dog breeds that are good with kids

[intro] this is louie. he’s a hound. this is auzzy. he’s an australian cattledog. and this is abby. she’s a corgi. they look pretty different, but they’reall examples of humans’ very first pets -- dogs! even if you have a dog of your own, i betyou don’t know some of these amazing things about our furry best friends. for example! did you know that all dogs arerelated to wolves?

that's right! this is related to this. remember how i said dogs were human’s firstpets? well, about 15,000 years ago, humans livedalongside wolves. and in time, some of these wolves became domesticated, meaning that theychanged from being wild, to being able to live and even work closely with humans. so, over thousands of years, some of thosewolves became the domesticated dogs we know and love! wild wolves still live in many places in theworld today. but there are also more than 400 different breeds of dogs!

and all of the wolves and dogs on earth arethought to have descended from the same animal: a predator that roamed our planet millionsof years ago. scientists called it eucyon davisi, and itlooked a lot like today’s wolves, with one major difference: it was probably a lot bigger. so if all wolves and dogs descended from thisearly predator, that means wolves and dogs are related! dogs are also related to other animals thatlook a lot like them -- including foxes, jackals, and coyotes. together with wolves, these meat-eating mammalsare called canines.

that’s one big furry family! now, another cool thing about dogs? they’resuper-smellers! their sensitive noses have 40 times more cellsin them for smelling than ours do -- plus they have the ability to wiggle their nosesin ways that we can’t! and that’s not just a neat trick—by wigglingeach nostril separately, dogs can figure out which direction a smell is coming from. so, when they’re born, puppies can’t hearor see anything, but they quickly learn to find their mom—and other important thingsin the world around them—just by using their sense of smell.

dogs also use their smelling skills when theymeet new dog friends. instead of shaking paws or barking to sayhello, dogs sniff each other’s butts! dogs don’t recognize each other by name,or even by looks; they identify other dogs by how they smell. that’s where they sniff, because all dogshave special scent glands on their rears, and dogs use those scents to learn about eachother! by sniffing, a dog can tell if another pupis young or old, a boy or a girl, if he’s sick or healthy, and even what kind of moodhe’s in! not all dog sniffing involves butts, though.

lots of dogs put their powerful sense of smellto use in other ways: some dogs can sniff out and rescue people who are lost, some huntfor escaped criminals, and a few are even being trained to sniff out deadly diseases. that's awesome! super dogs to the rescue! and lastly, our third cool thing about dogs:some of them can remember more words than a baby person. even though they can’t talk, dogs make greatlisteners. most of them can understand about 165 words—waymore than just “sit,” or “stay.” and some can remember even more than that.

one border collie was trained to understandover a thousand spoken words--and she learned those words as quickly as a small child would. so, dogs are smart! now, whenever you see a pooch -- whether itlooks like abby, auzzy, louie, or someone completely different -- you’ll know thatyou’re looking at a really smart relative of wild wolves with a super sense of smell! if you’d like us to sniff out more informationabout dogs, or anything, just let us know by leaving a comment below or emailing usat kids@thescishow.com, and we'll see you next time.