The idea that animals can experience love was once anathema to the psychologists who studied them, seen as a case of putting sentimentality before scientific rigor. Posted on 02/20/2020 6:46:08 AM PST by Red Badger
The idea that animals can experience love was once anathema to the psychologists who studied them, seen as a case of putting sentimentality before scientific rigor.
But a new book argues that, when it comes to dogs, the word is necessary to understanding what has made the relationship between humans and our best friends one of the most significant interspecies partnerships in history.
Clive Wynne, founder the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University, makes the case in "Dog is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You."
The animal psychologist, 59, began studying dogs in the early 2000s, and, like his peers, believed that to ascribe complex emotions to them was to commit the sin of anthropomorphism—until he was swayed by a body evidence that was growing too big to ignore.
"I think there comes a point when it's worth being skeptical of your skepticism," the Englishman said in an interview with AFP.
Canine science has enjoyed a resurgence in the past two decades, much of it extolling dogs' smarts.
Titles like "The Genius of Dogs" by Brian Hare have advanced the idea that dogs have an innate and exceptional intelligence.
Wynne, however plays spoilsport, arguing that Fido is just not that brilliant.
Pigeons 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.
Even wolves, dogs' ancestor species known for their ferocity and lack of interest in people, have shown the ability to follow human cues—including, in a recent Swedish study, by playing fetch.
Wynne proposes a paradigm shift, synthesizing cross-disciplinary research to posit that it is dogs' "hypersociability" or "extreme gregariousness" that sets them apart.
Williams syndrome gene
One of the most striking advances comes from studies regarding oxytocin, a brain chemical that cements emotional bonds between people, but which is, according to new evidence, also responsible for interspecies relationships between dogs and humans.
Recent research led by Takefumi Kikusui at Japan's Azabu University has shown that levels of the chemical spike when humans and their dogs gaze into each others' eyes, mirroring an effect observed between mothers and babies.
In genetics, UCLA geneticist Bridgett vonHoldt made a surprising discovery in 2009: Dogs have a mutation in the gene responsible for Williams syndrome in humans—a condition characterized by intellectual limitations and exceptional gregariousness.
"The essential thing about dogs, as for people with Williams syndrome, is a desire to form close connections, to have warm personal relationships—to love and be loved," writes Wynne.
Numerous insights have also been gleaned through new behavior tests—many devised by Wynne himself and easy to replicate at home with the help of treats and cups.
One involved researchers using a rope to pull open the front door of a dog's home and placing a bowl of food at an equal distance to its owner, finding that the animals overwhelmingly went to their human first.
Magnetic resonance imaging has drilled down on the neuroscience, showing that dogs' brains respond to praise as much or even more than food.
But although dogs have an innate predisposition for affection, it requires early life nurturing to take effect.
Nor is the love affair exclusive to humans: A farmer who raised pups among a penguin colony on a tiny Australian island was able to save the birds from maurading foxes, in an experiment that was the basis for a 2015 film.
All you need is love
For Wynne, the next frontiers of dog science may come through genetics, which will help unravel the mysterious process by which domestication took place at least 14,000 years ago.
Wynne is an advocate for the trash heap theory, which holds that the precursors to ancient dogs congregated around human dumping grounds, slowly ingratiating themselves with people before the enduring partnership we know today was established through joint hunting expeditions.
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.
New advances in the sequencing of ancient DNA will allow scientists to discover when the crucial mutation to the gene that controls Williams syndrome occurred.
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.
What makes these findings important, beyond advancing science, is their implications for dogs' welfare, he argues.
That means rejecting brutal, pain-based training methods like choke collars based on debunked understandings of "dominance" popularized by celebrity trainers who demand dog owners become "pack leaders."
"All your dog wants is for you to show them the way," says Wynne, through compassionate leadership and positive reinforcement.
It also means carving out time to meet their social needs instead of leaving them isolated for most of the day.
"Our dogs give us so much, and in return they don't ask for much," he says.
"You don't need to be buying all these fancy expensive toys and treats and goodness knows what that are available.
"They just need our company, they need to be with people."
“If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.” - Mark Twain
IMO they're angles with paws and tails. Didn't need a science study to tell me what I've innately known my entire life.
Missing my Teddy, Jerry, Sanford & Shiner this morning after reading this. Am without a companion the last 22 months and am finally getting to the point (after grieving losing Teddy...) that I may want another companion in my home. Miss the footsteps, jumping on the couch, playing, cuddle time, car rides and more. They give us so much.
My (now ex) wife accused me of that once. I told her she was right. Glad she's gone (the ex wife that is ...)
My wife and I rescued a Doberman pinscher. He was 45 pounds when we brought him home, 2 months later we had him up to 90 pounds. Big lovable gentle dog, and he realizes that we have given him a good home.
Great animals, but always a bad day when you lose one.
I just saw a Nova episode which hit on all these points. Yes our dogs do love us. They are flooded with Oxytocin, their brains pleasure centers light up as much or more from praise as food, etc.
I take my Black Lab to doggy daycare every other day. I can watch him play on petcam which is streamed over the internet while I’m at work, he LOVES going there and I get peace and quiet when I come home without the need to exercise him since he’s flat out exhausted after playing all day. Dogs did not evolve to sit at home alone all day. They’re so much happier when they get social interaction.
Why is this even open to debate? It’s been obvious for millennium.
Or maybe he is just imaging you coated in BBQ sause? ;)
I sat with Pook (lab) his last 2 days He ate some beef Taquitos and poof he was gone.
Good dog he was 11 and a pound rescue.
LOL! Yes my black lab has a “drinking problem” as well. If you set your beer down on the hardwood floor, he will knock it over and then lap it all up.
The first time when he was a puppy I attributed it to puppy clumsiness. The second time he did it I started getting suspicious. The third time he did it I knew he had a drinking problem. Clearly I have to be careful with my beer around him.
Dobes are good dogs
Funny you should use the word “angelic.” Year ago I lived in a nice apt. in NYC across from a tenement. A seriously handicapped man used to spend all his time looking out the window watching the Naked City in all its glory. By his side sat a Golden who smiled at everyone who passed by. I always thought: that dog is an angel. And so he was.
My new dog is going to the vet today. Have to get the heartworm meds. Also, a vast change in diet has led her to be somewhat ill from overfeeding. Gotta watch that.
Yes, but not for Millenials......................
I had a mixed breed Chow/Sneaky Dog Next Door dog that would do that!...............
I’ve had a Lab pass away before his time myself. He popped a big tumor on his hip not long after receiving his required vaccinations, in the same spot. I blamed myself for a long time. I do blood titer testing now to avoid over-vaccination. I’m not an “anti-vaxxer” before anybody gets started, but there is such a thing as too much and especially too many at once.
Wife and I adopted a 8 year old hound mix,
7 years ago. He pretty much ruled our lives
But we loved him too much to mind.
In mid December he started having small
Bouts of shaking and we took him to
Get checked and initial diagnosis was
Arthritis and a neck injury., went through some
Steroids and pain killers but found it was actually
A tumor in his neck., not operable and being 15
Years old, not practical or fair to him to
Try to operate
Spent past 2 awful months Knowing it was
the end forHim. damn it was bad
We put him to sleep monday
Finally feeling a bit better after 8 weeks of
Misery., Wife and I need some time but
We’ll get another hound, its worth it
But a real gut punch when we lose them
That doesn’t seem like a long time to me. She’s a mix but I can’t make out the other breed. I’ve wondered if it was Border Collie but she’s awfully calm and placid to be either breed, lol.
I had a lab with epilepsy.
I think it just a few things. Dogs like to be touched, dogs like to eat, dogs like to play, and it is all about the dog.
Bless their little canine brains, they sure are lovable.
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