They have a special genius to understand humans.

一種可以了解人類的特殊天賦。

To cooperate and communicate with us in a way that really no other species can.

牠們可以和我們配合、溝通，這是其他動物力所不及的。

If you look at dogs and their success as a species, it's kind of a remarkable story.

如果你探討狗狗身為一個物種的成功，會發現那是了不起的事。

We know dogs began being domesticated 14 to 25,000 years ago.

我們都知道狗是在 14,000 到 25,000 年前被馴化。

They evolved from wolves.

牠們從狼演化而來。

And sadly, wolves are endangered everywhere they're found.

難過的是，狼在任何地方都是瀕臨絕種的狀態。

And dogs are found everywhere where you find humans and they are anything but endangered.

而有人的地方就有狗，牠們絕對沒有面臨絕種的危機。

And it's all about forming a relationship with us.

這全歸因於牠們和人類建立關係。

When we make eye contact with them and when we're physically interacting with them,

當我們和狗狗眼神交流、有肢體接觸時，

it is causing a neurophysiological response that is the exact mirror of what happens as parents bond with their newborn infant.

會造成神經生理反應，這和嬰兒與父母建立親密關係的反應一模一樣。

It leads to bonding and social concern.

這樣的交流建立了連結和社交關係。

Well, dogs actually seem to have hijacked that mechanism in us, so they really have converged and become more like humans than their wolf relatives.

狗似乎從人類身上偷走了這種機制，因此在這點上，牠們變得比較像人類而不是狼。

Once we realized that dogs had this genius to cooperate and communicate, I think often we're really worried about some kind of hierarchy.

當意識到狗狗有合作溝通的天賦時，我覺得我們常擔心某種階級問題。

You know, "Are dogs smarter than other species?" Or, "Is my dog smarter than other breeds?"

你知道的，像是「狗比其他動物聰明嗎？」或「我的狗比其他品種聰明嗎？」

That's just not the case when you actually study dog psychology.

而認真研究狗狗心理學時，就會發現並非如此。

Dogs have different types of intelligence.

狗有不同種類的智能。

Each of these types of intelligence, they vary independently from one another.

各種智能都與彼此有很大差異。

That means if you're a really great communicator as a dog, it doesn't mean that you have amazing working memory that you rely on.

也就是說，一隻善於溝通的狗並不表示牠擁有可靠的記憶力。

If you're a dog that really is incredibly skilled at using inferential reasoning to solve problems, it doesn't mean that you're a dog that necessarily has a lot of empathy relative to other dogs.

若是一隻善於用推理能力解決問題的狗，不見得擁有跟其他狗相應的同理心。

So these things vary independently and that's then what is the... those are the ingredients for all the different recipes of personality that then we get to enjoy for all those individual dogs we each fall in love with.

所以這些特質不盡相同，這也就是... 這些不同特質的融合都成為我們享有牠們陪伴並愛上每一隻狗的因素。

Some of the things dogs are doing today that even 10 years ago they wouldn't be doing, is there are dogs trained as cadaver dogs to find people who have died, people who are missing.

有些狗做的事是 10 年前都無法想像的，好比被訓練成找尋屍體、失蹤人口的警犬。

There are dogs that are being used to sniff out a variety of cancers.

有些狗被訓練成可以聞出各種癌症。

There're dogs that are helping children with autism.

也有些狗能幫助自閉症孩童。

Anything that involves social bonding, the need for companionship, and nonjudgmental love, dogs are your ticket.

當需要社會聯結、陪伴、以及無偏見的愛時，狗狗都是個好選擇。

So, I enjoy really studying dogs because not only did they help me understand humans better and obviously find ways to enrich my own relationship,

因此我很喜歡研究狗狗，不僅是因為牠們幫助我更了解人類並找到豐富我人際關係的方法，

but I think it's a really powerful way to study and even talk about evolution is through the eyes of dogs.

我認為透過狗狗的眼睛窺探演化是一個強大的方法。