"What Would Dogs Do - Part 4" (short story)

The days pushed onward but Harrison had been a scientist for a long time and wasn't expecting immediate results.  Still, there were reasons for optimism as he had been noticing some changes in the dogs.  The sounds they were making when they played with each seemed to be coalescing on various specific sounds that apparently had some meaning to them.

Harrison took some satisfaction that a form of language seemed to be developing in the dogs.  It would be a victory to document such a thing but it wasn't English so it would only be a partial win if they communicated in some other way.  Just as with his students, he had a relentless fascination with learning what dogs would say if only they could talk.  None of them would be fully satisfied if they did start communicating but they could only infer what they were saying.

There were definite ethical problems for Harrison in increasing the cranial capacity of the dogs and consequently the size of the brain but he wasn't convinced that such a change was even necessary.  While he was confident that DNA recombination could be used to put wings on a goldfish, there were ethical standards in the way he approached his work and beyond which he would not go.

There were also reasons to believe that increasing the size of the dog's brain was not necessary.  Mapping of function within the human brain had shown conclusively that a specific area is dedicated to speaking but there was more to it than that.  Harrison's father had a stroke and lost his ability to speak.  It had been one of the most devastating times in Harrison's young life when he saw his father in a hospital bed, trying desperately to speak, not being able to do it and not understanding what had happened.

A stroke doesn't just damage the brain but rather it kills parts of it and the areas that get killed never recover.  Nevertheless, his brain, after a lengthy period of therapy, began speaking again.  It was never the same as the professorial speech in which he had been so adept but he was definitely speaking.  From this Harrison concluded that the area of the brain dedicated to speech was important to language but it wasn't required.  After losing speech, the brain would retrain itself to use some other part.

Harrison smiled to himself as he thought of the stories that only ten percent of the human brain is ever used.  It was complete rubbish as it was easily proven that all of it is used but it varied during the course of the day which parts were most active.  This presented some complexity for recovery from a stroke.  Another part of the brain would be used for speaking during the rehabilitation but what purpose had that part served prior to the recovery.

He knew he was spinning his wheels in the sand as he had made his decision to select Highland Terriers for the research and he was still satisfied they were the right choice.  They have a deserved reputation for intelligence and they are clearly responsive to their owners.  It would serve no purpose to second-guess that selection but he couldn't help thinking from time to time of whether another choice might have been better.

While Harrison had been lost in his thinking, the television had been playing the background.  He was a very intelligent man but he was still amused sometimes by what he saw on the television.  He had heard it said that smart people watch stupid things and he smiled as he turned to see what was happening.

This was when Harrison saw something he hadn't seen before.  The dogs were lined up in front of the television and they weren't just lounging about.  All of them were sitting back on their haunches and they seemed enrapt over what was being broadcast.  He noticed also that they were making small sounds between them as the show progressed and he reached hurriedly for his notebook to add this development.

Harrison was quite excited to see this change and he couldn't wait to talk to his research assistants to find if they had been observing the same thing.  It was a huge moment as it would mean the method they had been using to teach language was being overridden by the television.  Their teaching was focused on single words whereas the television was delivering sentences.  Harrison sat back for a moment, highly intrigued by what he was seeing and curious to see more.