Something occurred to me this morning, while waiting for a tram. Dogs have been bred for certain uses for so long now that such behaviours are instinctive, without need for learning - schnauzers, for instance, are natural ratters, and so can’t be trusted as ratsitters, hamster minders or mouse after-school programme co-ordinators. Imagine the patience and effort that must have gone into breeding, generation after generation, to entirely change dogs’ way of being.

If I was in charge, it would be first generation, breed for retrieving, second generation, breed for retrieving, third generation, breed for retrieving, fourth generation… ah, what the heck, breed for really liking drum & bass. Bom bom bom chukka chukka wop wop. “Ooo, I like this moosik! Wuff!”