A Dog's Life (2013)

A Dog's Life is a well-done and largely fascinating documentary on the biological and psychological capabilities of dogs. How well do they really smell, considering that we have 5 million olfactory cells and they have 300 million? How good is their spatial memory and reasoning capacity, within existing experimental limits? Behavioral testing with canines is in its early stages, but so far it confirms that dogs are masters at intuiting what humans expect of them, much more than the tired assumption that, like wolves, they are pack animals with a dominant-submissive hierarchy. (A domesticated wolf will always prefer a wolf to a human for company, while a dog will always prefer a human to a dog for company.) As a dog person primarily, I was happy to view this documentary and learn a number of new things about current developments in our understanding of dogs, and what that means for humanity's close friendship, and partnership, with our canine companions. Enjoy! 4 stars. (11-27-2016)