B1. Hero Dogs! 4 EPIC True Stories

Okay, welcome everyone. With me today is James. Once again, hello James.

Hello again.

Today, we will share the four most incredible stories about incredible dogs in simpler English.

Two of these dogs have statues. Statues made of the dogs! Do you have a statue made of you, James?

No, I don't have anything. Not even a 3D printed statue. I have no statues. The dog has definitely done something more important with its life, unfortunately.

But dogs, they have a completely unique relationship with people?

I can tell you something very interesting about dogs.

Dogs, when they're younger, will fall in love with their human master. So, oxytocin will be released in the dog's brain when the dog is younger. And at the same time, that same love chemical will be released in the human brain, in the master's brain.

So, in a strange way, the dog falls in love with the owner and the owner, in a chemical, physical way, will fall in love with the dog. It's a very strange thing. It doesn't seem to happen with many animals, if any other animals.

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Wow. Okay, so first, incredible dog story. Would you like to tell us a story, James?

So I would love to speak about Don the talking dog, a dog which could speak. He was a German dog. German, this is the key element, because he could speak German. And German is such a crazy sounding language. Absolutely, yes. It is a strange language.

And so when I say he could speak German, he could not communicate in full sentences. But he could say "have" in German, "cake", "hunger", "yes", "no", "quiet". He was able to communicate by vocalizing these German words to get what he wanted, basically.

This skill first emerged during a dinner conversation, and he used the word "haben", or "haben". I don't know the pronunciation. This captivated locals and later the international press.

So this is in 1905. Over a span of about six years, he became more and more famous in Europe.

In America at the time, they had vaudeville, which was kind of like theatres and performances, typically aimed at working class people. Oh, vaudeville. It's a theatre style. It's a kind of performance, like a theatre performance, and a bit of variety, right? There'd be someone doing a song, someone doing some jokes. A type of variety performance, yes, absolutely.

And this dog was so famous, he was requested in the United States. And to make sure that he arrived safely in America, there was an insurance put on the dog. And by today's money, it would be $1.25 million insurance on Don the talking dog.

He was incredibly famous. And when I say incredibly famous, he would perform in New York City with Harry Houdini. So you would go to a show, and you would see Harry Houdini, the famous illusionist and escapologist. And you'd see Don the talking dog, and I wonder how... Locking him in a box. Probably. Locking him in a chest. I wonder how many people... To be thrown off the waterfall.

Yes. I wonder how many people went to see Don the talking dog as the headliner, and Harry Houdini as the, you know, the support act.

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But it becomes even more interesting because Don also was a hero. He saved a drowning man at Brighton Beach, New York.

Witnesses claim that Don barked help. In German, some people say English, probably German. And then he ran into the water to aid the struggling man. And he was rescued. Had he said it in English, then he would be not just the first talking dog, but the first bilingual.

I did have a cat which used to say, "Oh no," before coughing up a hairball. He would say, "Oh no," before, you know, vomiting.

Animals could probably speak to some very, very basic single word levels. Like there's that, I think the most intelligent dog ever, right? And he knows like 300, 400 different words. Yeah. That's true. That he recognizes.

We are made with vocal chords. We can speak and we can move our mouths in this kind of way that animals cannot. But if they could, I'm sure some chimpanzees could say, you know, give me that banana. If they could.

But regardless of whether the dog could actually speak, it was incredibly intelligent.

So there we are. Don, the talking dog, spoke German and saved a boy from drowning. Sounds awesome. Already he's better than me. I can't speak German. Or whatever.

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So, story, are you ready?

This is one of the statues of dogs that I earlier mentioned, is a statue of this dog. And here is a legendary story in Japan. Hachiko.

Of course, I'll try to say it with a Japanese accent, like in a Japanese movie. Hachiko.

The dog who waited nine years. So, in 1924, there was a Japanese university professor named Ueno.

Ueno had a puppy and the puppy's name was Hachiko.

Every day, Hachiko walked with Ueno to the subway station each morning, walking together. And then the dog, Hachiko, waited there at the station for his owner to return. So the dog would wait, just wait at the station until the owner gets back. And then they'd walk home together. Lovely.

Every day, walking to the station together. And every day walking home together. But Ueno suffered a stroke.

A stroke is when a blood vessel in your brain pops and often you die. And unfortunately, Ueno passed away and he did die and he didn't come home.

But Hachiko didn't stop coming. For nearly 10 years, that dog kept on coming to the subway station at the exact same time, every day, waiting for his owner to return.

And the dog was now living with the gardener of the owner, but every day he'd still go to the station, walk to the station alone at that same time. And he would just wait for the professor. And he even walked past the professor's old house and he would look through the window to see if the professor was there. And then he'd continue walking until he got to the station and wait at the station through rain or shine. Even when it was snowing, the dog still came.

There were incidences where strangers and drunk people kicked him, bullied him, even painted graffiti on him at one point with their calligraphy ink that lasts a long time. But still, through the beatings and graffiti on him, Hachiko appeared at the station every single evening at the exact time that his owner's train was due to arrive.

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Then a former student of the professor, Professor Ueno, Hachiko's old master, the student started to notice this and started writing articles, writing articles about the dog. And these articles became increasingly famous around Japan. And then Hachiko became a national symbol of loyalty and faithfulness.

And the people would travel from all around Japan to come see Hachiko, like waiting at the station. And he actually became a tourist attraction while he was still alive.

But in 1935, he passed away. They found his body in an alley, kind of on the way to the station. He was just a very old dog at that point.

And today, outside Shibuya station — so Shibuya is the busiest station in Tokyo. And that is where the story takes place. So you might know Shibuya Crossing, James?

I do know Shibuya Crossing.

Most people have seen the crazy video images of all those like hundreds and hundreds and maybe over a thousand people crossing. It's so busy. It's the busiest crossing in the biggest city in the world. And there is where the story of Hachiko was. And a bronze statue is there to this day.

Fantastic. Yeah. It's amazing. The dogs and their loyalty.

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It always reminds me of Argos from the Odyssey, Homer's Odyssey. About Argos is a dog which waits in Ithaca for his master to return. And when he finally sees his master again, he is happy to die. And it's this amazing element of like faithfulness and how dogs will be so incredibly loyal.

And you see this again and again. There's countless videos out there of a soldier comes back from service or a dog hasn't seen their master for like a year, two years. And the dog just goes insane.

And even if you have a dog and you go for a walk or you go shopping and you come back, the dog just goes absolutely crazy. Like it just runs up and down your body, leaping up and down. It's such a natural joy!

(Well done for finishing! After this we chat freely)