Inside the Mind of a Dog

When your favorite furry canine looks at you and tilts their head, have you ever wondered what is happening inside their little heart and mind?

Inside the Mind of a Dog (narrated by Rob Lowe), takes a close look at man’s best friend and explores the latest research as scientists turn their attention to seriously deciphering a dog’s inner workings.

In the past few years, brain research on dogs has taken a huge leap forward. When researchers realized that dogs are good at following human gestures (much better than apes), this sparked renewed interest in trying to understand why dogs understand human gestures in the same way human infants and small children do as they develop. This led researchers to start the Duke Canine Cognition Center in Durham, N.C. Here, scientists try to understand how the mind of a dog works.

Throughout the documentary, many incredible characteristics that make dogs unique are named and explored. It turns out that dogs have 16 different facial expressions, wag their tail, use various tones when barking, and move their bodies to communicate emotion. Dogs also are remarkable in their ability to be trained and learn skills to aid those with disabilities or aid emergency workers in disaster zones, catching the scent of humans buried under piles of rubble. They have 18 muscles in each ear that heighten their ability to hear and can absorb 4x the amount of sound humans can. They also have the fastest metabolic rate of any known animal—using calories three times more efficiently than a Tour De France cyclist. They can detect millions of smells and make a mental map of a room using their sense of smell alone. Researchers have also discovered that dogs can also use their superb sense of smell to detect illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease. They can learn an average of 165 words. Like fingerprints, each dog has an individually unique nose print.

Dogs have evolved based not on “survival of the fittest,” but on “survival of the friendliest,” and this friendly partnership and bond between humans and dogs is unique and mutually beneficial. Our lives are richer because of their presence, and they challenge us to grow and help us in other ways that we didn’t even know we needed.

God has given humanity many gifts—many of which we overlook or take for granted. Perhaps our furry friends are one of the best gifts God has given to comfort and companion us as we navigate a broken world. On the hard days, it’s so nice to come home to a wagging tail and canine unconditional love. We love our dogs, and it turns out (according to the research) they love us too (in their own doggy way). (Rated PG-Netflix)