8 Friendly Dogs Whose Pals Are Super Random. And Not Dogs.

<p> <a class="checked-link" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bcl0yrHPwk">BBC/YouTube</a><span></span> </p>
<p> <a class="checked-link" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bcl0yrHPwk">BBC/YouTube</a><span></span> </p>

Dogs, everyone knows, are man's best friend. But what if they've been befriending other species all along, too?

Plenty of animal odd couples, as a New York Times article published Tuesday notes, are half dog. That includes a wildlife park where dogs teach shy cheetahs to play:

It is probably no coincidence that many of the better-known animal pairings involve dogs, which have honed the art of cross-species communication through millenniums of having lived with humans. The dogs at the safari park, each housed with a cheetah, are adept at reading body language and take a dominant role with their feline companions - Donna J. Haraway, a professor emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the author of "When Species Meet," suggested that the dogs function almost as "social psychologists."

Here are a few dogs and other animals who appear to be having a play date, by way of that modern-day Aesop called YouTube:

1. The dog and the tortoise(John Carter/youtube)

2. The dog and the one-legged chicken(Uzoouk/youtube)

3. The dog and the crow(MASSEUR1956/Youtube)

4. The dog and the elk(Linda Abbott/Youtube)

5.The dog and the lamb(KHQ6/YouTube)

6. The dog and the polar bear(BBC/YouTube)

7. The fox and the hound(Theworldvideos1/YouTube)

8. The dog and the piglet(Barcroft TV/YouTube)

This post has been updated to include information regarding the dog-cheetah relationship.