Survival of the Friendliest

Have you all watched the Netflix documentary, "Inside the Mind of a Dog?" If you haven't, you really should.  It's quite entertaining and a great way to see what goes into the raising and training of service dogs, among other noteworthy things.

For me, I thought the best takeaway was this idea of "survival of the friendliest" rather than just thinking about the success of dogs in terms of "survival of the fittest," a concept first presented by the English philosopher and sociologist, Herbert Spencer, before it was popularized and often attributed to Charles Darwin.  Survival of the fittest refers to natural selection and a way of explaining how organisms that are best adapted to their environments are more likely to survive and reproduce. Survival of the friendliest is an even more straightforward way of thinking about the success of dogs.  Those early canids that bravely followed humans, eating what we left behind, alerting us to predators, helping us hunt for food, and keeping us warm and entertained? They were adaptable and they were clearly friendly, or at least open to a symbiotic relationship.  Those early canids who weren't interested or friendly? In a nutshell, they remained wolves.

But survival of the friendliest applies well beyond natural selection.  The friendliest dogs are (hopefully) the ones humans, even now, are encouraging to reproduce. By encouraging friendly dogs to reproduce, we are ensuring that future human generations will enjoy the companionship of behaviorally reliable dogs.  And at least as far as this documentary is concerned, who in the dog population could be considered more friendly or reliable than a service dog?

Truthfully, I'd have to agree.  Service dogs are carefully bred over generations to have temperaments suitable to the jobs that they will one day master.  Some are good at picking up dropped items or flipping switches, others are good at guiding people in public spaces, while others are good at reducing anxiety.  There are service dogs whose noses are so gifted that they can detect drugs or firearms and even dogs that can identify cancer, alert to diabetic events, and predict seizures before they happen. These are all very helpful behaviors that dogs can provide and at the heart of all of these behaviors are dogs who are friendly in nature.  So, yes, we can select for friendly and perpetuate that for the future.

Now, obviously, I realize that there are dogs out there breeding on their own without much thought given to the idea of friendliness.  But  here's the thing.  We, as humans and their caretakers, do have a role to play there as well. Clearly, we should spay/neuter dogs whose temperaments shouldn't be perpetuated, much as we should spay/neuter dogs who have inherited genetic illnesses that will shorten their lives or cause them undue pain and suffering.  

As our faithful, trusted companions, I feel like we owe dogs that:  We have the ability to help them become the very best that they can be.  And just as every puppy born to be a service dog doesn't make that final cut and go on to a service job, they all go on to be well-loved, devoted companions, whose friendly disposition is cherished.  Survival of the friendliest indeed.

So, go take your dog for a stroll, hand them a cookie, show them some love, or all of the above.  They deserve it.

And, as always, if you have questions about your pet's behavior, you know where to find me.

Here's Westley, my daughter's ESA, emotional support animal, laying across her body to comfort her and help her relax for bed.  And he's doing it with collie style; notice those crossed paws!