New UK Television Show Believes Dogs Can Fly… a Plane

The old saying: “That’ll happen… when pigs fly” implies that you’d be willing to do something if the impossible were to happen. But if you’ve ever dared to replace the pig with a dog, you may be in trouble.

A new British television show called “Dogs Might Fly” will attempt to do just that: teach dogs how to fly a plane.

I know what you’re thinking: this is crazy. Dogs don’t even have thumbs, never mind the mental capacity to ever fly an aircraft. Canine psychology professor Stanley Coren of the University of British Columbia shares your fears. He told The Independent that we wouldn’t expect that a three-year-old would be able to fly a plane so he certainly doesn’t expect a dog to either.

Sky 1 and Oxford Scientific Films are still going to try to make this six-part series. They select 12 abandoned dogs from rescue shelters across the United Kingdom and they will undergo 10 weeks of training before the challenge.

These tests include taking the dogs to a tall London landmark to see how they respond to heights and strapping them into a high-speed boat ride on the Thames River. I don’t know about you, but both of these tests sound absolutely terrifying – I can’t imagine how these dogs will feel.

Experts who will be examining the dogs include a police dog trainer, a clinical animal behaviorist, the author of “Dog Behaviour, Evolution and Cognition” as well as the woman who supplied dogs for the “Harry Potter” and “102 Dalmatians” films.

Oxford Scientific Films creative director Carole Hawkins told The Independent that at the end of the 10 week training, the dogs will be sent to flight school to learn how to fly a single engine plane in a “safe and controlled way.” For all intents and purposes, I really hope the “single engine plane” is one of those small simulators. Oh, who am I kidding… those things are still pretty freaky too, especially if you don’t manage to land properly.

My biggest concern is how freaked out these dogs are going to be, especially during the whole “strap them into a high-speed boat” part. Granted, my dog enjoys car rides…but this is vastly different.

The only real silver lining in all of this is at the end of the show, all these dogs will be adopted into loving families. The show airs in the UK on Sky 1 on February 28.

Source: [ Syracuse.com]