The other night there was a documentary about dogs and how they have evolved. The main thrust of it was that they are parasites and have been very clever in their evolution in relation to we humans. Their beahviour towards us has evolved to be of benefit to them. they get food and shelter out of it. They adopt us as their family. This adoption thing is also why they herd cattle and sheep etc. The barking when someone comes to the door and like behaviour is about protecting their 'family'. Their appealing wasy, soft eys, silly beahviour etc is all about keeping us sweet so they get fed. Obviously the doc went into mor detail about all this and showed how this started many years ago.
This was abetter doc than some on dogs. There has been a spate oft hem sayuing that if we allow dogs to sleep in our beds, or on the bavck of setees etc we are letting them be top dog which we should be. Bollocks to that. my dogs know exactly who is boss and they know the peking order. Until recently i had thought Brad was the 2nd in command after me. He can be a stroppy bastard and all th others back off him. Until that is he had a go at Martha. She wanted to get in his bed. He went for her. She immediately went back at him. Poor Brad was so shcoked. He immediately sat down and hung his head. He then smneaked away behind the armchair and Martha got in his bed. Now Martha gets to sleep in his bed whenever she wants and he lies outside, looking at her. So Martha is the boss really but she lets Brad behave as if he is! (sound familair, girls?)
