late 1700s.

There are days where our present cat refuses to go out, uses his litter box instead of the garden and will very, very reluctantly follow me, if I go out to the bin. If I try to stay outside he will do absolutely everything he can think of to get me to go back into the house.

On various occasions where he has behaved like this, we have read a week or so later that a wolf had again been seen in the area.

We don't see or hear them, but presumably the cat smells them.

I watched some of it the other night but I found some of it very difficult to watch. I hated the experiments on animals and the foxes kept in tiny cages. There was a lot of interesting information as well, particularly about dogs no longer being pack animals, instead looking to humans for approval.

Fennel ...I found it totally absorbing!
30,000 years ago the first change in the wolf on its way to complete domestication.
My favourite piece of info was about the evolution of the eyebrow muscle. Only found in us and dogs. Used for emotional communication to make us more likely to give the dog the attention he craves.

I would have liked some information on where on the scale of intelligence the dog came, as I understood dolphins came after us, but dogs certainly look like they come pretty close too.

Namsnanny - my memory says border collies are the smartest with those German shepherd/doberman types a close second. My experience of sharing my life with many breeds is that poodles are very smart, labradors very trainable and biddable and spaniels.... adorable, affectionate and that working rather than show cockers, plus springers are very bright. Dogs are such good companions.
Framilode- yes, I found some of those 1950and 60's experiments hard to watch. Its interesting how much more aware we seem to be about the psychological and emotional needs of dogs (and children and people)