At a research institute in Hungary not far from the banks of the Danube, an emotional bond began to grow between an elderly night janitor and an old watchdog living there named Balthasar. The dog would sometimes spend the day at the janitor's home. “Unfortunately, this relationship lasted only a few months, because the janitor became ill ... and eventually died,” writes animal behaviorist Vilmos Csányi, founder of the department of ethology at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, in his book . Shortly after the janitor's death, researchers at the institute noticed that Balthasar would disappear from time to time, particularly in the mornings. “We tracked down what he was doing during his absences,” Csányi reports, “and found that he would cross the busy highway, go to his adoptive master's old house in the village, and sit in front of it for hours.”
Relationships between people and dogs have spawned a myriad of fascinating stories, not least because the association is so improbable. Just take a look at your dog or at any dog in your neighborhood. Would you expect these creatures to be humanity's best friends? They look very different from us. They behave very differently. They do not seem to have an affinity for culture. And they cannot speak a single word. Yet most people in Western cultures regard their dogs as members of the family in the truest sense. And now behavioral science is starting to reveal how this unlikely friendship came to be.
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