Episode 1 The Wonder of Dogs

We're a nation of dog lovers.

Take this village in the middle of England.

It's home to 1,500 people

and over 120 dogs.

Big dogs, small dogs, hairy dogs, speedy dogs,

the dog is one of the most varied species on earth.

But how did one wild wolf species become the tame companion

we all know and love with all this dazzling diversity?

To find out, we're putting these dogs through their paces.

We'll investigate how the breeds compare

and reveal what makes each one unique.

'We'll find out what makes the greyhound the fastest breed of all.'

From coming out of the trap up to the first bend

they're reaching nearly 40 miles per hour.

'Reveal what makes these dogs such good swimmers.'

Oh, yes, you can really see that pulsing through the water.

'Uncover why some dogs are so hairy,

'and others hairless.'

The origin of the hairless dog may have been just to make them

a bit more oven-ready.

'And historian Ruth Goodman will unearth

'the extraordinary stories behind

'some of the world's most iconic breeds.'

This is one of your ancestors, look.

She's not interested in family history, I don't think.

We're celebrating the dog in all its spectacular and unlikely forms.

Welcome to The Wonder of Dogs.

BARKING

Here in Brightwell in Oxfordshire

we're carrying out a unique investigation

into man's best friend.

We've invited all the local dogs.

We've got Labradors, labradoodles, pugs, Chihuahuas, mastiffs,

collies, spaniels, plus some very special guests

like this wonderful Komondor behind me.

And down here I've got my three very excited dogs.

This is Teg and Badger and Bella.

In our big marquee over there we're conducting

a census of the village dogs.

Recording their every feature from the pads on their paws

to the colour of their coats.

In our anatomy tent we're going to explore

that ingenious physiology hidden under all that fur.

And in here we're delving into doggy DNA.

'We want to find out

'if there's something unique inside every domestic dog

'that allows them to come in so many shapes and sizes,

'and to reveal the surprising pedigrees

'of some of Brightwell's dogs.'

BARKING

'Throughout the show we'll be uncovering

'how such extreme differences between dogs came about.

'Our first question - why are some dogs so much bigger than others?'

What's really obvious watching these dogs racing back and forth

is the sheer variety in size.

And that's not surprising because domestic dogs

display the biggest size range

of any terrestrial mammal living or extinct.

'Dogs vary from ten centimetres high to more than a metre.

'In human terms that's the equivalent

'of having a person a metre tall alongside a ten-metre giant.'

I'd like you to meet Boris, here, who is one of the extreme ends

of the dogs in the village in terms of size.

Look at him, he's enormous! He's a mastiff.

And to give you a sense of the other end of the scale

I'm going to show you Dudley.

Now, these two know each other. In fact, they are friends.

They met at the local vet surgery and the receptionist there

thought it was so bizarre that they played together,

she took a photo and actually it made it onto the front of the local paper.

I've got Boris's owner, Chris, here.

Hello.

Now, what made you pick Boris?

I take it you thought long and hard

about letting a dinosaur into your house.

Well, we've had mastiffs before so we kind of knew

what we were in for and apart from the fact that he takes up

a whole settee to himself in the evening

when we sit down and watch the telly,

he's just like having any other dog, really, just bigger.

But, Helen, you wanted something very different.

What made you pick Dudley?

Cos he is absolutely tiny.

We sat for a neighbour's puppy, Chihuahua puppy,

and they're just such huge characters

that we decided to get one.

Well, hopefully we can get some lovely photos taken.

I think the most incredible aspect of both of these dogs

is they are, believe it or not, the same species.

If you want to see how that is possible you have to get

under the skin and take a look at the bones, which we have over here.

Now, this is a Chihuahua skeleton and look how tiny that is,

especially when you put it next to a bigger dog.

Now, unfortunately, this isn't a mastiff, this is a greyhound,

and if you look at them they do look wildly different.

But when you focus in on the bones,

there aren't any more in the greyhound,

they're just a different size and shape,

resulting in two completely different-looking animals.

'All dogs have 301 bones their bodies.

'It's just the additional number of tail bones that varies.'

Now, archaeologists have found bones

of big and small dogs in ancient human settlements,

highlighting the fact that we've been living with dogs of varying sizes

across hundreds and thousands of years.

And this is reflected well in the village today

from 100 kilos of Boris at one end all the way down to Dudley here,

who weighs less than a kilo.

Now you may think that the Chihuahua is a recent invention,

bred purely for fashion

but they've got a surprisingly long and intriguing history.

'Ruth Goodman is at the British Museum

'to uncover the big story behind the world's smallest breed.'

As an historian and a dog lover, I've always been fascinated

by the way that people and dogs seem to have evolved together.

In fact, if you start looking at

that relationship throughout history,

what you're really studying is us.

I've come to see how Rhea, as a Chihuahua,

is absolutely a perfect example of this relationship.

'Scientists have found a DNA connection between modern Chihuahuas

'and ancient Mexican dogs that lived 1,000 years ago.

'Dr Elizabeth Baquedano has seen these small dogs

'depicted by several lost civilisations.'

Dogs were really essential companions of the Mexicans.

The Aztecs represented them, the Toltecs, the Mayas, the Mixtecs.

This lady, she's got a little tiny dog, holding it just like I am.

I have to say it brings to mind Paris Hilton and handbags.

But there's a more serious side to dogs in society.

Absolutely. When somebody died, dogs were placed in burials.

They were placed together with the deceased.

They helped the deceased make the journey of afterlife.

'It seems that ancient Mexicans believed

'that if they were buried with their dogs

'they'd have a spiritual companion in the afterlife.

'What intrigues me is why they're so small.'

They're all so tiny, aren't they?

Absolutely. Mexican dogs were always small, a bit like this Chihuahua.

'But why?

'We don't know exactly,

'but it could be that smaller dogs were useful hunters in dense jungle

'or that they were simply easier to fatten up for eating.

'What's most likely is that one unusually small dog

'appeared in a litter of puppies, and the ancient Mexicans liked it

'so much they bred thousands from that one line.

'But when the Spanish invaded Mexico,

'it seemed the miniature Mexican breed's days were numbered.'

Big dogs, fighting dogs

were introduced by the Spaniards in the 16th century.

That must have been quite a shock, really.

I mean, if the only dogs you'd ever known were tiny little things

that you could carry on your shoulder,

you get this huge great mastiff with big jaws and big teeth...

Oh, yes, well you know the Mexicans, the Meso-American people,

weren't aware that dogs like this ever existed.

It was very frightening to see dogs fighting, killing people.

Don't worry, you're much more cute than a mastiff. You are.

'But the small Mexican dog survived.'

MUSIC: "I Wanna Be Loved By You" by Marilyn Monroe

'In the late 19th century, Americans visiting north Mexico

'spotted this tiny native breed

'and named it after the region where it was found - Chihuahua.'

'Within decades this miniature pooch became a fashion accessory...

'..and a true global icon.'

BARKING

'The Chihuahua's baby face may have allowed it to conquer the world

'but most of the small dogs here in Brightwell

'were bred to work for a living.'

'To find out more about these feisty little dogs,

'I'm meeting local dog trainer Jenny Fairweather.'

Tell me about what's going on here this afternoon.

Well, we've got an agility course

which would be a typical one at any competition.

So we've got this little dog, wow, going like a ro...

SHE LAUGHS

..a rocket behind us, here.

What is the advantage of having a small dog?

Why were these small breeds developed?

Most of these were vermin exterminators.

Right, so they wanted dogs that could get into little spaces

and be quick and agile on their feet.

Yeah, and be able to turn in a space so if they went down a fox's burrow

they need to be able to turn on themselves to be able to escape

if they decided the fox was too vicious, or the badger.

'The perfect example of an underground hunting breed

'is the dachshund, which means "badger dog" in German.

'Their short legs and spade-like paws make them

'perfectly adapted to burrowing into tunnels.

'And it's thought that sturdy tail helped hunters pull them out

'if they got into a tight spot with a badger.

'As we bred for small, nimble dogs

'we were selecting for genes with big impact.

'Amazingly, just one gene is responsible for short legs,

'and a dog's body size is largely down to another single gene.

'In a human these features are influenced by hundreds of genes.'

But when you look at these little dogs

scurrying over the agility course,

do they move differently from big dogs

or does leg length actually make no difference at all?

I could watch these dogs all day.

It's such a lovely, fluid motion as they zoom across.

The reason it looks so fluid

is because dogs don't have a collar bone like humans,

fixing their shoulder in place,

so their whole shoulder blade moves fluidly up and down

across their thorax, making their run look almost effortless.

Now, the other thing they have to contend with is four legs.

Coordinating those legs

so you don't trip up means they have to have a very specific gait.

'When dogs are walking or trotting, there's always at least

'one front paw and one back paw on the ground...

'..creating a front-back front-back rhythm.

'When they start to run, their spine flexes

'and their back legs swing further forward

'and the pattern changes to front-front, back-back.

'Big or small, nearly all dogs run with this same gait.'

But there is one dog that does run in a different way.

The greyhound.

'Greyhound racing as we know it today

'actually began in the Elizabethan era with hare coursing...

'..a sport that saw dogs chase a hare across open ground.

'The first dog to catch it was the winner.

'To find out how the sport

'and the dogs have transformed over the last 400 years,

'I've come to Sheffield to meet the former owner of this stadium,

'John Carter.'

So how did we get from hare coursing to greyhound racing?

Now, that is the great question.

An inanimate hare conveyor

was patented by a Mr Owen Patrick Smith in Oklahoma, of all places,

and that changed the whole of greyhound racing and coursing.

It was the lateral-thinking Americans who invented

the idea of an oval circuit.

The people could see the full circle and it tested the greyhounds then

more for their agility as well as their speed.

TRAPS BANG OPEN

'With the arrival of oval track stadiums,

'professional greyhound racing took off.

'By 1946, gate attendance reached more than

'190 million across Britain.

'An entire industry was built on this dog's remarkable speed.

'But why is it so fast?

'Greyhounds are masters of what's called the double suspension gallop.

'They're airborne twice in every cycle.

'Their unusually flexible spines allow such a long stride

'that their back legs overtake their front legs.

'This powerful gait and long history of being bred for speed

'has made greyhounds the fastest dogs on the planet.'

That's my girl, good girl.

'Breeder Elaine Parker

'is enjoying a proud moment with her dog who's just won a race.'

Hello!

-Oh, my goodness.

-Didn't she do well?

Hello, you. She won!

She did. I didn't really fancy her tonight

but she's just pulled out all the stops, she's done brilliant.

We're all pleased.

You train an awful lot of dogs, don't you?

I do, yeah, about 80 race dogs and 20 puppies.

Oh, my goodness.

I find it absolutely amazing, that such a tiny, slender,

-delicate-looking dog...

-Yes, yup.

..can just this whoomph of speed.

They're a marvellous animal, a marvellous machine.

When you think, from coming out of the trap, there,

up to the first bend,

they're reaching up to speeds of nearly 40 miles per hour.

And I have to say, watching them run is very beautiful.

It is, it is.

Aren't you gorgeous, eh?

I don't think I've every stroked a champion before.

She wouldn't be quite a champion

but she's done the business tonight, that's for sure, yeah.

Right, so we've got Cookie, who's nine months,

Nutmeg, who's four and a half and Tosca, who's five.

'From Chihuahuas to Great Danes...'

Gross.

'..and everything in between...'

Yeah, that's a good girl.

This is Poppy, she's a Springer spaniel.

This is Match.

This is Missy.

'..the dogs of Brightwell come in all shapes and sizes.'

We call her Betty and she's a pug.

BETTY SNORTS

Yeah, you're a pug.

'It's hard to believe that this diverse range of dogs

'all came from the same ancestor.'

HOWLING

'How did we get from the wolf,

'a wild predator that could attack humans,

'to the tame companions that share our homes?

'Dr Greger Larson from Durham University

'has studied this remarkable transition.'

-You're an evolutionary biologist...

-I am.

-..which is quite a cool thing to be.

-It's not bad.

And you've been charting this extraordinary journey...

-Mmm.

-..from wolf

to pet dog.

-That's right.

-The domesticated dog.

Let's start with what evidence there is that all our domestic dogs

really are related to that one common ancestor.

-It's the DNA.

-OK.

-It's open and shut.

-Right.

There's no question.

People have speculated about other wild species, maybe coyotes,

maybe wild dogs or these kinds of things from South Africa.

It's all the wolf, it's the grey wolf, done deal.

It's quite a leap to go from this very wild, fearsome pack animal,

to something that will sit on your knee and watch television with you.

It's an amazing transition.

The general school of thought is that it's at least about 15,000,

maybe 16,000 years ago.

What we think was happening was that there was a pack of wolves

or several packs of wolves that were attracted to human camps.

The waste products that we were producing.

And these wolves that could take advantage of that human niche

were the ones that put themselves on a track toward domestication.

But it is still a big leap from an animal that's taking advantage

of a few waste products to an animal that we have been able

to manipulate and train to serve our own purposes.

-It is, but it's also a very long time frame.

-OK.

I mean, the first couple of hundred or thousand years, perhaps,

it was a very kind of romantic dance between the two species.

And then, very slowly, as they come closer and closer,

then humans start deliberately selecting for traits.

So, maybe the most tame ones

or the ones that were the best at warning them

when other things were around.

And then once you start taking over their reproduction

and YOU start deciding who survives

-and who doesn't rather than the wild deciding that...

-Right.

..that's when the domestication really kicks off

and we become true partners at that stage

and everything just goes from there.

'At first, by chance,

'then by choice, we created the wolf that doesn't bite.

'And over the next 15,000 years, dogs followed in our footsteps

'as we moved into new environments.

'There are clues to this shared journey within their anatomy,

'especially in their paws.'

Give me your paw, give me your paw, give me your paw,

give me your paw, good boy.

Kai, here, is an Alaskan Malamute so was actually bred

to exist in a very similar situation as the early wolves.

So when we look at his foot,

he's still got some of those classic wolf features

and the main one being, look at that hair between his toes.

That's a fantastic insulator.

He's got so much resistance to cold

that he can stand on ice for hours and hours during the day

without any risk of frostbite, which, certainly, I couldn't do.

But if we think about other aspects of dogs' feet,

one of the classic things that we'll see are obviously nails.

And we've got Hettie, here, who's our beagle cross.

The anatomy of her front foot is very similar to my hand.

She's got four digits at the front, here,

and she's even got a thumb which is the dewclaw.

They use it to grasp hold of things.

If you watch your dog with a toy or a bone,

quite often you'll see that move.

And claws are not only used just for running spikes,

cos that's what they're used on most dogs.

They're also, in the terrier breeds, these little dogs, here.

They're very good excavators.

And that's why terriers, when you look at their tiny, wee feet,

they've got enormously strong and very long, powerful claws

because they do use them for digging

-and making a mess of your garden, no doubt.

-She does.

HE LAUGHS

And, finally, Dexter is a classic water-loving breed,

which is the Labrador retriever,

a chocolate Lab with big, beautiful feet.

And, obviously, when you've ever met a Lab before,

you'll notice they've all got massive feet

and if you look between his toes you can see that classic web.

It connects all of his toes together

and if you can imagine that under the water, spreading his feet out,

using them as paddles and that's why,

whenever you get a water-loving dog,

they've got huge feet like a Newfoundland as another example.

So it's almost a bit like palm reading.

You can look at the shape and size of the feet,

the nails, the pads, how much hair's there,

and you can understand where these dogs were bred to live and exist,

whether that's in the Arctic,

whether that's digging holes in your garden

or even in Oxfordshire swimming pools.

MUSIC: "Beyond The Sea" by Bobby Darin

'Dogs love to make a splash.

'But what is it that makes some dogs such great swimmers?

'Local veterinary hydrotherapist Emma Barnard encourages dogs

'to swim for exercise and recuperation.

'Although dogs like these don't need much encouragement.'

It's very interesting seeing a dog like Treacle move in the water.

She seems very comfortable.

Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

We tend to find that dogs will happily keep themselves

fairly buoyant and afloat just using their front legs,

and their back legs tend to be their driving force, so as they go

to retrieve a toy, that's when they really engage their back legs.

Oh, yes, you can really see that pulsing through the water.

And is the tail a useful tool for them as well?

Yeah, they use that as a rudder so for helping them steer

and manoeuvre around the water.

-And you can see that they really splay their toes out.

-Yeah.

And she's using her feet very much like paddles, isn't she?

Absolutely, yeah.

But, generally, the Labradors, the flat-coat retrievers,

the golden retrievers, the spaniels, they all love water.

Particularly this one. Do you want to go in again?

Here you are, Treac, ready, go.

'Unlike cats, most dogs love water and we've selectively bred

'some dogs to be strong swimmers to help us retrieve game from water.

'But breeds with squat bodies...

'..or long backs...

'..often find it difficult to swim.'

But there's one breed that's a particularly accomplished swimmer

and it's not the first one that would come to mind.

'I've come to Surrey...

'..to meet one of the hardest working breeds in history.

'A strong swimmer, prized for its hunting ability

'and killer instinct.

'The poodle.'

This one's called Breeze and isn't he lovely?

All dressed up for a party.

How long has this taken you, Anita?

Three to four hours.

And he'll stand for that length of time?

Well, with wine and coffee breaks, yes.

I bet you don't get the coffee, do you? No.

They're done from the time they're three or four weeks of age

so they get used to it.

And what's the most difficult part about doing it?

I think getting both sides to match.

'The poodle is often best known for its distinctive style.

'But this breed's first role made an even bigger splash.

'The poodle was originally a hunting dog,

'bred to retrieve waterfowl and other game from rivers.

'And that has shaped the classic poodle hairstyle.'

This is a really practical cut as well as a decorative one.

It's designed to help the dog work.

It's also a cut with a very long history.

Roman coins from 100 BC show an image of a dog that also has

a similar pattern in its fur.

It's very, very leanly haired, perhaps even shaven at the back,

with a really big, rough mane at the front of the dog.

Later on in history, in the 16th and 17th century,

we find fantastic woodcuts and printed descriptions of water dogs

and they describe why they're cut like this.

The big mane here is for keeping the vital organs warm

when the dog is retrieving in the water.

Even the topknot here, the ribbon, had a practical purpose.

That was to allow the hunters to differentiate

between different dogs in the water.

So what do you think, Breeze. Mmm?

Duck hunting, you and me, down the muddy river, yeah?

THEY LAUGH

Look at the look you're giving me.

Mind you, if I'd spent that long in a hairdresser's

I don't think I would have been that keen either.

And dogs that love swimming also...

SHE LAUGHS

..love to shake.

But there's more to that doggy shake than meets the eye,

as Steve is finding out.

Go on, in you go.

Toes, just your toes.

MUSIC: "Peppermint Twist" by Joey Dee & The Starliters

'Surprisingly, not all dogs shake in the same way...

'..as we hope to see if we can persuade enough wet dogs

'to shake in front of our slow-motion camera.'

HE LAUGHS

You keep shaking it off as fast as I can put it on.

Good boy.

Not just yet.

We need you to... Starring role! Get ready.

Go on, this way.

HE LAUGHS

Oh, I'm sorry, I know.

Shake it out, shake it out.

HE LAUGHS

Ah! Give it some beans, well done.

Don't fight it, you know what you want to do.

HE LAUGHS

Very dainty.

Very dainty, Stanley.

'We can play back the footage eight times slower,

'allowing us to see the shake in all its glory.'

Oh, very nice.

It really always starts with the head

and they throw those ears, then it transfers down the back

all the way along the spine and onto the bum, and finally the tail.

It's really reliant on the very mobile skin

flicking from side to side

and that's what gives the fur the momentum

to really fling that water away.

Right, we need to start timing some of these now

and just seeing how fast they're moving.

'The slow-mo camera reveals that the smaller the dog

'the faster the shake.

'They need to get dry to avoid hypothermia.

'Evolution has tuned each dog shake rate to lose the most water

'with minimum effort.

'The bigger bodies of large dogs generate more centrifugal force

'and that's why they shake slower than the small dogs.'

So, big or small, it's an efficient process, except for one breed

because it doesn't matter how much this dog shakes

it's never going to get dry.

'Meet the hairiest dog breed of all - the Komondor.

'Their thick dreadlocks are formed as a soft undercoat grows

'and entwines with a rough outer coat.

'With up to 2,000 tassels that can grow to more than a metre,

'they need regular trims.'

'And some serious washing.'

MUSIC: "We Have All The Time In The World" by Louis Armstrong

'The epic hair drying process begins

'with an hour of vacuuming off as much water as possible.'

MUSIC: "Too Darn Hot" by Ella Fitzgerald

'Next, three hours under the hairdryers.'

'And finally, after 24 hours in a towelling onesie...

'..we have a clean, dry dog.'

'So how did these dogs become so hairy in the first place?'

We're very lucky to have Julie and her dogs here.

So we've got Daz, we've got Oz

and we've also got Dennis hiding down there.

And this is actually a first for me

cos I've never met a Komondor before.

How many are actually in country?

-We reckon about 40, 50 at the most.

-Yeah.

Wow, yeah, so pretty rare.

And this incredible hair is their characteristic feature.

When we see the length of some of it...

Look at that!

This is probably hair he would have shed if it hadn't have tangled.

Well, I've actually cut probably that much off...

Have you really, as well?

Over a few years.

But it does serve a purpose

and the reason that they've been bred in this way is thought

that it's really fantastic defence against being bitten.

Because back in their native Hungary,

their job was to defend livestock such as sheep

and if you can imagine a wolf's jaws like this coming in

and wallop like this,

all I've got here is hair, so it's a fantastic, lightweight body armour.

But I also think it's probably a bit of camouflage as well.

You could imagine a wolf turning up and suddenly one of the sheep

rushing at him and barking its head off!

Oh, hello, I'm sorry, yes, we are still interested in you as well.

A fantastic dog.

We think so.

-I bet you do.

-We're biased though, aren't we?

And next to these Komondors

we've got the other end of the spectrum - a hairless dog.

Thanks very much, guys.

This is the Chinese crested and they look so unusual.

Little bit grumbly today are we, madam?

But they are naturally like this.

They're born without any hair on their bodies

so they do have this very unusual look of just the extremes

like the ears, the head, the tips of the feet and tips of the tail

and then the rest of the body is this very fine hair, if any hair at all.

What's really interesting about this breed, though,

is that this is one as well.

This is a powder-puff.

Hello, gorgeous!

I'll pop you down cos you seem to be quite settled there.

So some of the Chinese crested in the litter will have hair.

You don't know always what you're going to get.

You may get some, like you, very beautiful,

and you may get some, like our examples over here,

that have no hair on their bodies at all.

And this skin is remarkable.

It's very, very warm

and that's one of the things that people really do notice.

Dogs have a higher internal temperature than us

so their skin does naturally feel warmer than ours.

We put sun cream on them as well.

Yeah, absolutely, on a day like today, very important.

-Quite high factor.

-Mmm.

Now, the origin of the hairless dog may have been just to make them

a bit more oven-ready because we believe that they were hairless

because they were good to pop into the oven,

which is a bit of a gruesome thing.

I've been told that the reason that they had them to be hairless,

because they were given to princesses

as hot water bottles in their day.

That's a much nicer story than the one I've heard, so...

And they are bed warmers because mine

do actually sleep in the bed and on the bed with me,

and they are wonderful, they are the most beautiful breed to live with.

Yeah, thank you very much.

'From curly hair to smooth, thick to wiry,

'dog coats vary enormously

'and since the dog genome was decoded eight years ago,

'we've found out that just three genes control 95% of this diversity.

'But it's not just the type of hair,

'another three genes also control the underlying colour of the coat,

'including one of the most prized colours - a coat of gold.'

BARKING

'Every few years hundreds of golden retrievers from around the world

'descend on the Guisachan Estate in the Scottish Highlands,

'the ancestral home of this much-loved dog.'

'It was here in 1865 that Lord Tweedmouth set out to produce

'a new breed of hunting dog.'

Now, you may have heard the saying that gentlemen prefer blondes

and I think, in Lord Tweedmouth's case, that was true.

Lord Tweedmouth wanted a golden-haired retrieving dog,

so he set about creating one.

He started with a puppy called Nous,

a yellow puppy from a litter of black retrievers

and he crossed him with a Tweed water spaniel,

a breed that's now extinct.

Their offspring he crossed with a red setter

and again back to the Tweed water spaniel.

And so it went on until he began to see those golden puppies

that he was really after.

'They didn't start out being called golden retrievers, though.

'They were known as the yellow retriever right up until 1910.'

The nickname came when a notorious peer

said that they all were the same colour as a golden guinea.

So, no, you're definitely too red.

You're a bit paler.

You're quite golden.

I think you must be Goldilocks.

'Amazingly, every golden retriever in the world is descended

'from the original dogs of the Guisachan Estate,

'a classic example of the power of selective breeding.'

Right, on the count of three...

One, two, three...

THEY CHEER

'Here in the village, we've got dogs of every shade and tone.

'But how did so many colours emerge?

'We might find a clue

'by looking at which of these different-coloured puppies

'people choose.'

We've got a fantastic litter of gorgeous puppies here,

all different colours.

So which one would you take home? Which one is your favourite?

Yeah, I like this one because I've already got a golden dog,

so I want a black one.

MUSIC: "(How Much Is) That Doggie In The Window?" by Patti Page

Eileen, faced with these guys,

which strikes you as the one that you would take home?

I'd go for that one.

This one here?

Yeah, because it was underneath.

THEY LAUGH

-Oh, well.

-We won't hold you to it.

-No, don't do that.

-The one that's sleeping.

-Snap decision, come on.

-Snap decision...

-Well, they're all lovely.

-Mmm.

This one. I like the colour and I think it's curious.

-Very good.

-It might be that one in the top left corner.

-This one, here?

-Yeah.

I like the colours on its face and back.

The dark one here.

Think I'd take that one home.

Why did you go for that one?

Well, the colouring's very appealing.

Good, very good.

So there was some variation

but we did have a clear winner

and it's this one, the only black one,

and I think the most common reason is because he stands out.

There's something in the human psychology, I think,

that makes us select that one that's a little bit different

and if you take that over many, many generations

you're going to end up with this huge variety of dogs that we see today.

'Puppies born with unique features are often the ones

'that catch our eye, and by breeding from such dogs we've created

'the eclectic creatures we know and love today.'

BARKING

'Modern breeds originated in the 19th century when experimenting

'with selective breeding became something of an art form.'

Here at the Natural History Museum at Tring

is the animal collection of Walter Rothschild,

a keen Victorian naturalist.

And proudly displayed amongst

some of the most exotic specimens on earth

is a case of domestic dogs.

These offer a rare snapshot into the Victorian era,

the very foundation of the modern dog.

'This was a time of Darwin, of classification

'and a new way of looking at dogs.

'They were not just working animals.

'Now they were also being bred to be elegant pets and good companions.

'Professor Michael Warboys has studied this change of attitude.'

The dogs here are reflecting the Victorian interest

in the actual beauty of the dog.

So the dogs in here are being catalogued and classified

but they're also reflecting fashion.

Oh, yes, they were almost kind of consumer items

and with that went a whole consumer culture.

That's a pointer too, you know.

That's supposed to be a pointer like you, it is.

So is it true to say that the Victorians

were the fathers of the modern dog show?

There were dog shows held mainly in working class areas in pubs,

but where it really took off

was when the dog shows became urban events

and the middle classes joined and toy dogs and pet dogs came in.

So who was it who brought all this together?

It was a man called John Henry Walsh

who was the editor of the weekly newspaper, The Field,

which published the results of all the dog shows,

and what he wanted to do was to have a standard

that judges could refer to

and that would work for dog shows across the whole country.

So I'm going to ask you now what was the first dog to be standardised

but I think I've got a clue, here.

Yes, OK,

as you see, here,

the first one he published was of a pointer and he chose a particular dog

called Major who had won the recent show at Birmingham.

He calls this a model.

The two do still look quite similar, though, don't they?

-They are very similar.

-Yeah.

MUSIC: "Who's That Guy?" by The Kolettes

'The Victorians had invented the concept of a standardised breed.

'Up till now, breeds hadn't existed.

'Dogs had been defined by the jobs they did.

'Now, owners strived to produce the perfect pooch.

'And the dog show became a national institution.'

The myriad of types of dogs that we know and love today

and, indeed, the very idea of breeds is all thanks to the Victorians,

and to one man who took the time to write down the shape

and size of a pointer named Major.

Hello, gorgeous.

'Almost every breed here in Brightwell

'was defined in the Victorian era.

'But the Victorians weren't the first

'to turn dogs from work to play,

'as Greger Larson has discovered.'

-We know that for the first 10,000 or more years dogs did jobs.

-Yeah.

You had a job to do and a dog did that job.

You kept that dog.

As soon as that job disappeared the dog disappeared

and we have lots of examples of that.

The first evidence we have for dogs maybe not really doing jobs

but just kind of hanging out were the Romans.

About 2,000 years ago very small dogs - you could make the argument

that maybe they were bed dogs, they were keeping the beds warm,

but it looks like the fashion thing is kind of kicking in a little bit.

But, really, 150 years ago with the Victorians, really hits its stride.

-Right.

-And now that has accelerated to the point now

where virtually all dogs in the UK are just for companionship.

We have completely gone 180 degrees away from

the whole point of dog domestication which was to do stuff.

So, dogs, the breeding of dogs, has gone from, you know,

picking a trait that would mean a dog was good to go down a hole

-or flush prey or point out prey...

-Mmm-hmm.

..to something that can lie around

on a velvet cushion looking gorgeous.

Looking gorgeous, which they do very well.

-DOG BARKS

-Shh!

Ah, ah, ah, ah. That's enough.

This is Ewok

and he's a four-year-old Australian labradoodle.

This is Hector. He's a miniature schnauzer.

He's an Alaskan Malamute.

Nine-month-old Harlequin Great Dane.

I love all dogs but I like something a little bit different.

'Selective breeding is a powerful tool in any animal.

'But our long history of intentionally selecting

'extreme features in dogs has led to some extraordinary changes.'

Stop!

'We can see just how much they vary

'by looking under their skin at their skulls.'

So we've got a fantastic array of skulls from different breeds,

and you can see that,

when we look at where they all started, which is our wolf,

and if I show you, in comparison, a Labrador,

one of the most remarkable things is how similar they are.

Strip away the flesh

and get down to the bare bones, what we've got is basically a small wolf.

'This ancestral wolf-like appearance

'that's still visible in some breeds

'has been radically changed in many others.'

So if we look at our collie here, we've been able to

selectively elongate the nose for our fast running breeds

who are catching small, agile prey.

So dogs like collies, greyhounds, those sorts of long noses.

But we can also shorten the noses

and we've had some dramatic shortening of some faces.

This is the Pekingese, here,

and when you see there's hardly any nose there at all.

It's tipped up, it's compressed

and it's cramped all of those teeth in there.

Why would you do that?

Well, one reason is, like this Chihuahua skull here,

it's got that flattened, short nose.

Obviously, it doesn't look that cute when it's just the skeleton,

but here we go. I'll show you Nutmeg.

You can understand why people have selectively bred

for these very cute big eyes, short little sort of nose.

Looks very like a human baby.

You're very, very gorgeous, aren't you, Nutmeg? Thank you very much.

But it's not just short noses in cute dogs.

One of the classic ones is this one.

Doesn't that look monstrous?

It's the bulldog.

'Sometimes the extreme ways we've changed the shape of our dogs

'ends up causing problems.

'And nothing illustrates this more than the story of the bulldog.'

I'm here on London's South Bank to find out how

that most British of breeds, the bulldog, got its name.

The story starts back in Elizabethan times when here in the back streets

of Southwark, large, raucous crowds gathered, hungry for entertainment.

And I'm not talking Shakespeare.

Julian, you're an archaeologist with the Museum of London archaeology

and you've made a study of this area.

How do dogs like Coco fit in?

Well, happily for Coco, she doesn't.

She's alive and well today.

I don't think she would have liked being here 400 years ago.

This area, the South Bank,

was the traditional place for animal baiting.

They baited bears, they baited bulls.

So there were rings

and you put a bull in and then you send in one dog, two dogs?

Oh, you send three or four.

Are there any contemporary accounts of what it was like

to actually be at the bull-baiting?

There's a very good one by John Evelyn, the famous diarist

that you might like from

the 16th June 1670.

Oh, my goodness.

"One of the bulls tossed a dog full into a lady's lap as she sat

"in one of the boxes at a considerable height from the arena."

So it must have been extremely violent.

It was very bloody, not only in the arena, but the poor lady

sitting up in the boxes who gets a dog carcass on her...

It's hard to really see that as entertainment these days.

It is but, yes, it was a very popular afternoon out.

So it was dogs like Coco, then, who were baiting these bulls?

Well, not really.

Today's bulldogs are really rather a different breed.

Our excavations have uncovered the kind of dogs they had

and they're very, very different.

It's a very typical Elizabethan mastiff.

It's a very big, powerful brute

that's actually about twice the size as Coco.

It is completely different isn't it?

I mean, particularly the snout here,

I mean, a modern bulldog

-has a much, much shorter muzzle.

-It's completely different, yes.

So this is a real Elizabethan bulldog skull.

What do you think, Coco? This is one of your ancestors, look.

She's not interested in family history, I don't think.

'In the Elizabethan era,

'a bulldog was any kind of dog used to fight bulls.

'It wasn't until the Victorians

'that a single breeding line was defined

'and the bulldog became a show dog.

'Over the next 150 years we exaggerated its defining features

'by selective breeding.

'The nose was made shorter, the jaws wider

'and the back of the body smaller.

'The bulldog turned into a caricature of itself.'

In time, the bulldog became a real symbol

of the British fighting spirit,

and in World War II it became synonymous with Winston Churchill,

which is ironic, really, because Winston never owned a bulldog.

He had a poodle called Rufus.

BARKING

SNORTING AND SNORING

'Over the years the changes in the bulldog's shape

'have had unfortunate consequences.'

Sit, sit, good boy.

'The flatter nose and shorter legs have caused health problems,

'something bulldog breeder Derek Mullet is working to correct.'

So, here we have Lily, who's our classic standard bulldog

and next to her we've got Boatswain.

Quite clearly looks like a bulldog but very, very different.

So, Derek, explain to me, what is Boatswain?

Boatswain is a Mullet bulldog.

It's something that my late brother started.

He had a kennel club bulldog

-which unfortunately died at a very young age.

-OK.

So he wanted bring the bulldog back

to what it used to be - a healthier animal.

What sort of traits have you been trying to breed

back into the bulldog?

-Well, we wanted more length in the leg.

-Yeah.

And also a little longer muzzle.

Yes. Lily, as you can hear,

has got that classic narrowing of her airways

which comes along with this concertina'd face,

and, you know, this noise that she's making.

She's really struggled with the heat today.

-Exactly.

-Whereas he has, you know, he's panted like a normal dog,

he doesn't make any excessive noise

and he's been able to sort of cope with these conditions.

Exactly, exactly.

So how did you go about changing from this to this?

Well, obviously, we had to use other blood.

-Yeah.

-And we've used the bull mastiff.

-OK.

-And the Staff.

Right, yeah.

And, you know, this is the result.

So you're breeding again, like they did originally,

the breeding for performance.

They make a good, healthy family pet

that can be taken for a nice long walk

and not have to be carried home.

What's striking to me is that he is starting to look

a lot more like the bulldogs

-that we saw back in those Victorian paintings.

-Exactly.

-Yeah, it's a bit of living history. It's lovely to see.

-It is, thank you.

'The power of cross-breeding to make a dog like Boatswain healthier,

'is clear.

'Mixed breeds are becoming increasingly popular.

'But a dog's ancestry may not always be what it first appears.

'Each breed has a telltale genetic signature.

'So to reveal the true family history of some of the village dogs

'we asked canine geneticist, Dr Neale Fretwell,

'to carry out DNA tests.'

Well, let's start with you, Anna.

Tell me a little bit about your dog.

We got Charlie when she was a four-month-old puppy

from a dog rescue centre in Stokenchurch

and the paperwork said she was a Jack Russell cross.

Well, Neale, what did you discover when you analysed her DNA?

They were definitely right about the parents.

-There was a pure bred parent that was a rat terrier.

-Right.

Very closely-related breed to the Jack Russell terrier.

However, on the other side of the family tree

was a grandparent that was a German shepherd.

-Wow.

-And I think you can see the saddleback a little bit here

-with the black colouration.

-Right.

-Which is just coming through

but it's much more diluted than the normal German shepherd.

But also the ears, of course, are characteristic.

But you're getting the size from the Russell terrier

obviously taking that down to the medium size dog you're seeing there.

Wow. Are you surprised?

Yes, yeah, really. Um...

-But if we now go to this dog. Who's this?

-This is Bertie.

Hi, Bertie. Now, what do you think Bertie is?

-He's a cockapoo.

-He's a cockapoo.

-First generation.

So a first generation cockapoo

is a mixture between a poodle and a cocker spaniel.

-Yes, exactly.

-OK

And that's what you bought.

-That's what we bought, yes.

-Did he?

So when we tested Bertie, what we found was definitely

-first-generation parent poodle.

-Yup.

But on the other side of the family tree

we found an English Springer spaniel, not a cocker spaniel.

So not a cockapoo at all, in fact, but a springerpoo.

Is there such a thing?

Well, it is an unusual name but, yes.

It's not something we were aware of.

So the only hint of the Springer spaniel

is in the chest of Bertie.

-You can see a little white chest flash.

-Yeah.

That's obviously consistent with the English Springer spaniel.

Oh, right, I see, right. OK.

He's a very good-natured dog

so as regards the dog, no complaints, thank you.

Now we come to my two. Both rescue dogs.

Both most definitely mongrels. Let's start with Bella. Bell, come here.

Now, this little dog, we think that she is almost certainly Border,

maybe with something like a Lakeland.

Well one of the parents was a pure bred,

-a pure bred Parson Russell on one side.

-Right.

-The other side was a Border terrier cross.

-Was a Border terrier cross.

There was a little bit of Australian shepherd way back

-at the great grandparent level as well.

-Really?

Not seeing that.

So, actually, although she hasn't shown any sign of being

a brilliant sheepdog yet, that might be a latent ability that she has.

Potentially.

Ah, Bell, we're going to have to practise on the sheep at home.

Right, now let's get to my little boy.

Now, Badger is a complete mystery.

Some people think that he must have collie in him.

My neighbour,

a vet, thinks he's Parson's Jack Russell crossed with lurcher.

-Can you reveal his true roots?

-Certainly, yes.

So Badger actually had a parent that was a Russell terrier again.

-Right.

-So you've got a Jack Russell.

Some of the guesses were right there.

But also on the other side of the family tree we found a grandparent

-that was a Cavalier King Charles spaniel.

-No way!

Badge! You're royalty.

I'm a bit disappointed,

I thought he was a proper kind of working-class,

none of this sort of namby-pamby royalty.

-The long hairs have got to come from somewhere.

-Yes.

Obviously, that's quite consistent with having

a long-coated Russell terrier on one side of the family tree.

And then the long hair from the Cavalier on the other side.

There's a lot of mixed breed on his bit, isn't there?

On that side with the Cavalier, definitely.

Badge, I think we just have to accept

that you're 100% proper mongrel

and I'm delighted by that.

Neale thank you very, very much indeed.

It's a delight.

'As we've bred and cross bred our dogs

'we've dramatically altered their appearance.

'But what about their underlying genetics?

'Is there any hint of wolf still left in modern dogs?'

We've heard a lot about genes being responsible

for particular traits or looks in dogs.

Has the DNA of the wolf changed now almost beyond recognition

with our modern dogs?

We now have a very, very few handful of traits

of very powerful genes

that are controlling most of that ridiculous diversity that we see.

So there's lots of places where it's pretty much the same.

You wouldn't really even tell the difference between a dog and a wolf.

-Right.

-But there are certain genes that we have selected,

for size for example, for coat colours,

that are radically different than anything that you see in the wild,

and are the things that are really determining

all that variation that we see in modern breeds.

'Our unnatural selection of dogs with novel features

'has promoted rare genetic mutations causing traits

'such as short legs or a stubby nose,

'traits that would otherwise have disappeared in the wild.

'And by favouring features seen in puppies within one generation

'we've unwittingly selected for particularly powerful genes.

'In the human genome, hundreds of genes affect body size.

'In the dog genome, it's largely controlled by a single mutated gene

'that has an exaggerated effect.

'Amazingly, almost all the other variation between breeds

'comes from just 50 genes.

'There's one for small bodies,

'another for short legs,

'one for long hair,

'one for no hair,

'one for curly hair,

'one for floppy ears,

'and even one for a moustache.

'It's this unique set of high-impact genes that's enabled us

'to produce so much variety.

'Our shared history has left an astonishing legacy.'

We have taken the wolf, which is pretty stable and pretty normal,

and we've created the dog,

which is the most diverse land mammal on earth.

It's huge, it's very tiny, it's very big,

it's got lots of weight,

it's got nothing, it's got crazy colours,

it's just... It's absurd.

So, looking at the genome of a modern dog now

basically tells its history.

You've got that absolute solid wolf ancestry

and then all the quirky bits that we humans have effectively made happen.

Without question, and that history is

our relationship history with the dog.

So the entire thing over 15,000 years

is evident in the genome of the dog, exactly.

That's fascinating. Greger, thank you very much.

'Here in Brightwell, we've uncovered the origins

'of the extreme differences we see in modern dogs.'

Say "sausages".

IN GRUFF VOICE: Sausages!

'Next week, we'll investigate the remarkable abilities

'of different breeds.

'We'll explore how they smell, see and think.

'We'll see how these senses emerge in a litter of puppies.

'And we'll reveal how we've trained dogs to herd, hunt

'and drive.

'To discover more about genetics

'and the changing roles of dogs in our everyday lives,

'go to...

'..and follow the links to the Open University.'

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd