Do dogs need people to survive? The truth might hurt.

National Geographic

a day ago

A miniature dachshund survived in the wild for 529 days. Could your dog? Experts say it depends on these traits. A group of dogs greets their human family on a farm. Photograph by Kendrick Brinson, Nat Geo Image Collection
In late April, a miniature dachshund named Valerie was found healthy and alert on Kangaroo Island, just off the coast of Adelaide, Australia—after she had been missing for 529 days.
Surprisingly, Valerie, who had become separated from her family during a vacation to the island in November 2023, had even gained about four pounds in the wild.
'She went out as a skinny little sausage dog and came back as a rippling mass of muscle,' says Jared Karran, a director at the nonprofit Kangala Wildlife Rescue, who released footage of Valerie's rescue. 'Just the healthiest dog you'd ever want to see—perfect teeth, perfect hair, perfect skin.'
During her time in the bush, Valerie became somewhat of a celebrity, and fans rejoiced when they learned she had reunited with her family in May.
But some wondered how she did it. Was she just lucky, or can pet dogs—animals that have lived and evolved alongside humans for thousands of years—really survive without us?
Well, it depends on who you ask. From scuba diving to set-jetting
'I don't think that [the story] is that outrageously surprising or amazing,' says Jessica Pierce, a bioethicist who focuses on the human-animal relationship. Pierce wrote 'A Dog's World,' which delves into what might happen to dogs if humans disappeared from Earth.
'It is amazing that she did this because she lived the first part of her life as a pampered pet dog, so really hadn't developed the skills that she would have needed to survive on her own,' Pierce clarifies. 'But obviously those were instinctually intact.'
Vanessa Woods, the director of the Duke Puppy Kindergarten at the Duke Canine Cognition Lab, and author of 'Genius of Dogs,' isn't so sure.
'I have a dog right now who would probably not last a minute in the wild,' she says, adding that she believes some dogs would adapt while others would sit and wait for their owners to rescue them. 'I think some dogs would be great and some dogs would die.' Children play with puppies outside the town visitor center in Seymour, Indiana. Photograph by Andrea Bruce, Nat Geo Image Collection
Pierce and Woods agree that certain characteristics would make an individual dog more apt to survive without people.
First off, Valerie would have needed a pretty high IQ to protect herself from predators, secure food and water, and shelter herself from the elements, Pierce says.
'Figuring those things out in a new environment is something a lot of humans would find challenging,' she adds.
Luckily, there probably weren't any large predators for Valerie to deal with on Kangaroo Island, Woods says, but she likely would have had to dodge serpents like the venomous tiger snake and pygmy copperhead.
'She kind of had a natural aptitude,' surmises the Australian-born Woods. 'But then she also would have gotten lucky because let me tell you, there are parts of the Australian bush where she would have lasted about two days.'
In most places, dogs with stronger hunting drives would generally fare better, Woods says. For instance, a Jack Russell terrier that's been bred and trained to use this skill regularly would be more successful than a show husky that hasn't honed the art of catching prey, she notes.
'You don't really want dogs to hunt and kill every living thing in your neighborhood, including a neighbor's cat,' she says. 'So there would be some dogs [where] the skills that would help them survive have been watered down, really bred out of them.'
However, Pierce emphasizes that these instincts have never truly disappeared.
'Even a pet dog who's never had to hunt for food, but always just had a bowl of kibble placed in front of her twice a day, still knows how to hunt,' she says. 'Those instincts are still there.'
Dogs bred for extreme traits, such as short legs or long or large bodies, might not do well either, Pierce hypothesizes. For instance, it's generally harder for short-legged dogs like dachshunds to run long distances. Plus, these extreme traits can eventually lead to genetic health issues like hip dysplasia and chronic pain, she says.
On the other hand, smaller dogs like Valerie could have more of an advantage in some settings, Pierce adds.
'They're not going to be quite as visible and easy to spot for a predator,' she says. Plus, small dogs need fewer calories and could potentially survive on small insects like grasshoppers instead of relying on taking down larger prey, she explains.
In general, dogs also possess a few traits helpful to wilderness survival. For instance, they 'can and will eat anything they can get their paws on,' Pierce notes. Plus, their behavior is flexible, making them more adaptable to new environments and situations.
But Valerie's success could have also come down to personality.
'It's hard to put your finger on exactly what it is about her, but she obviously has this belief in herself,' Karran says. 'Nothing seems to faze her.' So, do dogs need us?
Stray dogs, which number around 200 million worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, live fairly independent of humans.
'A relatively small slice of the world's dogs live as pets, as captive animals,' Pierce says, noting that stray dogs use their instinct to survive in the wild.
But Woods says life isn't easy for these free-ranging pups. For one, young strays have a high mortality rate—one study from India found that only about 19 percent made it to reproductive age (which is generally around 6 months old).
Still, Pierce believes that if humans disappeared from the planet tomorrow, dogs would do just fine.
'Dogs would have a pretty good shot because of how adaptive they are,' she says. 'They'd have, I would say, as good a shot as any other animal in making it without us.'
Woods questions, though, how long they would make it without our waste to pick at. After all, early dogs survived by scavenging trash around human settlements, and that's how most feral dogs make it today.
'The last 14 to 40,000 years, that's what they've been surviving on, basically,' she says.
But regardless of whether dogs could survive without us, would these social animals miss our companionship?
'I think a lack of any social interaction would probably be felt as something missing,' Pierce says. 'I'm not sure there would be loneliness, but there might be.' However, she says dogs don't need humans to meet their social quota. They can also bond with other dogs and even other animals.
Still, 'your dog who's curled up next to the couch with you would certainly miss you,' she says. 'But dogs as a species…would be okay without us.'
This paradox might be best summed up by the way Valerie—a dog who did just fine for herself in the wild for nearly a year and a half—warmed up to her family immediately during their reunion.
'It just took a split second and you could see her recognize each one individually,' Karran says. 'She was so happy; she jumped up on them licking them, cuddling them, running around. It was just such a beautiful moment.'