In their book The Genius of Dogs, Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods explore the cognitive abilities of dogs, arguing that they have unique intelligence, based on their social skills. I haven’t finished the book yet, as we are listening to it on road trips. But what I’ve already heard is intriguing. A lot of us have dogs, and most of us have some stories about how smart our dogs are. Our dog Buddy, R.I.P., used to serve as internal mail delivery in our house. Francie would open the mail on the couch, and then give letters to Buddy to deliver, with a “Take to Daddy”, “Take to Brian”, etc command. Buddy would dutifully take the letters or packages in his mouth, and trot off to where he knew the proper family member happened to be.
One of Buddy’s joys in life was riding copilot with Francie in the Toyota Sienna van, going shopping or ferrying kids to school or activities. But sometimes he couldn’t go. When she got the keys, but told him “Mommy be right back”, he knew that meant that he couldn’t come along for the ride, his shoulders would sag, and he would slink back to his bed.
The last thing in the evening, Buddy would make his rounds to determine where everyone had bedded down. If it was just Francie and I at home, he would curl up outside our bedroom door. If the boys were home, he would sleep at the top of the stairs, to protect all the bedrooms upstairs. If we had a guest in the downstairs guest room, Buddy would bed down between the front door and the garage door.
One of the intriguing stories in the Genius of Dogs was comparing Chimpanzee with Bonobo packs in Africa. Chimpanzees live in male-dominated hierarchies, with frequent aggression and competition, including killing other chimpanzee groups over territory. Their social structure is governed by dominance, with alpha males controlling the rest of the group and passing on their genes. Bonobos, in an environment with more food available, have a more egalitarian social structure, with the females in charge. They exhibit more peaceful and cooperative behaviors, and resolve conflicts peacefully to maintain group cohesion. Since female bonobos are free to mate with whoever they want, they pick the ‘nice guys’, which means that the ‘nice guy’ genes get passed on, in a “survival of the friendliest” situation.
The authors’ theory is that dogs basically self-selected and evolved from wolves. The wolves which were more comfortable around humans hung out around them, and took advantage of trash heaps etc as a food source, which was more reliable than hunting. Humans got used to the proto-dogs, and determined it was an advantage to have animals around that alerted you to intruders, and could help hunt by finding and flushing out game. Dogs basically decided that teaming with humans was a good survival tactic. And if true, it would appear that history has proved them right, as dogs are one of the most successful species ever, having spread to every corner of the globe.
While many people, perhaps especially in the U.S., ascribe to a ‘Nice guys finish last’ approach, I think it depends on how you define success. There is so much richness, in time, energy and even money, from having ‘less’, that coming in ‘first’ with the most stuff, probably isn’t the optimal path to a life of purpose and meaning. So consider that in ‘Survival of the Friendliest’, it’s the relationships you develop that determine your future. Let’s get better at having better relationships in 2025!
