LONDON -- A new TV show in the UK is looking to see if a dog could fly a plane.
A dozen canines are taking part in Sky 1's Dogs Might Fly, which will see them put through a series of tests examining their skills in "communication, empathy, memory and reasoning," with the best going on to flying school.
The program is presented by Jamie Theakston.
The 12 finalist dogs were selected from rescue centres around the country. They were sent to a mansion in the Sussex countryside for ten weeks of training with a team of specialists including dog trainers, an animal psychologist and a professor of ethology from Hungary.
The doggy dozen include: Shadow, a two-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier the programme makers describe as a "joker"; Honey, a "high-energy lurcher cross"; and Tess, an 18-month-old Belgian shepherd "who was a boisterous puppy that has now come into her own."
During the show, the dogs will watch a cricket match, tackle musical instruments, visit London and ride in a high rise elevator, and take a speedboat down the Thames.
The idea is that the dogs are exposed to different sensations and stimuli, which will help the judges decide which one is best to get behind the modified controls of a light aircraft.
Quite how the dog will 'fly' the plane remains to be seen when the show airs. However, Carole Hawkins from Oxford Scientific Films said that the series aimed to test in a "safe and controlled way" whether an intelligent dog could control an aircraft.
A professor of canine psychology from Vancouver's University of British Columbia was sceptical. “Given that we would not expect a human three-year-old to be able to fly a plane, I would not expect that a dog could do so either,” Stanley Coren told The Independent.
Dogs Might Fly starts Sunday 28th February on Sky 1. The show ends with all of the dogs finding new homes.