Dog is Love: The Science-Backed Fact about Dogs We Have Intuitively Known Forever

Dogs are capable of unconditional love.

Many of you know that without reading exhaustive science journals. It is intuitive awareness gathered in situations when you accidentally step on a dog’s paw, drowning in guilt only to see that your dog has forgiven your poor orientation skills before you have forgiven yourself. For most of us, it doesn’t take more than a single puppy smile to take us to blissful heaven and make us forget the struggles of the daily grind. 

But for some people, grasping dog ability to love wasn’t so simple: it took longer than that.

For Clive D.L. Wynne,  it was necessary to dig deep into canine research to fall helplessly in love with dogs. His path to awareness goes much deeper than the rest of us, maybe exactly because of his scientific curiosity accompanied by the relentless love for dogs he developed over the years. Once he started falling for dogs, he couldn’t stop himself.

That’s why we are so lucky today  – we get to know more about dog emotions from his book “Dog is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You”. 

Dog Behavior: How Dogs Bond with Humans

Sometimes, science can pose and an obstacle to emotions. Striving so hard to get to the reality of cold facts, researchers have trouble understanding their emotional background.

When Clive Wynne started researching dogs and other members of the canine family, wolfs in particular, he couldn’t explain the dog’s behavior with already established theories. 

Having spent years on animal research, he noticed that dogs are peculiar. They showcase behavioral specifics unrelated to any other animal group. In his bestseller, he elaborates on how science is catching up and proving truths dog lovers have known for years. 

Is it Pathology or True Love?

Dogs have an innate ability fo form deep emotional bonds with humans and other beings, so deep that if we were to attribute to humans, they would have been considered pathological. 

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Think of a partner who cries for 15 minutes every time you get out of the door or jumps uncontrollably into your lap every day you come back from work with a dangling tongue. As much as you would have appreciated the attention, it would all be too much. But with dogs, it somehow isn’t. So, maybe, just maybe, dogs are in our lives to teach us just what love means. 

In the words of Clive himself, this is how the same message sounds:

“Dogs have an exaggerated, ebullient, perhaps even excessive capacity to form affectionate relationships with members of other species. This capacity is so great, that, if we saw it in one of our kind, we would consider it quite strange – pathological, even. In my scientific language where I am obliged to use technical language, i call this abnormal behavior hypersociability. But as a dog lover who cares deeply about animals and their welfare, i see absolutely no reason why we shouldn’t just call it love.”

Through our narrow lens, we can consider that a pathology. Then, why do we stand in awe and admiration of dogs that have copious amounts of reverence and surrender for humans? 

It might be that we are just starting to truly understand dogs and it will take many more years of widened perspective and research until we come to more conclusive answers. In the meantime, we might as well be happy with what dedicated dog lovers with a degree get to know about wondrous doggos.

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Dog Emotions: How Canines Develop Affection 

Here is what Clive concluded about dog behavior, which partially both supported and contradicted previous dog research:

• Dog’s out-of-this-world sensitivity to humans can’t be attributed only to evolutionary inheritance or genetics.

• It is a trait adopted by domestication, but rather specific domestication. Human gestures or nurture rather than nature, play an important role in the dog’s genius to respond to humans in remarkably sensitive ways.

• Despite the contradictory evidence by other researchers, Clive concluded that wolves, too, can display affection towards humans. But this finding does not include all wolves, rather only wolves held in close proximity to humans long enough to develop affectionate bonds. 

These are only a few basic facts from the book. Clive Wynne offers so much more through the rest of the pages. Avid dog lovers, this book can become your small treasure chest treasure as you spend your time with your canine friend and learn why and how your dog loves you.