Why do dogs understand us so well, and how did the "wild" wolf become man's closest companion? This episode tells the remarkable story of how a partnership thousands of years ago changed both species forever.
From ancient myths to modern living rooms, it shows how dogs helped build human civilisation and captured our hearts.
[00:00:05] Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English, the show where you can listen to fascinating stories and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:21] I'm Alastair Budge, and today it’s the start of another three-part mini-series, this time on animals throughout history.
[00:00:31] In part one, today’s episode, we’ll be talking about dogs, our canine companions, man’s best friend.
[00:00:39] Then in part two, we’ll talk about a very different but equally important animal. The cat.
[00:00:46] And in part three it’ll be the history of an animal that didn’t exist at all: the dragon.
[00:00:53] OK then, let's not waste a minute and get right into it.
[00:00:59] In Homer’s epic book, the Odyssey, the hero Odysseus spends ten long years away from home fighting the Trojan War.
[00:01:11] His ten-year journey back home is equally hazardous, and he has to evade cyclopes, giants, sorceresses, and various gods who mean him harm.
[00:01:25] In his absence, he is presumed dead, and his wife and son are left to deal with a group of men who have their eyes set on Odysseus’ loyal wife, Penelope.
[00:01:39] Odysseus does finally return home, but he must do so in secret, fearful that revealing his identity too soon would put him in mortal danger.
[00:01:54] So, he returns not in the clothes of a triumphant king, but disguised as a poor beggar clad in rags.
[00:02:07] True to his plan, nobody recognises their former king. Not his servants, not his wife, not even his son.
[00:02:16] Or rather, no human recognises their former master.
[00:02:21] As Odysseus makes his way towards his former palace, he comes across an old dog lying on the side of the road. The dog is lying in piles of filth, and covered in fleas.
[00:02:38] Odysseus recognises him as Argos, his old faithful hunting dog.
[00:02:46] Argos notices the beggar walking past, drops his ears, lifts his head and wags his tail.
[00:02:55] It has been twenty years, and Argos is old and dying, but the animal recognises his master immediately.
[00:03:06] He is too old and weak to get up, and Odysseus knows that he cannot greet him, lest his identity be revealed. Odysseus, the great Greek warrior, is forced to wipe the tears from his eyes.
[00:03:23] The narrator tells us that as soon as Odysseus sets foot in the palace, his loyal dog, Argos, keels over and dies.
[00:03:36] It’s one of the most memorable scenes in the Odyssey, and a reminder of how long and how deeply dogs have been part of the human story.
[00:03:46] Because Homer didn’t include this scene to show us that dogs are cute, or sentimental.
[00:03:54] He included it because, even nearly three thousand years ago, the idea that a dog would recognise its human, even after decades apart, already felt completely natural, so natural that it needed no explanation.
[00:04:13] Compared to every other animal–cats, horses, even your pet goldfish–the lives of dogs and humans are more closely intertwined.
[00:04:24] So, to understand this connection, to understand the history of dogs, we first need to go back to a time before dogs existed at all.
[00:04:36] A time when humans were not at the top of the food chain.
[00:04:40] A time when the night was far more dangerous than it is today.
[00:04:45] Imagine, if you will, the world thirty or forty thousand years ago.
[00:04:51] This was the Pleistocene, an era of ice and giant beasts. Humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers, moving across the landscape in small groups. By day, we were capable hunters, but by night, we were vulnerable.
[00:05:10] We had no walls, no lights, and we were surrounded by predators who could see in the dark much better than we could. There were cave bears, large cats, and various species of wolf–not the modern grey wolf you might see in a documentary today, but larger, now-extinct ancestors.
[00:05:34] Now, for a long time, the "standard" story of how wolves became dogs was quite simple. It went like this: a brave human hunter found a litter of wolf cubs, took one home, and raised it. Over generations, these "tame" wolves became dogs.
[00:05:56] It’s a nice story, but most modern scientists believe it is almost certainly wrong.
[00:06:03] Why?
[00:06:04] Well, because a wild wolf, even one raised by humans, is still a wild animal. It's unpredictable, it is aggressive, and it's very hard to keep in a "domestic" setting. Even if you raise a wolf puppy with care and affection, when it grows up, it becomes very clear that it is still a wild animal.
[00:06:30] Instead, the true story of how some wolves became dogs is likely one of self-domestication.
[00:06:40] As humans moved across the land, we left things behind: specifically, scraps of food. Leftovers.
[00:06:49] For a hungry wolf, a human campsite was a "buffet."
[00:06:55] Most wolves were too afraid of humans to get close, but a small number of them were naturally a little bit braver, a little bit "tamer."
[00:07:07] These wolves realised that if they stayed near humans, they didn't have to hunt as hard, because breakfast would be served automatically; they could scavenge our leftovers.
[00:07:21] Because they were better fed, they had more puppies.
[00:07:25] And because tameness is a genetic trait, their puppies were even braver and even friendlier.
[00:07:34] Scientists call this the "Survival of the Friendliest."
[00:07:40] Over thousands of years, a "partnership of convenience" formed. These friendly wolves acted as a natural alarm system, barking when a dangerous predator approached the camp at night, so humans were happy to be followed by wolves.
[00:07:59] And in return, they provided the animals with a steady source of protein.
[00:08:05] But friendliness alone doesn’t explain why wolves became dogs.
[00:08:11] Plenty of animals can become tolerant of humans.
[00:08:14] What makes dogs unusual, and what truly separates them from wolves, is how well they learned to understand humans.
[00:08:25] Modern studies have shown that dogs are remarkably good at reading human behaviour.
[00:08:31] They follow pointing gestures. They look to humans for guidance when faced with a problem.
[00:08:39] In some experiments, dogs outperform even chimpanzees at understanding basic human cues.
[00:08:47] And over time, dogs didn’t just adapt to living near humans.
[00:08:54] They adapted to living with humans.
[00:08:57] They evolved to fit into our social world.
[00:09:02] And as these animals changed their behaviour, something fascinating happened to their bodies.
[00:09:10] This is known as Domestication Syndrome.
[00:09:15] As we selected for "friendliness," other physical changes followed, almost by accident.
[00:09:22] Their snouts, their noses, became shorter. Their teeth became smaller. Their ears, which were previously sharp and upright to catch the sound of prey, began to flop over.
[00:09:37] They even developed "patches" of white fur.
[00:09:41] And the changes weren't just on the outside. Inside their bodies, something even more remarkable was happening.
[00:09:51] Scientists have discovered that one of the biggest genetic differences between a wolf and a dog is the ability to digest starch, the carbohydrate you get from eating things like bread, rice and potatoes.
[00:10:06] And as humans moved from hunting to farming and started eating more bread and grains, the dogs that survived were the ones whose stomachs adapted to eat our leftovers.
[00:10:21] They literally evolved to share our dinner.
[00:10:25] And perhaps the most remarkable, or most manipulative, of the changes happened in their faces.
[00:10:33] Dogs have a tiny muscle above their eyes that wolves simply do not have. It allows them to raise their inner eyebrows to create what we call "puppy dog eyes."
[00:10:46] This expression mimics the look of a human infant, a baby, which triggers a nurturing response in our brains and makes us want to protect them.
[00:10:58] I love dogs, and if you are also a dog person, then what I’m describing doesn’t need any further explanation.
[00:11:07] And even if you are more of a cat person, it must be hard to look at a puppy making “that face” and not feel some sort of affection towards it.
[00:11:18] Now, you might be wondering: how do we know this "self-domestication" actually happened?
[00:11:25] Well, it's actually been put to the test a lot more recently than 10,000 years ago.
[00:11:33] In the 1950s, a Soviet scientist named Dmitry Belyaev decided to test this theory. He took wild silver foxes and performed a simple experiment: he only allowed the "tamest" foxes—the ones that didn’t try to bite him—to breed.
[00:11:54] Curiously, within just a few generations, the foxes didn’t just become friendly like dogs; they also started to look like dogs.
[00:12:06] Their ears began to flop, their tails began to wag, and their coats changed color.
[00:12:14] This experiment proved that when you select an animal for temperament—for being "nice"—nature seems to throw in these physical changes for free.
[00:12:27] And as for dogs, there wasn’t of course just one type of dog.
[00:12:33] As humans moved into different environments—from the frozen Arctic to the hot deserts of the Middle East—the dog adapted alongside us.
[00:12:43] And to reiterate, it’s believed that this was happening all over the world; it wasn’t specific to one region.
[00:12:52] What this meant was that we began to see the very first "specialised" dogs, dogs that were bred to do specific jobs.
[00:13:02] Dogs bred for hunting, with speed, stamina, and an exceptional sense of smell.
[00:13:09] Dogs bred to guard camps and later settlements, alert to danger and willing to defend their human group.
[00:13:18] And, crucially, dogs bred to help humans control other animals.
[00:13:25] When we began to domesticate sheep, goats, and cattle, dogs made this possible on a much larger scale.
[00:13:35] One person alone would struggle to contain a herd.
[00:13:39] But one person with a dog or with multiple dogs is a different kettle of fish.
[00:13:46] Herding dogs allowed humans to manage livestock efficiently, protect it from predators, and move it across long distances.
[00:13:55] And this mattered enormously.
[00:13:59] Because livestock meant a reliable source of food.
[00:14:02] Reliable food meant surplus.
[00:14:05] And surplus meant that humans no longer needed to spend every waking hour searching for their next meal.
[00:14:12] This, in turn, allowed settlements to grow. Villages became towns. Towns became cities.
[00:14:21] And through all of this, dogs were there, working alongside humans.
[00:14:27] They hunted. They guarded. They herded. They pulled sleds across frozen landscapes where no other animals could.
[00:14:36] In the Arctic, dogs made human life possible in places that would otherwise have been completely uninhabitable.
[00:14:44] In deserts, they protected camps at night.
[00:14:47] In forests, they tracked prey invisible to the human eye.
[00:14:52] Dogs didn’t just adapt to human civilisation.
[00:14:56] Human civilisation adapted with dogs.
[00:15:00] And for most of history, it was a working partnership, of course.
[00:15:04] There was surely affection, as you can see in the Odyssey, but the dog’s primary function was as a worker, not as someone to lie around you next to your feet and get its tummy tickled.
[00:15:19] And often, the partnership was neither gentle nor sentimental.
[00:15:24] Dogs were used in warfare.
[00:15:27] The Assyrians, the Romans, and later medieval armies all used large dogs to intimidate enemies, guard camps, and even fight.
[00:15:38] In many societies, powerful dogs became symbols of status and authority, owned only by elites, kings and queens.
[00:15:48] But even here, the pattern is the same.
[00:15:52] Dogs amplified human ability.
[00:15:55] They made humans more effective, more mobile, and more secure. A dog would be undyingly loyal to his master, but he could be vicious if ordered to be.
[00:16:08] However, it's perhaps a simplification to assume that dogs in the past were only valued for their "utility".
[00:16:16] In 1914, German archaeologists found a grave that dates back 14,000 years, to a time when you might have thought dogs had a purely functional purpose.
[00:16:29] Inside were a man, a woman, and a dog.
[00:16:33] But here is the interesting part: scientists analysed the dog’s teeth and found that it had been very sick for a long time before it died.
[00:16:45] This dog could not have hunted. It could not have guarded the camp. It was "useless" in a survival sense.
[00:16:52] Yet, the humans had kept it alive, feeding it and cleaning it for months. This is clear evidence us that the emotional bond we saw with Argos in the Odyssey wasn't some kind of new invention; it was already thousands of years old.
[00:17:11] Dogs might have been primarily workers, but even going back tens of thousands of years, humans clearly weren’t able to resist those puppy dog eyes or the loyal affection of a canine companion any more than we are today.
[00:17:28] Still, there are some examples of humans keeping dogs as pets, like we do today, but this was typically a luxury reserved for those at the very top of society.
[00:17:41] If you are a keen student of British history, or you listened to episode 187 and have a fantastic memory, you may remember the last moments of the life of Mary Queen of Scots.
[00:17:56] She was beheaded on the orders of Queen Elizabeth.
[00:18:00] So the story goes, after the executioner struck, a little dog scuttled out from under her petticoats and refused to leave her body, lying between her severed head and shoulders.
[00:18:15] The poor thing was covered in her blood and had to be forcibly removed.
[00:18:20] It’s a grisly tale, but yet another reminder of the longevity of this human-canine bond.
[00:18:29] Now, over time, as societies changed, the role of dogs began to change too.
[00:18:36] With industrialisation, urbanisation, and modern weapons, humans relied less on dogs for survival.
[00:18:44] Most dogs lost their “jobs”, but in what we might perhaps call an early form of universal basic canine income, dogs moved from the field into the home.
[00:18:57] From tools to companions.
[00:19:00] With their roles redundant, they were allowed to put their paws up and relax.
[00:19:07] In the 19th century, particularly in Europe, and most markedly in Victorian England, dogs were increasingly kept purely for companionship.
[00:19:18] Dogs were no longer workers; they were family members.
[00:19:22] They were given names. They slept indoors. They were mourned when they died.
[00:19:29] But the Victorians didn't just move dogs into the living room; they fundamentally redesigned them.
[00:19:36] Before the 1800s, 'breeds' were loose categories based on jobs.
[00:19:44] But in 1873, the first Kennel Club was founded in London. Humans began to write 'breed standards–strict rules on exactly how a dog’s tail should curl or how long its nose should be.
[00:20:01] By closing the 'gene pool' and only allowing 'purebreds' to mate, we created the incredible physical variety we see today—from the tiny Chihuahua to the massive Great Dane—this was created all in just a few human generations.
[00:20:20] And the trend of dog ownership only accelerated.
[00:20:25] What began in Victorian drawing rooms spread across the industrialised world throughout the 20th century.
[00:20:32] As countries industrialised and grew wealthier, particularly after World War II, more and more people had the disposable income to keep an animal that served no practical purpose.
[00:20:45] And what had once been a luxury of the Victorian upper classes became a global norm.
[00:20:53] For most of human history, keeping a dog that did no work at all would have seemed not just unusual, but irresponsible.
[00:21:02] But by the 1960s and 70s, in countries across Europe, North America, and parts of Asia, the "pet dog" had become normal, even expected. A home wasn't quite complete without one.
[00:21:18] And today, well, dog ownership is huge.
[00:21:21] Sure, there are still some countries and societies where dogs are not popular, whether that’s for religious or societal reasons, but these are a minority.
[00:21:32] Globally around 30% of households have a dog.
[00:21:37] People spend thousands of Euros on their dogs, and according to one report, spending on pets is scheduled to reach $500 billion per year by 2030. Yes, that includes other animals too, but dogs are the world’s most popular pet, and get the lion’s share of the spend.
[00:22:00] If you have a dog, you probably need no reminder as to why.
[00:22:05] Odysseus knew it 3,000 years ago, the Victorians knew it 150 years ago, and there is certainly a good reason that almost every language has some variant on the phrase “man’s best friend”.
[00:22:21] OK, then, that is it for today's episode on dogs, our faithful, canine partners for tens of thousands of years.
[00:22:29] As a reminder, this was part one of a three-part mini-series on the theme of animals.
[00:22:35] Next up we have an animal I must confess I don’t enjoy the company of as much as I do dogs, and that is the cat.
[00:22:43] And in part three, it’ll be the fire-breathing, mythical world of dragons.
[00:22:48] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds by Leonardo English.
[00:22:53] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[00:00:05] Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English, the show where you can listen to fascinating stories and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:21] I'm Alastair Budge, and today it’s the start of another three-part mini-series, this time on animals throughout history.
[00:00:31] In part one, today’s episode, we’ll be talking about dogs, our canine companions, man’s best friend.
[00:00:39] Then in part two, we’ll talk about a very different but equally important animal. The cat.
[00:00:46] And in part three it’ll be the history of an animal that didn’t exist at all: the dragon.
[00:00:53] OK then, let's not waste a minute and get right into it.
[00:00:59] In Homer’s epic book, the Odyssey, the hero Odysseus spends ten long years away from home fighting the Trojan War.
[00:01:11] His ten-year journey back home is equally hazardous, and he has to evade cyclopes, giants, sorceresses, and various gods who mean him harm.
[00:01:25] In his absence, he is presumed dead, and his wife and son are left to deal with a group of men who have their eyes set on Odysseus’ loyal wife, Penelope.
[00:01:39] Odysseus does finally return home, but he must do so in secret, fearful that revealing his identity too soon would put him in mortal danger.
[00:01:54] So, he returns not in the clothes of a triumphant king, but disguised as a poor beggar clad in rags.
[00:02:07] True to his plan, nobody recognises their former king. Not his servants, not his wife, not even his son.
[00:02:16] Or rather, no human recognises their former master.
[00:02:21] As Odysseus makes his way towards his former palace, he comes across an old dog lying on the side of the road. The dog is lying in piles of filth, and covered in fleas.
[00:02:38] Odysseus recognises him as Argos, his old faithful hunting dog.
[00:02:46] Argos notices the beggar walking past, drops his ears, lifts his head and wags his tail.
[00:02:55] It has been twenty years, and Argos is old and dying, but the animal recognises his master immediately.
[00:03:06] He is too old and weak to get up, and Odysseus knows that he cannot greet him, lest his identity be revealed. Odysseus, the great Greek warrior, is forced to wipe the tears from his eyes.
[00:03:23] The narrator tells us that as soon as Odysseus sets foot in the palace, his loyal dog, Argos, keels over and dies.
[00:03:36] It’s one of the most memorable scenes in the Odyssey, and a reminder of how long and how deeply dogs have been part of the human story.
[00:03:46] Because Homer didn’t include this scene to show us that dogs are cute, or sentimental.
[00:03:54] He included it because, even nearly three thousand years ago, the idea that a dog would recognise its human, even after decades apart, already felt completely natural, so natural that it needed no explanation.
[00:04:13] Compared to every other animal–cats, horses, even your pet goldfish–the lives of dogs and humans are more closely intertwined.
[00:04:24] So, to understand this connection, to understand the history of dogs, we first need to go back to a time before dogs existed at all.
[00:04:36] A time when humans were not at the top of the food chain.
[00:04:40] A time when the night was far more dangerous than it is today.
[00:04:45] Imagine, if you will, the world thirty or forty thousand years ago.
[00:04:51] This was the Pleistocene, an era of ice and giant beasts. Humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers, moving across the landscape in small groups. By day, we were capable hunters, but by night, we were vulnerable.
[00:05:10] We had no walls, no lights, and we were surrounded by predators who could see in the dark much better than we could. There were cave bears, large cats, and various species of wolf–not the modern grey wolf you might see in a documentary today, but larger, now-extinct ancestors.
[00:05:34] Now, for a long time, the "standard" story of how wolves became dogs was quite simple. It went like this: a brave human hunter found a litter of wolf cubs, took one home, and raised it. Over generations, these "tame" wolves became dogs.
[00:05:56] It’s a nice story, but most modern scientists believe it is almost certainly wrong.
[00:06:03] Why?
[00:06:04] Well, because a wild wolf, even one raised by humans, is still a wild animal. It's unpredictable, it is aggressive, and it's very hard to keep in a "domestic" setting. Even if you raise a wolf puppy with care and affection, when it grows up, it becomes very clear that it is still a wild animal.
[00:06:30] Instead, the true story of how some wolves became dogs is likely one of self-domestication.
[00:06:40] As humans moved across the land, we left things behind: specifically, scraps of food. Leftovers.
[00:06:49] For a hungry wolf, a human campsite was a "buffet."
[00:06:55] Most wolves were too afraid of humans to get close, but a small number of them were naturally a little bit braver, a little bit "tamer."
[00:07:07] These wolves realised that if they stayed near humans, they didn't have to hunt as hard, because breakfast would be served automatically; they could scavenge our leftovers.
[00:07:21] Because they were better fed, they had more puppies.
[00:07:25] And because tameness is a genetic trait, their puppies were even braver and even friendlier.
[00:07:34] Scientists call this the "Survival of the Friendliest."
[00:07:40] Over thousands of years, a "partnership of convenience" formed. These friendly wolves acted as a natural alarm system, barking when a dangerous predator approached the camp at night, so humans were happy to be followed by wolves.
[00:07:59] And in return, they provided the animals with a steady source of protein.
[00:08:05] But friendliness alone doesn’t explain why wolves became dogs.
[00:08:11] Plenty of animals can become tolerant of humans.
[00:08:14] What makes dogs unusual, and what truly separates them from wolves, is how well they learned to understand humans.
[00:08:25] Modern studies have shown that dogs are remarkably good at reading human behaviour.
[00:08:31] They follow pointing gestures. They look to humans for guidance when faced with a problem.
[00:08:39] In some experiments, dogs outperform even chimpanzees at understanding basic human cues.
[00:08:47] And over time, dogs didn’t just adapt to living near humans.
[00:08:54] They adapted to living with humans.
[00:08:57] They evolved to fit into our social world.
[00:09:02] And as these animals changed their behaviour, something fascinating happened to their bodies.
[00:09:10] This is known as Domestication Syndrome.
[00:09:15] As we selected for "friendliness," other physical changes followed, almost by accident.
[00:09:22] Their snouts, their noses, became shorter. Their teeth became smaller. Their ears, which were previously sharp and upright to catch the sound of prey, began to flop over.
[00:09:37] They even developed "patches" of white fur.
[00:09:41] And the changes weren't just on the outside. Inside their bodies, something even more remarkable was happening.
[00:09:51] Scientists have discovered that one of the biggest genetic differences between a wolf and a dog is the ability to digest starch, the carbohydrate you get from eating things like bread, rice and potatoes.
[00:10:06] And as humans moved from hunting to farming and started eating more bread and grains, the dogs that survived were the ones whose stomachs adapted to eat our leftovers.
[00:10:21] They literally evolved to share our dinner.
[00:10:25] And perhaps the most remarkable, or most manipulative, of the changes happened in their faces.
[00:10:33] Dogs have a tiny muscle above their eyes that wolves simply do not have. It allows them to raise their inner eyebrows to create what we call "puppy dog eyes."
[00:10:46] This expression mimics the look of a human infant, a baby, which triggers a nurturing response in our brains and makes us want to protect them.
[00:10:58] I love dogs, and if you are also a dog person, then what I’m describing doesn’t need any further explanation.
[00:11:07] And even if you are more of a cat person, it must be hard to look at a puppy making “that face” and not feel some sort of affection towards it.
[00:11:18] Now, you might be wondering: how do we know this "self-domestication" actually happened?
[00:11:25] Well, it's actually been put to the test a lot more recently than 10,000 years ago.
[00:11:33] In the 1950s, a Soviet scientist named Dmitry Belyaev decided to test this theory. He took wild silver foxes and performed a simple experiment: he only allowed the "tamest" foxes—the ones that didn’t try to bite him—to breed.
[00:11:54] Curiously, within just a few generations, the foxes didn’t just become friendly like dogs; they also started to look like dogs.
[00:12:06] Their ears began to flop, their tails began to wag, and their coats changed color.
[00:12:14] This experiment proved that when you select an animal for temperament—for being "nice"—nature seems to throw in these physical changes for free.
[00:12:27] And as for dogs, there wasn’t of course just one type of dog.
[00:12:33] As humans moved into different environments—from the frozen Arctic to the hot deserts of the Middle East—the dog adapted alongside us.
[00:12:43] And to reiterate, it’s believed that this was happening all over the world; it wasn’t specific to one region.
[00:12:52] What this meant was that we began to see the very first "specialised" dogs, dogs that were bred to do specific jobs.
[00:13:02] Dogs bred for hunting, with speed, stamina, and an exceptional sense of smell.
[00:13:09] Dogs bred to guard camps and later settlements, alert to danger and willing to defend their human group.
[00:13:18] And, crucially, dogs bred to help humans control other animals.
[00:13:25] When we began to domesticate sheep, goats, and cattle, dogs made this possible on a much larger scale.
[00:13:35] One person alone would struggle to contain a herd.
[00:13:39] But one person with a dog or with multiple dogs is a different kettle of fish.
[00:13:46] Herding dogs allowed humans to manage livestock efficiently, protect it from predators, and move it across long distances.
[00:13:55] And this mattered enormously.
[00:13:59] Because livestock meant a reliable source of food.
[00:14:02] Reliable food meant surplus.
[00:14:05] And surplus meant that humans no longer needed to spend every waking hour searching for their next meal.
[00:14:12] This, in turn, allowed settlements to grow. Villages became towns. Towns became cities.
[00:14:21] And through all of this, dogs were there, working alongside humans.
[00:14:27] They hunted. They guarded. They herded. They pulled sleds across frozen landscapes where no other animals could.
[00:14:36] In the Arctic, dogs made human life possible in places that would otherwise have been completely uninhabitable.
[00:14:44] In deserts, they protected camps at night.
[00:14:47] In forests, they tracked prey invisible to the human eye.
[00:14:52] Dogs didn’t just adapt to human civilisation.
[00:14:56] Human civilisation adapted with dogs.
[00:15:00] And for most of history, it was a working partnership, of course.
[00:15:04] There was surely affection, as you can see in the Odyssey, but the dog’s primary function was as a worker, not as someone to lie around you next to your feet and get its tummy tickled.
[00:15:19] And often, the partnership was neither gentle nor sentimental.
[00:15:24] Dogs were used in warfare.
[00:15:27] The Assyrians, the Romans, and later medieval armies all used large dogs to intimidate enemies, guard camps, and even fight.
[00:15:38] In many societies, powerful dogs became symbols of status and authority, owned only by elites, kings and queens.
[00:15:48] But even here, the pattern is the same.
[00:15:52] Dogs amplified human ability.
[00:15:55] They made humans more effective, more mobile, and more secure. A dog would be undyingly loyal to his master, but he could be vicious if ordered to be.
[00:16:08] However, it's perhaps a simplification to assume that dogs in the past were only valued for their "utility".
[00:16:16] In 1914, German archaeologists found a grave that dates back 14,000 years, to a time when you might have thought dogs had a purely functional purpose.
[00:16:29] Inside were a man, a woman, and a dog.
[00:16:33] But here is the interesting part: scientists analysed the dog’s teeth and found that it had been very sick for a long time before it died.
[00:16:45] This dog could not have hunted. It could not have guarded the camp. It was "useless" in a survival sense.
[00:16:52] Yet, the humans had kept it alive, feeding it and cleaning it for months. This is clear evidence us that the emotional bond we saw with Argos in the Odyssey wasn't some kind of new invention; it was already thousands of years old.
[00:17:11] Dogs might have been primarily workers, but even going back tens of thousands of years, humans clearly weren’t able to resist those puppy dog eyes or the loyal affection of a canine companion any more than we are today.
[00:17:28] Still, there are some examples of humans keeping dogs as pets, like we do today, but this was typically a luxury reserved for those at the very top of society.
[00:17:41] If you are a keen student of British history, or you listened to episode 187 and have a fantastic memory, you may remember the last moments of the life of Mary Queen of Scots.
[00:17:56] She was beheaded on the orders of Queen Elizabeth.
[00:18:00] So the story goes, after the executioner struck, a little dog scuttled out from under her petticoats and refused to leave her body, lying between her severed head and shoulders.
[00:18:15] The poor thing was covered in her blood and had to be forcibly removed.
[00:18:20] It’s a grisly tale, but yet another reminder of the longevity of this human-canine bond.
[00:18:29] Now, over time, as societies changed, the role of dogs began to change too.
[00:18:36] With industrialisation, urbanisation, and modern weapons, humans relied less on dogs for survival.
[00:18:44] Most dogs lost their “jobs”, but in what we might perhaps call an early form of universal basic canine income, dogs moved from the field into the home.
[00:18:57] From tools to companions.
[00:19:00] With their roles redundant, they were allowed to put their paws up and relax.
[00:19:07] In the 19th century, particularly in Europe, and most markedly in Victorian England, dogs were increasingly kept purely for companionship.
[00:19:18] Dogs were no longer workers; they were family members.
[00:19:22] They were given names. They slept indoors. They were mourned when they died.
[00:19:29] But the Victorians didn't just move dogs into the living room; they fundamentally redesigned them.
[00:19:36] Before the 1800s, 'breeds' were loose categories based on jobs.
[00:19:44] But in 1873, the first Kennel Club was founded in London. Humans began to write 'breed standards–strict rules on exactly how a dog’s tail should curl or how long its nose should be.
[00:20:01] By closing the 'gene pool' and only allowing 'purebreds' to mate, we created the incredible physical variety we see today—from the tiny Chihuahua to the massive Great Dane—this was created all in just a few human generations.
[00:20:20] And the trend of dog ownership only accelerated.
[00:20:25] What began in Victorian drawing rooms spread across the industrialised world throughout the 20th century.
[00:20:32] As countries industrialised and grew wealthier, particularly after World War II, more and more people had the disposable income to keep an animal that served no practical purpose.
[00:20:45] And what had once been a luxury of the Victorian upper classes became a global norm.
[00:20:53] For most of human history, keeping a dog that did no work at all would have seemed not just unusual, but irresponsible.
[00:21:02] But by the 1960s and 70s, in countries across Europe, North America, and parts of Asia, the "pet dog" had become normal, even expected. A home wasn't quite complete without one.
[00:21:18] And today, well, dog ownership is huge.
[00:21:21] Sure, there are still some countries and societies where dogs are not popular, whether that’s for religious or societal reasons, but these are a minority.
[00:21:32] Globally around 30% of households have a dog.
[00:21:37] People spend thousands of Euros on their dogs, and according to one report, spending on pets is scheduled to reach $500 billion per year by 2030. Yes, that includes other animals too, but dogs are the world’s most popular pet, and get the lion’s share of the spend.
[00:22:00] If you have a dog, you probably need no reminder as to why.
[00:22:05] Odysseus knew it 3,000 years ago, the Victorians knew it 150 years ago, and there is certainly a good reason that almost every language has some variant on the phrase “man’s best friend”.
[00:22:21] OK, then, that is it for today's episode on dogs, our faithful, canine partners for tens of thousands of years.
[00:22:29] As a reminder, this was part one of a three-part mini-series on the theme of animals.
[00:22:35] Next up we have an animal I must confess I don’t enjoy the company of as much as I do dogs, and that is the cat.
[00:22:43] And in part three, it’ll be the fire-breathing, mythical world of dragons.
[00:22:48] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds by Leonardo English.
[00:22:53] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[00:00:05] Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English, the show where you can listen to fascinating stories and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:21] I'm Alastair Budge, and today it’s the start of another three-part mini-series, this time on animals throughout history.
[00:00:31] In part one, today’s episode, we’ll be talking about dogs, our canine companions, man’s best friend.
[00:00:39] Then in part two, we’ll talk about a very different but equally important animal. The cat.
[00:00:46] And in part three it’ll be the history of an animal that didn’t exist at all: the dragon.
[00:00:53] OK then, let's not waste a minute and get right into it.
[00:00:59] In Homer’s epic book, the Odyssey, the hero Odysseus spends ten long years away from home fighting the Trojan War.
[00:01:11] His ten-year journey back home is equally hazardous, and he has to evade cyclopes, giants, sorceresses, and various gods who mean him harm.
[00:01:25] In his absence, he is presumed dead, and his wife and son are left to deal with a group of men who have their eyes set on Odysseus’ loyal wife, Penelope.
[00:01:39] Odysseus does finally return home, but he must do so in secret, fearful that revealing his identity too soon would put him in mortal danger.
[00:01:54] So, he returns not in the clothes of a triumphant king, but disguised as a poor beggar clad in rags.
[00:02:07] True to his plan, nobody recognises their former king. Not his servants, not his wife, not even his son.
[00:02:16] Or rather, no human recognises their former master.
[00:02:21] As Odysseus makes his way towards his former palace, he comes across an old dog lying on the side of the road. The dog is lying in piles of filth, and covered in fleas.
[00:02:38] Odysseus recognises him as Argos, his old faithful hunting dog.
[00:02:46] Argos notices the beggar walking past, drops his ears, lifts his head and wags his tail.
[00:02:55] It has been twenty years, and Argos is old and dying, but the animal recognises his master immediately.
[00:03:06] He is too old and weak to get up, and Odysseus knows that he cannot greet him, lest his identity be revealed. Odysseus, the great Greek warrior, is forced to wipe the tears from his eyes.
[00:03:23] The narrator tells us that as soon as Odysseus sets foot in the palace, his loyal dog, Argos, keels over and dies.
[00:03:36] It’s one of the most memorable scenes in the Odyssey, and a reminder of how long and how deeply dogs have been part of the human story.
[00:03:46] Because Homer didn’t include this scene to show us that dogs are cute, or sentimental.
[00:03:54] He included it because, even nearly three thousand years ago, the idea that a dog would recognise its human, even after decades apart, already felt completely natural, so natural that it needed no explanation.
[00:04:13] Compared to every other animal–cats, horses, even your pet goldfish–the lives of dogs and humans are more closely intertwined.
[00:04:24] So, to understand this connection, to understand the history of dogs, we first need to go back to a time before dogs existed at all.
[00:04:36] A time when humans were not at the top of the food chain.
[00:04:40] A time when the night was far more dangerous than it is today.
[00:04:45] Imagine, if you will, the world thirty or forty thousand years ago.
[00:04:51] This was the Pleistocene, an era of ice and giant beasts. Humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers, moving across the landscape in small groups. By day, we were capable hunters, but by night, we were vulnerable.
[00:05:10] We had no walls, no lights, and we were surrounded by predators who could see in the dark much better than we could. There were cave bears, large cats, and various species of wolf–not the modern grey wolf you might see in a documentary today, but larger, now-extinct ancestors.
[00:05:34] Now, for a long time, the "standard" story of how wolves became dogs was quite simple. It went like this: a brave human hunter found a litter of wolf cubs, took one home, and raised it. Over generations, these "tame" wolves became dogs.
[00:05:56] It’s a nice story, but most modern scientists believe it is almost certainly wrong.
[00:06:03] Why?
[00:06:04] Well, because a wild wolf, even one raised by humans, is still a wild animal. It's unpredictable, it is aggressive, and it's very hard to keep in a "domestic" setting. Even if you raise a wolf puppy with care and affection, when it grows up, it becomes very clear that it is still a wild animal.
[00:06:30] Instead, the true story of how some wolves became dogs is likely one of self-domestication.
[00:06:40] As humans moved across the land, we left things behind: specifically, scraps of food. Leftovers.
[00:06:49] For a hungry wolf, a human campsite was a "buffet."
[00:06:55] Most wolves were too afraid of humans to get close, but a small number of them were naturally a little bit braver, a little bit "tamer."
[00:07:07] These wolves realised that if they stayed near humans, they didn't have to hunt as hard, because breakfast would be served automatically; they could scavenge our leftovers.
[00:07:21] Because they were better fed, they had more puppies.
[00:07:25] And because tameness is a genetic trait, their puppies were even braver and even friendlier.
[00:07:34] Scientists call this the "Survival of the Friendliest."
[00:07:40] Over thousands of years, a "partnership of convenience" formed. These friendly wolves acted as a natural alarm system, barking when a dangerous predator approached the camp at night, so humans were happy to be followed by wolves.
[00:07:59] And in return, they provided the animals with a steady source of protein.
[00:08:05] But friendliness alone doesn’t explain why wolves became dogs.
[00:08:11] Plenty of animals can become tolerant of humans.
[00:08:14] What makes dogs unusual, and what truly separates them from wolves, is how well they learned to understand humans.
[00:08:25] Modern studies have shown that dogs are remarkably good at reading human behaviour.
[00:08:31] They follow pointing gestures. They look to humans for guidance when faced with a problem.
[00:08:39] In some experiments, dogs outperform even chimpanzees at understanding basic human cues.
[00:08:47] And over time, dogs didn’t just adapt to living near humans.
[00:08:54] They adapted to living with humans.
[00:08:57] They evolved to fit into our social world.
[00:09:02] And as these animals changed their behaviour, something fascinating happened to their bodies.
[00:09:10] This is known as Domestication Syndrome.
[00:09:15] As we selected for "friendliness," other physical changes followed, almost by accident.
[00:09:22] Their snouts, their noses, became shorter. Their teeth became smaller. Their ears, which were previously sharp and upright to catch the sound of prey, began to flop over.
[00:09:37] They even developed "patches" of white fur.
[00:09:41] And the changes weren't just on the outside. Inside their bodies, something even more remarkable was happening.
[00:09:51] Scientists have discovered that one of the biggest genetic differences between a wolf and a dog is the ability to digest starch, the carbohydrate you get from eating things like bread, rice and potatoes.
[00:10:06] And as humans moved from hunting to farming and started eating more bread and grains, the dogs that survived were the ones whose stomachs adapted to eat our leftovers.
[00:10:21] They literally evolved to share our dinner.
[00:10:25] And perhaps the most remarkable, or most manipulative, of the changes happened in their faces.
[00:10:33] Dogs have a tiny muscle above their eyes that wolves simply do not have. It allows them to raise their inner eyebrows to create what we call "puppy dog eyes."
[00:10:46] This expression mimics the look of a human infant, a baby, which triggers a nurturing response in our brains and makes us want to protect them.
[00:10:58] I love dogs, and if you are also a dog person, then what I’m describing doesn’t need any further explanation.
[00:11:07] And even if you are more of a cat person, it must be hard to look at a puppy making “that face” and not feel some sort of affection towards it.
[00:11:18] Now, you might be wondering: how do we know this "self-domestication" actually happened?
[00:11:25] Well, it's actually been put to the test a lot more recently than 10,000 years ago.
[00:11:33] In the 1950s, a Soviet scientist named Dmitry Belyaev decided to test this theory. He took wild silver foxes and performed a simple experiment: he only allowed the "tamest" foxes—the ones that didn’t try to bite him—to breed.
[00:11:54] Curiously, within just a few generations, the foxes didn’t just become friendly like dogs; they also started to look like dogs.
[00:12:06] Their ears began to flop, their tails began to wag, and their coats changed color.
[00:12:14] This experiment proved that when you select an animal for temperament—for being "nice"—nature seems to throw in these physical changes for free.
[00:12:27] And as for dogs, there wasn’t of course just one type of dog.
[00:12:33] As humans moved into different environments—from the frozen Arctic to the hot deserts of the Middle East—the dog adapted alongside us.
[00:12:43] And to reiterate, it’s believed that this was happening all over the world; it wasn’t specific to one region.
[00:12:52] What this meant was that we began to see the very first "specialised" dogs, dogs that were bred to do specific jobs.
[00:13:02] Dogs bred for hunting, with speed, stamina, and an exceptional sense of smell.
[00:13:09] Dogs bred to guard camps and later settlements, alert to danger and willing to defend their human group.
[00:13:18] And, crucially, dogs bred to help humans control other animals.
[00:13:25] When we began to domesticate sheep, goats, and cattle, dogs made this possible on a much larger scale.
[00:13:35] One person alone would struggle to contain a herd.
[00:13:39] But one person with a dog or with multiple dogs is a different kettle of fish.
[00:13:46] Herding dogs allowed humans to manage livestock efficiently, protect it from predators, and move it across long distances.
[00:13:55] And this mattered enormously.
[00:13:59] Because livestock meant a reliable source of food.
[00:14:02] Reliable food meant surplus.
[00:14:05] And surplus meant that humans no longer needed to spend every waking hour searching for their next meal.
[00:14:12] This, in turn, allowed settlements to grow. Villages became towns. Towns became cities.
[00:14:21] And through all of this, dogs were there, working alongside humans.
[00:14:27] They hunted. They guarded. They herded. They pulled sleds across frozen landscapes where no other animals could.
[00:14:36] In the Arctic, dogs made human life possible in places that would otherwise have been completely uninhabitable.
[00:14:44] In deserts, they protected camps at night.
[00:14:47] In forests, they tracked prey invisible to the human eye.
[00:14:52] Dogs didn’t just adapt to human civilisation.
[00:14:56] Human civilisation adapted with dogs.
[00:15:00] And for most of history, it was a working partnership, of course.
[00:15:04] There was surely affection, as you can see in the Odyssey, but the dog’s primary function was as a worker, not as someone to lie around you next to your feet and get its tummy tickled.
[00:15:19] And often, the partnership was neither gentle nor sentimental.
[00:15:24] Dogs were used in warfare.
[00:15:27] The Assyrians, the Romans, and later medieval armies all used large dogs to intimidate enemies, guard camps, and even fight.
[00:15:38] In many societies, powerful dogs became symbols of status and authority, owned only by elites, kings and queens.
[00:15:48] But even here, the pattern is the same.
[00:15:52] Dogs amplified human ability.
[00:15:55] They made humans more effective, more mobile, and more secure. A dog would be undyingly loyal to his master, but he could be vicious if ordered to be.
[00:16:08] However, it's perhaps a simplification to assume that dogs in the past were only valued for their "utility".
[00:16:16] In 1914, German archaeologists found a grave that dates back 14,000 years, to a time when you might have thought dogs had a purely functional purpose.
[00:16:29] Inside were a man, a woman, and a dog.
[00:16:33] But here is the interesting part: scientists analysed the dog’s teeth and found that it had been very sick for a long time before it died.
[00:16:45] This dog could not have hunted. It could not have guarded the camp. It was "useless" in a survival sense.
[00:16:52] Yet, the humans had kept it alive, feeding it and cleaning it for months. This is clear evidence us that the emotional bond we saw with Argos in the Odyssey wasn't some kind of new invention; it was already thousands of years old.
[00:17:11] Dogs might have been primarily workers, but even going back tens of thousands of years, humans clearly weren’t able to resist those puppy dog eyes or the loyal affection of a canine companion any more than we are today.
[00:17:28] Still, there are some examples of humans keeping dogs as pets, like we do today, but this was typically a luxury reserved for those at the very top of society.
[00:17:41] If you are a keen student of British history, or you listened to episode 187 and have a fantastic memory, you may remember the last moments of the life of Mary Queen of Scots.
[00:17:56] She was beheaded on the orders of Queen Elizabeth.
[00:18:00] So the story goes, after the executioner struck, a little dog scuttled out from under her petticoats and refused to leave her body, lying between her severed head and shoulders.
[00:18:15] The poor thing was covered in her blood and had to be forcibly removed.
[00:18:20] It’s a grisly tale, but yet another reminder of the longevity of this human-canine bond.
[00:18:29] Now, over time, as societies changed, the role of dogs began to change too.
[00:18:36] With industrialisation, urbanisation, and modern weapons, humans relied less on dogs for survival.
[00:18:44] Most dogs lost their “jobs”, but in what we might perhaps call an early form of universal basic canine income, dogs moved from the field into the home.
[00:18:57] From tools to companions.
[00:19:00] With their roles redundant, they were allowed to put their paws up and relax.
[00:19:07] In the 19th century, particularly in Europe, and most markedly in Victorian England, dogs were increasingly kept purely for companionship.
[00:19:18] Dogs were no longer workers; they were family members.
[00:19:22] They were given names. They slept indoors. They were mourned when they died.
[00:19:29] But the Victorians didn't just move dogs into the living room; they fundamentally redesigned them.
[00:19:36] Before the 1800s, 'breeds' were loose categories based on jobs.
[00:19:44] But in 1873, the first Kennel Club was founded in London. Humans began to write 'breed standards–strict rules on exactly how a dog’s tail should curl or how long its nose should be.
[00:20:01] By closing the 'gene pool' and only allowing 'purebreds' to mate, we created the incredible physical variety we see today—from the tiny Chihuahua to the massive Great Dane—this was created all in just a few human generations.
[00:20:20] And the trend of dog ownership only accelerated.
[00:20:25] What began in Victorian drawing rooms spread across the industrialised world throughout the 20th century.
[00:20:32] As countries industrialised and grew wealthier, particularly after World War II, more and more people had the disposable income to keep an animal that served no practical purpose.
[00:20:45] And what had once been a luxury of the Victorian upper classes became a global norm.
[00:20:53] For most of human history, keeping a dog that did no work at all would have seemed not just unusual, but irresponsible.
[00:21:02] But by the 1960s and 70s, in countries across Europe, North America, and parts of Asia, the "pet dog" had become normal, even expected. A home wasn't quite complete without one.
[00:21:18] And today, well, dog ownership is huge.
[00:21:21] Sure, there are still some countries and societies where dogs are not popular, whether that’s for religious or societal reasons, but these are a minority.
[00:21:32] Globally around 30% of households have a dog.
[00:21:37] People spend thousands of Euros on their dogs, and according to one report, spending on pets is scheduled to reach $500 billion per year by 2030. Yes, that includes other animals too, but dogs are the world’s most popular pet, and get the lion’s share of the spend.
[00:22:00] If you have a dog, you probably need no reminder as to why.
[00:22:05] Odysseus knew it 3,000 years ago, the Victorians knew it 150 years ago, and there is certainly a good reason that almost every language has some variant on the phrase “man’s best friend”.
[00:22:21] OK, then, that is it for today's episode on dogs, our faithful, canine partners for tens of thousands of years.
[00:22:29] As a reminder, this was part one of a three-part mini-series on the theme of animals.
[00:22:35] Next up we have an animal I must confess I don’t enjoy the company of as much as I do dogs, and that is the cat.
[00:22:43] And in part three, it’ll be the fire-breathing, mythical world of dragons.
[00:22:48] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds by Leonardo English.
[00:22:53] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
