DOGS CAN FALL IN LOVE: Recognize the signs that your dog is in love!
It is clear and obvious that dogs love their owners, but can they have the same emotions towards other dogs?
According to some research, dogs can fall in love with their owners, each other, and even other animals. Here’s how you can know that your dog is head over heels in love!
Do dogs have emotions?
All dog owners want to know what their pets think and feel. This is difficult to study for an obvious reason - dogs and humans do not speak the same language. Fun fact, dogs also have different barks by which they express their feelings and states, but owners and researchers can only guess what the dogs are trying to say.
However, some experts believe that dogs, although they cannot express them as much as humans, can feel many of the emotions that their owners also feel. Dogs cannot verbalize love, but they can certainly show it through certain patterns of behavior.
In an interview with the 2017 New York Times, Dr. Gregory Berns, a professor at Emory University, explained an experiment he and his colleagues conducted to test whether dogs love us more than food. Burns and his team monitored the brain activity of the dogs when they gave him the hot dog and after they praised him. They concluded that dogs reacted about equally to food and praise and that our dogs love us as much as food!
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Can dogs fall in love?
We know that puppies can develop a strong bond with their owners and other dogs, but can they fall in love? Experts think that dogs are in some way capable of falling in love, but not as romantically as humans can.
According to a study conducted in 2014 and published in the journal PNAS, positive reactions between dogs and humans or other dogs cause the release of oxytocin in their brains. Oxytocin is known as the love hormone and plays an important role in relationships, obviously not just in human ones.
Although canine love is not romantic, they can create deep and lasting bonds with other dogs, just as they create them with their owners. This explains why your dog is especially happy with some dogs (best buddies!). It is nice that such emotions are not only directed towards other dogs, but also towards cats!
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Check out TED Talk by Dr. Gregory Berns and get a better understanding of your dog's emotions here!
By: Sarah R.
