Many owners hope that simply choosing the right type of canine—a hypoallergenic breed, a smart breed, a breed that is supposedly good with children—will solve the mismatch between modern expectations and the evolved nature of dogs. But on the whole, the main thing a dog’s breed will tell you, with any reliability, is what it looks like.
Service dogs are the exception and the answer to the domestication puzzle. For more than a century, service dogs have had to sit quietly in a café, calmly negotiate the stress and noise of urban life, and interact gently with children. They can do this not because they are smarter than pet dogs, but because, like those early proto-dogs, service dogs are uniquely friendly. Unlike most pet dogs, service dogs are attracted to strangers, even as puppies. And increasing friendliness seems to have changed these dogs’ biology, just as it did thousands of years ago. A 2017 study found that Canine Companion dogs have a higher level of oxytocin—the hormone that facilitates social bonding—than pet dogs.
If dog lovers shift their demand from a dog’s hair color and tail length to their comfort with strangers and new places, this friendliness could quickly ripple through the population and become amplified with each successive generation.MY BOLD - wait, hold up, hold the phone, gimme a goddam second here - there's a kind of dog that's MORE friendly than the average dog, which from what I can tell is already off-the-charts friendly??? YAAAAAAAS please!!! 🤗🐶
"Is this friendly enough?"
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