The Science Behind Dogs Who Love to Howl

It seems their pack has changed species.

Transcript

00:00Dogs are now man's best friend, but at some point, likely over 23,000 years ago, dogs were still wolves, not yet domesticated.

00:11But now experts are looking into what makes some dogs act more like wolves, specifically what drives some breeds to do this?

00:21More than others, the researchers looked at 28 purebred breeds, playing for them recordings of wolves howling,

00:26finding that while there wasn't any statistical difference in how young dogs reacted, with older dogs there was.

00:32Here's one of the researchers to explain.

00:34The main finding was that the breed matters, actually.

00:40More precisely, that those breeds which are genetically closer to wolves are more prone to responded howling,

00:51and they also show more stress signals than those which are less related to wolves.

00:56The stress signals being yawning, shaking the body, licking the mouth, and scratching,

01:00all were more frequent in dogs with closer genetic ties to wolves.

01:06So what do these findings mean exactly?

01:08Well, the researchers say that selective dog breeding has brought dogs closer to human society than to their historical wolf packs.