Could a DOG fly a plane? Absurd?

Believe it or not, a team of respected

British documentary makers are
trying to prove just that
By DAVID DERBYSHIRE FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 00:58 GMT, 1 December 2015 | UPDATED: 01:57 GMT, 1 December 2015
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Dogs may be man’s best friend, but we don’t half make them work for
the privilege. When we’re not getting them to round up sheep, chase
robbers or fetch pheasants, we’re sending mutts into space, using
them to sniff out explosives or rescue climbers.

And soon, if the makers of a bizarre new documentary get their way,
we will also be making them fly planes.

In an extraordinary — and frankly barking — experiment, animal

behaviour experts are attempting to teach dogs from rescue homes
how to master the controls of a light aircraft.
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View gallery

Taking off: Until now, the most famous flying hound was the serial fantasist Snoopy from
the Peanuts cartoon, who imagined himself as a World War I flying ace atop his doghouse
battling the Red Baron

While they’re unlikely ever to handle a complex take-off and landing,

the researchers involved say some dogs are smart enough to learn the
basics of keeping a plane in the air.

Until now, the most famous flying hound was the serial fantasist
Snoopy from the Peanuts cartoon, who imagined himself as a World
War I flying ace atop his doghouse battling the Red Baron.

For those raised in the Seventies, Muttley — faithful companion to Dick

Dastardly — was another keen canine flier who proved himself handy
in a cockpit.

But outside of cartoons does a dog really have the intelligence to learn
how to fly a plane? Won’t they just get distracted the first time they fly
past a pigeon?
The flying dogs experiment is being carried out by the award-winning
Oxford Scientific Films for a documentary, Dogs Might Fly, due to be
broadcast in the New Year on Sky.

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So can canines really be trained to handle the throttle and rudder

controls of a plane? Last month, a film crew recorded a Labrador
strapped to a flat-bed truck at a London airfield, being taught how to
use aircraft-style controls.

In the experiment, watched by startled passers-by, the dog appeared to

succeed in driving the truck in circles.

‘We certainly know that dogs are hugely bright and trainable — often
more capable than we think,’ creative director Caroline Hawkins said.

‘The series looks to find an answer to this question in a safe and

controlled way. As training progresses, we’re looking forward to seeing
if it might be possible for a dog to take control of an aircraft.’
The film-makers undertook a nationwide search for dogs from rescue
centres, and are working with a team of animal welfare specialists and
dog cognition experts to prepare the animals for the experience of
flying. The selected dogs will undergo tasks designed to assess their
empathy, memory and ability to communicate.

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View gallery

Stop that pigeon now: For those raised in the Seventies, Muttley — faithful companion to
Dick Dastardly — was a keen canine flier who proved himself handy in a cockpit

The experiment follows a New Zealand exercise in 2012 in which

researchers trained a team of rescue home dogs to operate specially
adapted Minis.

Three dogs took turns to drive a Mini Countryman solo down a race
track in Auckland after being trained to start the car, put it in gear and
then travel 70 yards before bringing it to a stop.

The dogs, who were strapped into the driver’s seat and sat on their
haunches with front paws on the wheel and back legs on specially
adapted pedals, were fine on the straight and could steer, brake and
accelerate.
However, they were hopeless at corners, a failure that doesn’t bode
well for the plane experiment.

But while dogs are certainly intelligent, their past record with
technology isn’t great.

In the run-up to the World War II, the Soviet Union tried to create an
army of anti-tank dogs with mines strapped to their backs.

The plan was for the dogs to run under enemy tanks, pull a lever with
their teeth to release the bomb and then run away.

But after six months’ training, the dogs still couldn’t master the release
mechanism. Often they returned to their handler with the bomb still on
their back. Depressingly, the USSR decided their bomb dogs needed
to make the ultimate sacrifice and changed the mines so that they
exploded on contact with an enemy target, killing the dogs. Even then,
many refused to run under moving tanks on the battlefield. Others got
scared and ran back to the Soviet trenches, where the mines killed
their handlers.

The Soviet Union used dogs in the first space missions of the Fifties
and Sixties to test whether human space flight was possible. In these
tests they didn’t have to do anything other than survive. Some did, but
many died in space from heat and stress, including Laika, the first dog
to go into orbit.

One of the world’s leading authorities on dog intelligence, Dr Stanley

Coren, of the British Columbia University in Vancouver, is sceptical that
they are bright enough to handle a plane.
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
First dog in orbit: The Soviet Union used dogs in the first space missions of the Fifties and
Sixties to test whether human space flight was possible. Many died in space from heat and
stress, including Laika (pictured)

There are many ways to judge an animal’s intelligence and many

different types of intelligence. But judged on how well they learn words
or signals, and how good they are at solving problems, dogs are about
as bright as human toddlers. There are exceptional dogs, of course.
One of the brightest is Chaser, a ten-year-old border collie who
understands 1,000 words. At home she has 800 cloth animals, 116
balls and more than 100 plastic toys and knows the name of each.

Ask her for the toy chicken and she will find it in the huge pile.

She also understands dozens of verbs — from take, chase and paw it
to the more common sit and lie down. But she is a genius — the canine
equivalent of Shakespeare — who was taught up to five hours a day,
five days a week her whole life.
‘The average dog can learn about 160 words, signs and signals, which
is roughly equivalent to a human aged two to two-and-a-half,’ says Dr
Coren.

‘The most intelligent breeds — such as border collies, poodles,

German shepherds and retrievers — can learn upwards of 250 words.
But even they are not much brighter than a child aged two-and-a-half to
three.’

And that doesn’t bode well for the plane experiment.

But if all they had to do was use their mouth and a specially adapted
joystick to keep a plane flying straight in the air, could they manage it?
Perhaps what this experiment will prove is not that dogs are especially
clever, but that flying a modern aircraft isn’t quite as tricky as we
thought.

‘If a dog flies a plane, they are going to do it with the mind of a two or
three-year-old child,’ says Dr Coren. ‘Are you going to walk onto a
plane knowing it is being piloted by a three-year-old? They might be
able to go in a straight line, but I wouldn’t trust a dog to go up or down.’

Of course, communication skill is just one measure of intelligence.

When it comes to social intelligence, dogs are far smarter than a

toddler.

‘They are probably somewhat like human adolescents,’ says Dr Coren,

who has written more than a dozen books on dog behaviour.

‘They are much more interested in who is sleeping with whom, and
who is moving up the pack.’
+4
View gallery

Exceptional dog: One of the brightest is Chaser, a ten-year-old border collie who
understands 1,000 words. At home she has 800 cloth animals, 116 balls and more than 100
plastic toys and knows the name of each

Dogs are one of a handful of animals with the ability to see the world
through other people’s eyes. Psychologists call it ‘theory of mind’. It
means dogs may be able to experience empathy and predict their
owner’s behaviour.

It also means they have the ability to cheat.

In one experiment, researchers at Portsmouth University left dogs in a

room with a person and a bowl of food. The dogs were told that the
food was out of bounds.

The animals turned out to be four times more likely to disobey the
instruction when the lights were off than in a brightly lit room.
They had worked out that humans rely on vision to see what they were
up to and that without light they might get away with breaking the rules.
It seems obvious to us, but it’s a major leap of reasoning and
imagination for an animal.

Of course, dogs don’t just use their brains to get away with crimes.
Their strong social intelligence means they can be unflinchingly loyal to
their owners — who they see as their pack leaders — and brave.

Scientific studies have shown that dogs can watch TV, read human
facial expressions and display empathy.

If an owner looks at an object in the room, a dog can follow their gaze.
They yawn more in response to their owner’s yawn than a stranger’s.

But social intelligence, bravery and loyalty — all qualities that evolved
to help dogs live in complex social groups — won’t get you far behind
the controls of a plane.

We won’t know until next year whether they have enough brains to
handle the controls of a plane in the air — or even to understand that
they are in a plane high above the ground.

The programme-makers have reassured us that no dogs will be in

danger — and that safeguards and human handlers will be close by at
all times to take over if a canine loses control of a plane.

In the meantime, those people fascinated with the idea of dogs in

planes will have to make do with Snoopy, his imaginary Sopwith Camel
and all those hair-raising dog fights.
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British documentary makers are trying to prove if a DOG could fly a plane