Dog is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You

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I also liked how with the familiar I discovered new things (with very many handy links that took me beyond the book itself). One such thing were two new terms: Zazie: Okay, another question from a book club member, Jessica Ring, who says “In chapter 6, you write “It seems to me that the rapidity with which dogs can form new bonds implies that old bonds must fade, but presently this is entirely speculation…”” She says, “I’m curious why you think this, rather than dogs having the capacity to form additional bonds while maintaining existing ones.” Sociality genes are associated with human-directed social behaviour in golden and Labrador retriever dogs. PeerJ, 6 (2018): e5889

We’ve been able to identify the genetic changes that took place in the journey from wolves to dogs thousands of years ago." Zazie: For you, was the realization that what’s special about dogs is love, not intelligence, a gradual thing or was it an ‘aha’ moment? Think about when someone stares at you, how awkward and uncomfortable you can feel, it’s the same for dogs. Wynne proposes a paradigm shift, synthesizing cross-disciplinary research to posit that it is dogs' "hypersociability" or "extreme gregariousness" that sets them apart.Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people, who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate." – Sigmund Freud, psychoanalyst Every dog lover knows the feeling. The nuzzle of a dog’s nose, the warmth of them lying at our feet, even their whining when they want to get up on the bed. It really seems like our dogs love us, too. But for years, scientists have resisted that conclusion, warning against anthropomorphizing our pets. Enter Clive Wynne, a pioneering canine behaviorist whose research is helping to usher in a new era: one in which love, not intelligence or submissiveness, is at the heart of the human-canine relationship. Drawing on cutting-edge studies from his lab and others around the world, Wynne shows that affection is the very essence of dogs, from their faces and tails to their brains, hormones, even DNA. This scientific revolution is revealing more about dogs’ unique origins, behavior, needs, and hidden depths than we ever imagined possible.

Zazie: This question is from book club member Cathy Shamblin. She has a 13-week-old Kelpie who is learning to herd and has been following her dad Kelpie around the farm. She says, “Does ‘instinct’ inform a dog’s emotional ties to humans? Dogs have an instinctual bond to follow a leader. Do we humans get that instinct mixed up with love?” Clive Wynne, a psychologist and founder of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University, is the author of a book called “Dog Is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You.” In an interview in The Washington Post, when asked whether his dog Xephos loves him, he said: Everybody should have a shelter dog. It's good for the soul." – Paul Shaffer, Canadian musician, composer, actor, author, and comedian

It's far less romantic than the popular notion of hunters who captured wolf pups and then trained them, which Wynne derides as a "completely unsupportable point of view" given the ferocity of adult wolves who would turn on their human counterparts.

Dogs are generally friendly animals. When dogs were domesticated thousands of years ago, it was in their best interest as they evolved to woo humans for food and shelter. And while every dog has a unique personality, certain breeds tend to be a little more sociable than others, including, the pug, the Labrador retriever, the Boston terrier, and the poodle. There are three faithful friends: an old wife, an old dog, and ready money." – Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father of the United StatesPigeons can identify different kinds of objects in 2D images; dolphins have shown they understand grammar; honeybees signal the location of food sources to each other through dance; all feats that no dogs have ever been known to accomplish. You get someone who stays up all night torturing himself mentally over the question of whether or not there's a dog.” The poor dog, in life the firmest friend. The first to welcome, foremost to defend." – Lord Byron, poet of Epitaph to a Dog You don't need to be buying all these fancy expensive toys and treats and goodness knows what that are available.

Titles like "The Genius of Dogs" by Brian Hare have advanced the idea that dogs have an innate and exceptional intelligence. This is a cozy science book that is perfect for people who love dogs, but also for people who aren't. I'm Team Cat all the way, and was a bit surprised to be offered a copy of this ARC, but I also really love animals of all kinds and have grown to appreciate dogs over the years as an adult, despite being deathly afraid of them when I was younger. As a Psychology major, I loved seeing some of the studies about behaviorism, conditioning, and attachment that I learned about in university, and as an animal lover and all-around science fan, it was cool to learn about fluffy science with a wagging tail. A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down." – Robert Benchley, humorist and actor Does my dog love me or just my food? If you’ve asked yourself this question, you’re one of the thousands of dog owners who have wondered the same thing. Are they the ultimate scam artists, or do they truly love us? Wynne guesses this happened 8,000 - 10,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, when humans began regularly hunting with dogs.

They share their toys. Your dog might sometimes tease you with their toy when they want to play, but in a true gesture of affection, they’ll present it as a gift. They want to share their most prized possession with the person they care about. Sounds like a whole lot of love. The love of a dog is a pure thing. He gives you a trust which is total. You must not betray it." – Michel Houellebecq, French author In the whole history of the world there is but one thing that money can not buy … to wit—the wag of a dog's tail." – Josh Billings, humorist and lecturer Dogs have a way of finding the people who need them and filling an emptiness we didn't ever know we had." – Thom Jones, author of The Pugilist at Rest But although dogs have an innate predisposition for affection, it requires early life nurturing to take effect.