Dogs have been loving, loyal companions for years. In fact, dogs have often been called "man's best friend" due to their friendship and loyalty to humans for centuries. But this has caused many people to ask the question, "Why are dogs so loyal and loving towards humans?"
Our dogs provide us comfort, companionship, and love.
It doesn't matter what your emotions are. Let's say you had a difficult day at work and arrive back home in a bad mood. Your dog will still greet you with the same love and enthusiasm as any other day! No matter what, you can count on your sweet pup to cheer you up!
So again we ask: why are dogs so loyal? Could it be their genetic makeup? Do they actually feel loyalty or are they just trying to get treats and pets? And do they really love us?
Discover what scientists and veterinarians have to say on the topic!
The Genetic Makeup of Dogs
Dog DNA is very similar to wolves' DNA. They share 99.9% of mitochondrial DNA (which is the DNA passed down from their mothers). Then why do our dogs behave like they do?
When evaluating canine chromosomes, six researchers found 3 genes that code for hyper sociability. This is the dog’s desire to initiate social contact with another species. They are similar to the genes that cause sweetness in humans. These genes cause our dogs to be with us and us to be sweet to them.
Historically, it is believed wolves became close to humans because of the food people had at their camps. These wolves had a need to find food, and the humans fed them scraps. Over time, the more social wolves became closer to our human ancestors, and they saw how useful wolves could be.
Think about it: wolves could guard them and hunt with them. These social wolves were bred and produced dog like canines. It was approximately 27,000 to 40,000 years ago when wolves and dogs began to genetically diverge from each other.
As humans moved from hunters and gatherers to agriculture, canines went with them. How do we know? Scientists can track the spread of agriculture through dog breeds and where they are around the world. The more carnivorous diet of wolves changed to the more starchy diet of dogs.
Another clue is that domestic dogs have more copies of the gene AMY2B than wolves do. This helps break down starchy foods for dogs, and this suggests agriculture spread because of the growing and eating of wheat and rice. In other words, the dogs were eating things that the people were eating too. which means they were in close contact with the humans.
How close these dogs were to people are often shown in archaeological burials. Across the world dogs were often buried just like their family. Some humans and dogs were buried together.
In 1914 stone quarry workers found a 14,000 year old burial site that contained a man, woman, and dog. It is thought they were deliberately buried together showing early domestication and a bond. Recent re-examination of those bones have revealed the puppy was sick and received care which suggested an emotional bond all the way to the Paleolithic era.
How Dogs Became What We Know Today
While the appearance of dogs were very similar to the wolf, changes began happening in personality and character, making them safer (and more fun) to keep as pets. Coat textures and colors became diverse. As humans and their dogs moved around the earth the dogs came in contact with other breeds. There are hundreds of dog breeds. Many people started breeding their dogs to do different jobs, like herding sheep.
Many breeds we know today are fairly young and the majority of them came to be during the Victorian Period.
In fact, Queen Victoria cared for her dogs so much that she inspired the people of Britain. One of her dogs, who is a favorite among historians, was a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Dash.
The oil painting Windsor Castle in Modern Times, by Sir Edwin Landseer, depicts Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and their daughter Victoria, Princess Royal, in the house with their dogs. This painting showed the loving relationship between the dogs and their family. Previously in Britain, many dogs were kept outside when they weren't being used to hunt or herd. "Loving an animal like it's part of the family" wasn't an idea that was common back then.
During Victorian times new ideas about life were popular. It was believed that if children cared for and were responsible for dogs then they would grow up to be loving and responsible adults. This idea led many people to add a dog to the family.
Charles Darwin's The Origin of the Species was published in 1859. This inspired Victorians to change things through selective breeding-this included horses, roses, and dogs.
People used the selective breeding of dogs for their traits, until there were many traits and many different breeds. These different breeds also were shown in newly popular dog shows during Victorian Britain. With the popularity of dog shows; people created new breeds of dogs and created a standard of what judges were looking for during those shows.
Through time dogs have become more than just our pets. They are our companions, our family, and our protectors.
Loyalty: Why Are Dogs So Loyal to Us?
Like dogs ancestor, the wolf, dogs are pack animals. Through time, humans have become part of the dogs' pack. Dogs are social creatures and they enjoy your company. Packs were used as a mechanism of survival, as they protected each other and hunted for food together.
As previously mentioned, humans became part of the pack as a way to survive since the wolf protected them and helped them hunt. Through time, that relationship between humans and dogs became ingrained in our genes. Yes, dogs see us in their pack, but they see us as more. They consider us family.
When you go to work and come home does your dog act like they haven't seen you in weeks? This is the dog's loyalty to you. You are part of their family. They adopted you into their family.
Many think that this is just because we provide food to dogs. This is not true because your dog would not act the same if a stranger brought it food. When you bring them food, they view it as a family member providing food for the pack.
A dogs' survival in the family pack is part of it. This is why dogs will protect you because you are a family member and they will protect you because of their loyalty to you. It isn't just loyalty that dogs feel; it is also love.
Love: Why Are Dogs So Loving?
There is no doubt that dogs love their humans. Proof of that love is the true story of Hachikō.
Hachikō was a Japanese Akita dog. He was born on a farm on November 10, 1923.
Hidesaburō Ueno, a Tokyo Imperial University agriculture professor, bought him. and brought him to Tokyo.
Every single day, Hachikō and his owner Ueno would walk to Shibuya Station so Ueno could travel to the University. At the end of the day Hachikō would greet Ueno at the station on his commute home.
Then on May 21, 1925 Ueno didn't come back to the station. He tragically died of a cerebral brain hemorrhage while giving a lecture at the University at the age of 53.
Hachikō was then taken in by Ueno's gardener. But despite the fact that his owner had died, Hachikō continued to go and wait for Ueno at the train station when it was time for him to come home.
At first some people were mean and annoyed by Hachikō, especially some of the shop owners.
But then Hirokichi Saito, a specialist of Japanese dog breeds, noticed Hachikō and wrote a newspaper story about him called The Story of a Sweet Old Dog. People realized the loyalty this dog had for his previous owner and he became an international celebrity. People brought him treats and greeted him. He even appeared in a movie in 1934 called General of the Alps.
Hachikō became a hero due to his loving loyalty. A statue for Hachikō was erected at Shibuya Station, and he was in attendance at its unveiling. He continued to come to the station everyday until he died March 8, 1935.
A funeral for Hachikō was given at Shibuya Station.
Through art, Hachikō was reunited with his owner Hidesaburō Ueno. A statue of them happily greeting each other was erected near the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo on March 8, 2015; 80 years after Hachikō had passed away.
Since then Hachikō has appeared in books and movies as a symbol of love and loyalty.
Proof That Your Dog Loves You
In 2005, ScienceDirect had an experiment where they offered a dog something with the scent of their owner, something with a scent from a stranger, and something with the scent of food. Brain scans were taken as they approached each object.
The dogs reacted strongly to the scent of their owners, and the part of their brains lit up that showed enjoyment and positive emotions.
In another study, Dr. Gregory Berns, is overseeing an experiment that proves dogs really do love us. Berns is a neuroscientist from Emory University and he began his experiment in 2012. He trained dogs to go into a MRI scanner, without drugs and on their own free will, and mapped their brains while they responded to different stimuli.
Berns research found:
- Dogs can tell the difference between words they have heard before and words they have not heard before. In response they try to figure out what we are saying.
- Dogs have a brain region for quantities. Berns said it was strong evidence that most mammals were born to count. They know when you give them more treats.
- Dogs can process human faces from a region in the brain in the temporal lobe and this explains their sensitivity to human social cues.
- The dogs responded more to the smell of a familiar person rather than familiar dogs or people they didn't know. This shows a connection between people and their dogs.
- They can predict good service dogs through MRI imaging: Dogs that have higher activity in the Caudate Nucleus (the region that has the most dopamine receptors) and less activity in the amygdala (part of the brain associated with fear and anxiety) will make better service dogs.
Berns’ love for dogs made him question if they loved him. You see, Berns had a dog named Newton that died in 2010 after 15 years of companionship together. It made him question if Newton loved him as much as he loved him in those 15 years together. He wondered if he was just the person who fed him and kept him warm, or if Newton felt real love.
So Berns and his team did an experiment with 15 dogs. The dogs were shown an object and given a different reward after each object. They were shown a hairbrush, a toy car, and a toy horse. After being shown one object they were given a hot dog.
After being shown the second toy they were praised. After the third item, they were rewarded nothing. Out of the 15 dogs, 13 were stimulated as much or more by praise than by food. The researchers concluded that this meant that dogs love their person more than they love food.
What Berns discovered is that dogs are individuals, just like people.
We Should be Loyal and Loving To Our Dogs
Let's reverse the question.
Instead of asking "why are dogs so loyal," let's ask ourselves, "How can I be more loyal and loving toward my dog?"
Think about it: if our dogs love us unconditionally, then we should be loyal to them and get them the best treats and toys and provide them with the best life.
One of the ways to show that loyalty is to communicate more clearly with our dogs, and a training collar can help with that. It also helps keep our dogs safe, healthy, and promotes good behavior!
You can love your small dog so much, but is excessive barking too much for you and your neighbors? Does it jump on people? Does it attack other dogs? Has your dog ever run off into a busy street?
Training a little dog can be scary and stressful.
A training collar for small dogs from Wiggle Kingdom is a great way to communicate with your dog. This e collar for small dogs with remote is the world's smallest training collar. You can train your little dog or toy breeds with them being comfortable. You can use the sound or vibration mode to communicate that the behavior is unacceptable. It has different levels of vibration to get your little dog's attention. If that still doesn't work it does have a static shock feature with different levels of static shock specifically made for your little or toy dog breed. It is water resistant and it has a long battery life with a built-in rechargeable battery.
You can use this collar to communicate with your dog in 3 easy steps.
- Put the collar on.
- Catch your dog misbehaving.
- Activate the collar.
You choose between sound, vibration, or shock for training. Static shock can be too much for some little dogs, so you can use the sound or the different levels of vibration. There are 9 levels of intensity so you can find the right intensity for your dog. At the level that gets your dogs attention is what you should choose.
It has a remote that can fit in your pocket; but it has a large illuminated screen with easy access and easy to read buttons. The stylish collar is small enough it won't drag you small dog and they can walk or run in it with ease.
Wiggle Kingdom collar is a training collar with a remote that has a long range antenna that reaches up to 1000 feet. Having a range of 1000 makes it easy for your to use your e-collar for a toy breed to establish boundaries; you can decide how far your want your dog to go in your yard.
Wiggle Kingdom will donate 1% of all sales to animal shelters, so those dogs can go to find their own family to be loyal to and to love.
You love your dog, and you know your dog loves you. You want the best for your dog and to keep them safe and healthy. A Wiggle Kingdom Collar can provide a happy relationship between you and your dog through proper communication and training.