"Dogs." "Man's best friend." "But do we really know our faithful companions?" "How they see their world?" "What they really think of us?" "In this film, we'll meet dogs that seem to have a sixth sense." "I knew I'd got breast cancer because Max had told me." "Undying loyalty." "That dog saved my life and for that he won the Victoria Cross." "Incredible intuition." "I've not taught her to do it, she's just done it." "We'll follow the life of a growing puppy." "It could be any dog." "And in fact, many dogs will play this role." "But by watching it develop, we'll reveal the hidden abilities in all dogs." "In the last few years, scientists have delved deeper than ever before into the canine mind and body, and the results are extraordinary." "The way you see dogs will never be the same again." "A puppy is born every second somewhere in the world." "And just moments ago, this litter was joined by a sister." "Our puppy." "She weighs under a pound and is remarkably vulnerable." "She's born blind and her ears are sealed closed for the first two weeks of her life as they're still developing and are too fragile to be exposed." "She can't control her own temperature, so she's totally reliant on the warmth of her mum." "In essence, she's premature." "So why are puppies born too small to survive on their own?" "Well, the smaller the puppy, the larger the litter." "And as long as they have their mother's protection, more of them will survive." "Combine this with the amazing abilities hidden inside our puppies and you begin to see why dogs have become so successful all over the world." "Today dogs are found in more shapes, sizes and varieties than any other mammal on the planet." "There are some 500 million dogs alive today and over 400 recognised breeds." "They're so familiar to us, we can forget how extraordinary they are." "Even the simple act of shaking off water hides a spectacular technique." "When you slow it down a thousand times, you can see the head turns a full 180 degrees." "This kickstarts a rotational momentum that corkscrews down the body." "Expelling water from their fur quickly so they don't get cold." "If you've ever been drenched by a dog, you'll know how efficient this technique is." "Their physical abilities may be remarkable, but it's their relationship with us that lies at the heart of their success." "We've trained them so that they'll hunt for us, guard our homes, retrieve on command and herd our livestock." "But they also bring their own magic to this partnership." "Dogs seem to understand our needs and have a desire to help us out." "I've not taught her to do it, she's just done it." "Jess, come here." "Here." "Sit down, then." "Sit." "Sit." "Jess is a ten-year-old springer spaniel that helps Louise Moorhouse with the daily workings of her farm in Devon." "Anything you ask her to do, she'll do it." "And she just lends her hand - or her paw - basically to anything." "In lambing season, Jess not only carries the milk bottles for Louise but she helps feed the orphaned lambs herself." "She's overriding her natural instinct to chase or even eat the lamb." "She's just an extra pair of hands, really." "I think she does it because she's grown up with the sheep and I think she probably thinks they're part of her family." "It's this willingness to please that has led to an enduring partnership." "Some days, she's just like a normal dog, you know, not listening at all." "But other days, to be honest, and most days," "I don't really treat her as a dog." "I think I treat her as my best friend, really." "And the first stages of this relationship are formed when dogs are at their most loveable." "Back with our puppy, and she's only just beginning to be aware of her surroundings." "Her eyes and ears that were closed for the first two weeks of her life are now opening." "And with this comes a whole new world of sensory stimulation." "She uses her vision to move around, but does she see the world the same way we do?" "Well, dogs are colour blind." "But that doesn't mean that everything is black and white." "She does see colour, but mostly just blues and yellows." "It's because she only has two types of colour receptors compared to humans, who have three." "And it's also why your dog will often ignore an orange toy in the green grass, as those colours look the same to them." "Better to give them something blue." "But it's when things are moving that her vision comes into its own." "Dogs' eyes process what they see more quickly than we do." "It's almost like they see in slow motion." "That's why they're always in the right place to catch the frisbee." "A dog's hearing is also superhuman." "They can hear things four times further away and twice as high pitched as we can." "(HIGH PITCHED ALARM)" "It's why we can't hear dog whistles." "But it also means they can hear the hum of lights and even the pulsing sound of a quartz crystal in a digital clock." "(HIGH PITCHED TONE)" "But there's one sense she'll use more than any other." "Her sense of smell." "A dog's brain is one tenth the size of ours, but the part that controls smell is 40 times larger." "They have up to 300 million scent glands in their nose compared to our five million." "So don't kid yourself, you can't hide a bone from your dog just because it's out of sight." "A dog's nose is so sensitive, it can even smell events from the distant past." "We're unravelling the secret world of dogs." "Our puppy's four weeks old and she's busy exploring her home." "But not like we would." "We look around with our eyes." "She looks around with her nose." "It's why a healthy dog likes to keep its nose wet." "This maximises the number of scent molecules it can observe from the air." "Their nose is their superpower." "It's so powerful, they can smell well into the distant past." "When we watch a dog enter a new environment, it looks like they just walk in the same way we would." "But when you see the world from their perspective, you realise they're picking up all the information they need with their noses." "Not only can they smell objects that were there and have now been cleaned away..." "..their senses are so keen, they can smell events days, weeks, even months after they've happened." "So they'll know if there might just be a bit of food left behind that they could eat." "This all comes naturally to a dog." "But when you train this wet, snuffly food-finding ability, the results can save lives." "Good boy." "Go on!" "The dogs are very, very efficient." "They're probably equal to about ten people searching." "Max is a wilderness air scenting dog and he's trained to pick up human scent so he can find missing people for his handler Alex Lyons." "We all smell, whether we like it or not, and our scent gets carried in the wind and that's what he's trained to locate." "He gets that excited, he can't bark properly, so he gives me a 'huff-huff' thing." "(HUFFS)" "Max is one of the most successful search and rescue dogs in the country." "He knows what he's doing." "Don't you?" "Dogs like Max can really make a difference when all reasonable hope has been lost." "I had been to Exeter to do shopping and I came home on the bus and I rang the bell to stop at the green and it didn't." "And it took me on further up here to Quick's Farm." "And I said to the driver," ""It's all right, I can get off here, go through the arboretum and I'm back."" "But I got in the arboretum, I couldn't find my way out." "(CHUCKLES)" "79-year-old Margaret Haverson hadn't considered that the woodland had been neglected for over 40 years and was completely overgrown." "I get tied up with the brambles and that." "This was all covered in brambles." "And then it got cold and dark and that, so I laid under a big tree, which could have been that one, but it was a big tree." "Margaret lay under that tree for three days and two frozen nights while the police force, volunteers and even helicopters with heat-seeking cameras combed the area trying to locate her." "Yes, and I was frozen." "So Max was called in to see if a dog's nose could succeed where everything else had failed and before it was too late." "To tell you the truth, I was not expecting to find Margaret alive." "Because of the weather, I thought she would have died of hypothermia." "Then I kept dozing off and on until you came and found me." "Or you came and found me." "Yeah, Max found you." "Didn't you?" "You were a good boy, you were." "Where humans had failed, Max's nose cut through the undergrowth and saved Margaret's life." "I was very cold and very relieved when I was licked all over by a dog." "He was so happy." "Weren't you?" "Of course, you're good, aren't you?" "Yeah." "Good boy." "You're good." "Our litter of pups are now five weeks old and they're becoming more adventurous." "Testing what they can destroy with their teeth and who they can and can't pick fights with." "(HISSES)" "But above all, they're discovering what it means to be a dog." "Simple play between two puppies reveals the wild ancestors within." "The hunting instinct." "The dominant and submissive behaviours that are essential to pack life." "This is because all dogs can trace their ancestry back to the wolf." "So if all dogs came from one species, then how did they end up to be so many different shapes and sizes?" "When we first domesticated dogs, we bred out some of the wild behaviours, and this process accidently led to new characteristics." "Coloured coats, curly tails and floppy ears." "Add a few thousand years of breeding from the dogs we love the most and you have the huge variety that we see today." "In theory, any dog can mate with any other dog, but practicalities get in the way." "If humans were as different as a pug and a St Bernard, then our heights would range from two to 31 feet tall." "But there's one thing that just about every dog does." "Bark." "So why do they bark?" "Where does it come from?" "Wolves don't bark." "They howl." "Some scientists think that barking has evolved just for our benefit." "So does this mean that they're talking to us?" "And if so, what are they saying?" "They seem to understand our words." "Dig, dig." "Come on, speak. (BARKS) Good boy." "But can dogs really talk to us by barking?" "I don't think anybody ever understands a dog." "They understand you." "I don't think you ever understand a dog." "Let's see if these owners can understand what different barks mean." "Put them on the dog." "She'd probably be able to tell better than me." "OK." "Can't hear a thing." "(RECORDING OF DOG WHIMPERING)" "It's unhappy." "It wants attention." "It's frustrated." "I visualise him in an open space on a lead and he wants to be off and to go to somewhere or somebody." "(RECORDING OF FREQUENT STACCATO BARKING)" "It sounds quite a happy bark." "It sounds as if it's playing." "To me, that sounds like you're just about to throw a ball for the dog and there's that level of excitement." "It's running all around you." "It's been identified that dogs can communicate at least six different emotions to us through their barks." "That's why I know what you're thinking." "That just proves, doesn't it, that dogs can talk by barking." "Back with our growing puppy." "She's not trying to communicate with us just yet." "Only five weeks old, the puppies are still finding their feet and slowly gaining independence from their mother." "Milk is replaced with a first tentative interest in water." "The tip of a dog's tongue has tastebuds just for water." "They create a desire to drink which is important, as their natural diet of meat is high in salt." "But even the simple act of drinking is more complicated than it looks." "Dogs curve their tongue into the water to create a large surface area to stick the water to." "They pull it up into their mouth, snapping it shut before all the water escapes." "It's a surprisingly complex and beautiful process for such a simple daily requirement." "And it's also why dogs make such a mess when they're drinking." "Puppies sleep far more than they are awake, just like human babies." "Exhausted from a world of new experiences, they fall into a deep slumber." "It looks like they're dreaming about chasing rabbits." "But is that just our human sentiments getting in the way?" "Dogs do dream and by monitoring their brain waves, scientists have found out that puppies dream far more than adult dogs." "They can even tell that dogs dream about the day's events, processing their memories." "Looks like it's been quite a busy day." "But what will the future hold?" "A fortnight later and our puppy's arrived at one of the world's most high-tech specialist dog centres." "She's here to find out if she has what it takes to make it as one of the most sought-after dogs in the country." "We're revealing the secret life of dogs." "Now seven weeks old, our puppy is at the perfect age to assess whether she has the qualities to be one of the most highly-trained working dogs." "Is she fit, healthy, intelligent - and above all the right character - to be a guide dog for the blind?" "(RECORDING OF DRIVING CARS)" "The first test is to see how she'll respond to an unfamiliar, slightly scary sound." "She should react but not panic." "Very good." "Sat and watched that really intently." "The most crucial trait is loyalty, looking to her owner at all times and in all situations." "Puppy!" "Puppy, come on." "There we are." "That's really good." "And it seems like she's got what it takes." "You might wonder if your dog could qualify to be a guide dog." "You can get an idea by observing them." "Research has shown that dogs are left- or right-pawed." "Are you a left-footer, Max?" "Eh?" "Is you a left-footer?" "No?" "You can test this by watching closely to see which paw they step off with." "I think that was a right foot start." "Here." "Yeah, she's left-footed, isn't she?" "You're left-handed." "OK, let's go." "I think we've proven there, in that unbiased test, that it was his right foot that came forward." "Preliminary research has shown that right-pawed dogs are statistically more likely to pass their guide dog test." "You'd get them run over by the bus, you would, wouldn't you?" "There's another clue to the chances of them passing in the swirls of hair on your dog." "And it all depends which way they turn." "Clockwise." "Anti-clockwise." "If your dog is right-pawed and the swirl goes anti-clockwise, then your dog is more likely to be calm, confident and self-assured - exactly the traits that a guide dog needs." "Do you want to be a guide dog?" "You could be a blind dog for the Guides." "And if your dog is left-pawed, be prepared for some creative solutions to your problems." "Back with our puppy, and she's joined a group of other potential guide dogs." "And what do you know?" "She's also right-pawed." "There's still a year of training to complete, but for now she can have fun." "We've trained dogs for thousands of years to work with us, harnessing their incredible physical abilities." "And the husky is one of the best there is." "They're superb athletes." "Able to run for over 100 miles a day in sub-zero temperatures." "And they love it." "They have a coat of fur two layers thick that insulates them from the cold." "Even at -60, they won't get frostbite." "And when they need to cool down, like all dogs, they pant." "By looking at these huskies with a thermal camera, we can see that their mouths and tongues are white with the heat that they're expelling from their body core." "And it means that when your dog is panting after a run, she's not puffed out, she's just cooling down." "It's a dog's main method of losing heat." "As they're covered in fur, the only place they can really sweat is through their paws." "Dogs have been our working companions for as long as we can remember." "We've used the basset hound's nose to sniff out prey;" "the Rottweiler's strength for guarding our homes;" "the Afghan's sight and speed to give chase;" "and the husky's endurance in extreme environments." "But from the very beginning, we've also chosen dogs that are cute and give us comfort." "And no matter what the size, dogs have worked their way into our hearts." "It's a strong emotional bond." "And one that our rapidly growing puppy is just beginning to discover." "Now nine weeks old, she's taking her first steps into her new home and a very special new relationship." "This is the family who will raise her until she's ready to be a guide dog." "It's here that she'll learn to live with people." "And it's the perfect time for this transition." "At this key stage in their life, puppies actually prefer to go to human companions than other dogs." "When a puppy holds our gaze with its big eyes and infant-like features, it causes our brain to react as though we're looking at a human baby." "But have you ever wondered what they're thinking?" "Sometimes dogs look at us with such knowing eyes, but do they really know how they feel?" "They can read what sort of mood you're in." "They're somebody who can understand how you're feeling in a day, whether you're feeling upset." "They know when I'm hurting, they know when I'm sad, and... ..yeah, 100% I think they understand me." "Dogs definitely look at us like they know what's up." "And tests have shown that there's truth in this." "Humans naturally look to the left hand side of someone's face to read their mood, as that's where we display our emotions." "Dogs are one of the few other species that have picked up on this, and they also do it to tell how we're feeling." "Who can resist a dog when it's trying to cheer you up?" "For some people, this irresistible affection has transformed their lives." "Navy officer Allen Parton suffered a severe head injury while on active duty in the Gulf War." "It left him confined to a wheelchair, unable to talk, and he lost half of his life's memories." "I can't remember my children's first steps, their first days at school, their being born." "And I was there for all those occasions, but sadly those are memories robbed of me." "But more than this, Allen didn't even recognise his children." "He had no idea who the lady was that he had apparently married, and he lost the ability to feel any emotion." "I had two attempts at suicide in rehabilitation because I'd lost my past, I'd lost my future and really in a psychologically bad place, as well as physically." "But that all changed with a chance encounter with a dog named Endal, who was failing his training to be an assistant's dog and needed a home." "At the time there was this one-year-old Labrador up there that had health problems and a huge attitude problem." "And bless him, he saw something on the floor by my wheelchair, trotted across the training centre, picked it up and put it in my lap." "He didn't get a reaction, a treat or acknowledged and this really hacked him off." "This was the dog that didn't do anything for anyone and he'd done it for me and he wanted a treat, a reward, praise, anything, and he got the stone wall." "Then he trotted over to the mock-up supermarket, took a tin off the shelf, put it in my lap, didn't get a reaction." "To cut a long story short, I was disappearing under a mound of stuff and just before I completely disappeared, the brain switched on and I smiled for the first time in a long time." "And it was the start of our relationship." "Endal became his 24-hour companion, aiding with every practical aspect of his life." "He even helped Allen reconnect with his family and in 2002, Allen remarried his wife with Endal as his best man." "But this dog had to show his true devotion when, in the dead of night," "Allen and Endal were both hit by a car." "But though I was knocked unconscious out of the wheelchair and Endal had been stunned by the vehicle as well, he got up, pulled me into the recovery position, he retrieved his blanket from under my wheelchair and covered me with it." "And in the dark he found my mobile phone, which had jettisoned off, and he brought it to my face and then he made the brave decision to limp off to a nearby hotel and raise the alarm." "And for that he won the Victoria Cross for Animal Bravery." "That dog had saved my life, my marriage, and brought me back to my children." "No one could have predicted the life-changing impact that Endal would have had on Allen's family." "It was a remarkable bond and an incredible life." "But inevitably age caught up with Endal." "I'd had a lovely evening with Endal at home, knowing the vet was coming the next day." "I was able to tell him how much I loved him, what he had done for me." "Yeah, it was quite an emotional evening." "The final gift he gave me was that gift of sadness." "I didn't know that emotion, but that day Endal left me, put to sleep in my lap, was the day that my heart broke and I cried, yeah." "But there was a little guy in the corner who was there with a hanky in his mouth to wipe away the tears." "He'd been nurturing alongside Endal for a year and that day he picked up the baton and run with it." "Good lad." "Good boy." "Some people come up to me in the street and they say they wish they had a dog as clever as Endel or EJ is and I think they have." "They just haven't opened their minds and hearts." "Our faithful friend is now three months old and her guide dog training is starting in earnest." "She's learning simple commands, like returning to her owner's call and sitting on request." "Good girl!" "All basic skills, but really rather important if you're going to be a guide dog." "She's also showing signs that her bond with the family is growing." "A lick of the face or a kiss on the lips definitely feels like true affection." "And this is proof that your dog is treating you like her mother, as this behaviour originally comes from a puppy licking her mum's lips to get her to regurgitate her dinner." "Nice." "We've been watching a puppy grow, and now that she's nine months old, she's just about full size." "But like a lanky teenager, she's not totally in control of it all just yet." "She's also taking the next steps in her guide dog training." "Learning about strange sights, sounds and smells and most importantly, bonding with her family." "Another sure sign of this attachment is a yawn." "It turns out that the infectious nature of yawns is a sign of empathy." "So if you yawn and your dog yawns back, it means you've got a good bond." "Have you ever wondered why it's so relaxing to hang out with a dog?" "This is the Evelina Children's Hospital in London." "And McGee is a normal dog with a very special job to do." "Hey, George, it's McGee." "George was admitted to hospital on Christmas Eve just over a year ago." "He had a ruptured diaphragm and needed drastic surgery." "For the next 18 hours, his parents didn't know if he would survive." "He's doing well now, but he hasn't been home in all this time." "Give him that biscuit." "Oh, boy, he liked that." "Oh, yeah." "So the one thing George looks forward to is this weekly visit from McGee." "But he gets a lot more out of it than just a cuddle." "Oh, he gives lovely kisses." "When we stroke a dog, it makes us feel happy and relaxed." "Tests have shown that it lowers our blood pressure." "This is because our bodies release oxytocin into our bloodstream, the same hormone produced when mothers breastfeed their babies." "This means we'll feel the peaceful, warm sense of bonding and attachment that a mother would with her newborn child." "Statistically, people live longer if they own dogs." "That's lovely, isn't it, McGee?" "They're less likely to have a heart attack and more likely to survive one." "That didn't take long, did it?" "Ah, he's kissing you." "He's so lovely." "But the benefits go both ways." "Cuddle a dog and her blood pressure will also drop." "She even produces the attachment hormone oxytocin, so she's feeling that same bond that goes between a mother and her child." "But how far does this special connection go?" "Some people think their dogs have almost supernatural powers." "Is there any truth that they can sense when you're about to take them for a walk?" "Or predict when you're going to faint?" "Do some dogs really know us better than we know ourselves?" "As we explore the secret world of dogs, we're discovering that they're capable of remarkable feats." "The puppy we've been following is just over a year old." "She's now living at the Guide Dog Centre, going through the toughest phase of her training yet." "She's made the important bond with humans, but now she must put it to practical use and do something really impressive." "Looking after a blind, vulnerable handler means knowing to stop at the edge of the road." "She's anticipating her handler's needs." "Avoiding obstacles on the ground, but also in the air." "She could walk right through this arch, but she knows that her blind handler would hit her head." "Good girl." "So how's she doing this?" "It comes down to observation." "Dogs watch us all the time in a way that no other animal does." "He senses whenever we're going to go out and he knows before we even make a move." "They read our body language, and that's how they know we're going to take them for a walk, before we think we've made the decisions ourselves." "It's this constant observation that can sometimes appear to give them a sixth sense." "Max is a red collie cross, normally full of energy and enthusiasm." "But in 2008, his owner Maureen Burns noticed that something was wrong." "I thought at the time Max was fading, he was nine and a half and I was preparing myself for losing him because he just wasn't happy." "Wouldn't come with me, wouldn't sit by me, wouldn't sit on my lap." "And the odd signs." "He would come up and touch my breast with his nose and back off, so desperately unhappy, with such a sad look in his eyes." "Maureen had a small lump in her breast but her latest mammogram was clear so she presumed all was OK." "Initially, I thought it's just another lumpy breast, as people get." "But then I sort of connected it with the dog, with his odd behaviour." "And one day I was looking in the mirror in the bedroom here and I looked across in the mirror at Max's eyes - he was on the bed, as he is now - and I knew it was cancer." "Maureen went to her local hospital but both a scan and a mammogram came back negative." "It took a surgical biopsy to finally detect the cancer." "Maureen had it removed and the change in Max's behaviour was instant." "The day I was picked up from the hospital, he was his old hyper self again." "He put his nose across my breast to check where the operation had been and he was wagging his tail and his eyes were happy." "It was unbelievable, the change in him." "Instant." "I love Max so much and I owe him so much." "And even before I go for a check up now, I get him to check me out." "And if he's happy and wagging his tail, I am happy and I know I'm OK." "We now know that dogs like Max are smelling the tiny volatile chemicals given off by cancerous tumours." "Most dogs can do this, they just don't know that we're interested." "But with a little training, dogs can accurately pick out a cancerous patient from a selection of urine samples." "Good girl." "They can even be taught to let diabetics like Stephen know that his blood sugar levels are smelling low long before he can feel it and definitely before he passes out." "Dogs like Stephen's are now transforming lives all over the country." "They're being trained to detect the early warning signals for severe allergic reactions, epileptic fits and narcolepsy." "Our dog has also done something remarkable." "She's done more than just qualify to be a guide dog." "She's done so well in all her tests that Guide Dogs For The Blind would like her to be a mother to the next generation." "Now aged 18 months old, our puppy, who we followed from birth, is going to have a litter of her own." "Just like a human, she may experience morning sickness and strange food cravings." "But 63 days after conception, she'll give birth and the cycle will begin all over again." "A new litter of dogs, with all their potential, entering the world." "I'm really surprised how much she means to me, really." "We've always had them as a pet, but she's definitely more than that." "I think every time you go out, you learn something about the dogs." "You always learn something new." "There are so many benefits of having a dog in one's life." "I can't recommend it highly enough." "Dogs give us an incredible amount." "All we can ever do is look after them and love them." "Together, we're a team." "Dogs are super intelligent and have amazing powers." "I love him." "We now understand dogs better than ever before." "And the more we know about our dogs, the more we love them." "So, dogs." "Slobbery, hairy mutts only interested in food?" "Sometimes." "But mostly just brilliant." "itfc subtitles"