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Listen to Why do we love dogs?

All dogs – even chihuahuas – are descended from wolves, and yet they became our best friends. However, as Ella Al-Shamahi discovered for Why Do We Do That?, it wasn’t necessarily just about humans domesticating dogs, it was also about recognising how we could help each other.

Picking up on the journey from foe to friend, and some bumps in the road in-between, Ella talks to Oxford Professor Greger Lawson and meets Lauren Howe, owner of Blue Peter dog, Henry.

Here are six things we found out about our love of dogs:

We’ve been at each other’s side for a long time

Dogs were domesticated from wolves by humans even before humans domesticated wheat – in other words before agriculture. Agriculture is 10,000 years old, but our relationship with dogs dates back at least 26,000 years. Testimony to this was found among the cave paintings of the famous Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave in the Ardèche, one of which depicts footsteps of a young child and what looks like a dog.

“They are part of our story because of how useful they are.”

Dogs help the blind; they can sniff out illnesses and illegal substances, or even weapons. Our first collaboration with them was, however, for hunting, and it was this activity, believes Professor Lawson, that cemented the relationship between us.

Rather than the “intentionality” of foreseeing a wolf domesticated into a chihuahua, for example, Greger thinks the story of human and canine is more about efficiency and mutual benefit. “I think we probably made better hunting partners together,” he says. “They're acting as sentries, which makes everything a bit safer, and from the wolf perspective there might be a greater regularity of a food supply.”

Our relationship with dogs had its ups and downs

The strength of the human-canine relationship can be charted by burial habits. Professor Lawson notes that the tombs of influential people in ancient societies across the world would sometimes contain their dogs. However, when human populations were preoccupied with other pursuits, such as agriculture, suddenly the remains of dogs were discovered scattered around burial sites but not actually buried. Professor Lawson describes this shift in thinking as: “‘We don't need you anymore. We're kicking you to the kerb.’”

He walked through that door and he made a beeline straight to Henry and started taking selfies.

Cody Rhodes meeting Henry the Blue Peter dog

Some believe in a doggie heaven

Despite the neglect described above, later burial rituals showed that our love of dogs ultimately endured and that we started to see them as family. To support this, Professor Lawson cites a study of headstones at a pet cemetery from the 1880s onwards. It showed that pet owners started to deviate from church teachings that pets could not go to heaven. “Then the dam bursts,” says the professor, “and you get up to modern age where people are like, ‘I'm going to see Fido in heaven, goddammit!’ They go full on in.”

Puppies are cutest at eight weeks old

Among the various studies made on dogs, one fascinating piece of research involved ranking them by cuteness. Participants were shown photos of three different breeds of puppies across weeks one to twelve and asked to rank them in order of cuteness – the result was an average of about eight weeks. It was no coincidence. “It's right in that critical period where dogs are most vulnerable after being abandoned by their mothers and are now completely incapable of survival on their own,” explains Professor Lawson. “That’s when they are the most cute to humans who are likely to pick up the slack and take them home and start feeding them.”

Even famous wrestlers drop everything for a dog!

Henry, the Blue Peter dog, is the show’s tenth pet across its 66-year history, and he is adored by viewers and by those lucky enough to visit the studio and garden. Henry’s owner Lauren Howe recalls a visit from WWE wrestler Cody Rhodes. “As you can imagine, there were so many people who wanted to meet him, but he walked through that door and he made a beeline straight to Henry and started taking selfies. Henry is the star of the show, he's like a little brother.”

Find out more about cute puppies, cultural differences in dog fandom and about Henry the Blue Peter dog by listening here