We recently learned that your dog most likely lovingly dreams of you, so it should be no surprise that you are on their mind almost all of the time.
To get an idea of just how your pup thinks and feels, Dr. Brian Hare has dedicated his life to studying canine cognition and its eccentricities. He has recently teamed up with Purina Pro Plan Bright Mind, a dog food dedicated to improving your pet's cognitive function, to help owners figure out what's really going on in their dog's brain.
Dr. Hare has answered some of the burning canine cognition questions many curious dog lovers have to strengthen the bond between humans and their pups even further.
Does my dog know how much I love him?
Yes, your dog knows how much you love him! Dogs and humans have a very special relationship, where dogs have hijacked the human oxytocin bonding pathway normally reserved for our babies. When you stare at your dog, both your oxytocin levels go up, the same as when you pet them and play with them. It makes you both feel good and reinforces your bonding. Does your dog ever stare at you for no reason? They are just "hugging you" with their eyes.
Are dogs known to go through depression like humans?
It is very possible for dogs to become depressed. After 9/11 it was reported that many of the search and rescue dogs were suffering from depression-like symptoms because they could never find any survivors, only bodies. Their handlers would stage "fake" finds so that the dogs would cheer up and keep searching. Additionally, dogs do tend to become attached to their owners and will behave differently when that person is not around. Given their great capacity for empathy, dogs can also respond to their owners' moods and feelings, like depression.
How many words can a dog actively understand?
This is one of the big recent discoveries in the canine cognition science community. Some dogs can learn "object labels" or words the same way as human infants. So these dogs are not learning through trial and error or repetition but learning through inference. They use a strategy called the "principle of exclusion" and, just as with humans, the researchers did not find an upper limit to the number of words these dogs can learn. Dogs are the only species other than humans that have been found to have this ability. Now the question is whether all dogs can do this, or only some.
How much do we know about dogs' abilities to make decisions? Do dogs problem solve?
Dogs problem solve all of the time, although they all approach and solve problems in their own way. One of the exciting things about cognitive science is that it allows us to examine dogs' minds, just by observing how they make choices. For instance, if I hide food under one of two cups, then point to the empty cup, a dog that follows my point is a social problem solver — he wants to cooperate with me to solve the problem. But a dog that chooses the cup where they saw me put the food originally is relying on his memories instead.
Is there something you've found that owners can do to support their dogs' brain health and mental well-being?
Dogs are just like us; they need a good diet, lots of exercise and mental stimulation. It sounds simple, but doing these three things can really help your dog reach his full potential. Nutrition, in particular, becomes especially important around age 7 when the glucose metabolism in his brain begins to change. I feed my dog Tassie Purina Pro Plan Bright Mind Adult 7+, which contains enhanced botanical oils shown to promote alertness and mental sharpness in dogs seven and older. I also make sure he gets lots of exercise for both his body and mind, with long walks, swimming and playing our Dognition games.
We don’t know for sure, but here’s what science says.
We’d all like to think our dogs love us. We give them our unconditional love, food, and snuggles, but it’s not like we can sit them down and really ask them: Do dogs really love us? Or are we just mobile treat and food dispensers they tolerate?
We humans do perceive certain dog behaviors as loving—tail-wagging, cuddling—but actual scientists using fMRI machines have detected a real bond between dogs and their human companions.
So worry not, dog owners. You probably aren’t in a one-sided relationship.
“They really do get something out of their relationship with us that starts to look a lot like love,” says Leslie Sinn, DVM, ACVB, and a member of the Daily Paws Advisory Board.
Does My Dog Love Me?
How dogs love us is a matter of perception, Sinn says. They look at our faces and make eye contact. They wag their tails or wiggle their butts as we walk in the door and present us with toys to play with. They want to sleep next to us.
And unlike other animals, they seek us out for comfort and safety. They follow us around and some get upset when we leave, even potentially leading to separation anxiety.
But those are things we perceive as love, Sinn says. We just don’t know for sure. But we do have science helping us better understand.
Cavan Images / Getty
In 2014, Emory University researchers employed an fMRI scan and found that the section of dogs’ brains—the caudate nucleus—associated with positive expectations reacted most strongly to the scent of their familiar humans. (The scents were collected from the humans’ sans-deodorant armpits, so dogs really must love us.)
A similar study from scientists in Budapest, Hungary, offered similar results, but it instead focused on sound. Their findings suggest dogs can interpret the emotion in our voices—meaning they might be able to discern the happy voice we use as we talk to them, Sinn says.
“We can’t interview them, we can’t put them on a couch and analyze rhythm, but these studies suggest we’re quite important to them,” she adds.
RELATED: 5 Choices That Make Your Dog Happy
There are other signs from outside the brain. Japanese researchers found higher levels of oxytocin—the so-called “love hormone”—in dogs and their owners after they spent time looking into each other’s eyes. The findings suggest we have a bond with our dogs the same way mothers and infants have.
Plus, psychologist Clive Wynne, founder of the Canine Science Collaboratory, told The Washington Post that he and his collaborators trained dogs to open a box that had food in it. Once the dogs could open the box, the researchers replaced the food with the dogs’ owners, who cried out in distress.
“Under those conditions, pretty much every dog opened the box,” Wynee told the newspaper. “That, to me, is a compelling demonstration that dogs really do care if they can understand. If they can figure out what to do, they will.”
Why Dogs (Probably) Love Us
Well, we’ve spent a few thousand years perfecting the human-dog bond, so it’s natural that we’ve developed some affection for each other, Sinn says. Plus, they’ve become more reliant on us—for food, shelter, and comfort—as we’ve taken over what used to be their ancestral homes.
And there’s no question we love them—this website wouldn’t exist if that weren’t true—so maybe they’ve started to love us back unconditionally.
“It’s a two-way street,” Sinn says.
Show Your Dog You Love Them Back
Whether your dog loves you or not—even though we think they do—you should still treat them to the best life possible, giving them everything they need to be happy.
That means making sure they get enough exercise, eat the right food, and receive the best medical care. Treat them as your partner or child, Sinn says. Play with them and teach them cues and tricks.
Get them toys to play with when you’re not around. Treat them consistently so they know what to expect from you.
“Explore with your dog, and try and find out what their preferences are,” Sinn says.
RELATED: Do Dogs Like Hugs? The Answer May Surprise You
We dote on our cats and dogs, but is it a one-way relationship? Here’s what science tells us about how to decode their emotions, whether they are avoiding us or getting a little too amorous with our legs
It is almost a year to the day since Dustin, our milky-eyed nervebag of a cat, died and we still miss him a great deal, although he was not a great giver of emotion. We miss his refusing to look our way immensely. And his not wanting to be stroked there, there or there. But it wasn’t Dustin’s fault he was like this. Unknown trauma in kittenhood (he was left in a shoebox at the front door of a vet’s surgery) meant that he lived his entire 11 years in terror of being mauled to death by some unseen enemy. Understandably, this constant fear made Dustin very, very nervous.
Through many years of care and affection, we almost managed to rescue him from this anxiety until – almost as if to prove a point – Dustin was mauled to death by two pet dogs off the lead. When we pulled his frozen body out of the freezer before his funeral, Dustin had a withering expression – “I told you so” it seemed to say. This was the only time we really got to stroke him properly. Frozen solid.
I often find myself wondering whether Dustin loved us. The shamefully needy part of me wants reassurance that we made his 11 years as pleasurable as possible. But can we ever really understand what pets feel for us? After a year of this topic swirling around in my head, I thought I would share where I’ve got to.
First, some definitions. There is something very British about the fact we have many, many words to describe types of falling moisture (mist, drizzle, hail, sleet, etc) and yet the most dramatic and powerful of emotions – motivating billions of humans to do extraordinary things for one another each day – is chucked into a single bucket labelled, rather blandly, “love”. One can’t help but feel that the ancient Greeks had it right, by pulling love apart into various strands. Storge (“store-gae”) is the love between family members, for instance; eros is erotic love; philia is something like the loyalty that friendship brings; philautia is love for the self. And so, in this piece, I would like to break the concept of pet love into these neat and easily digestible Greek chunks.
To storge, familial love. It won’t surprise you to learn that dogs, more than any other pet, exhibit oodles of this form of love for us. And, unlike most other pets, these attachments have been the subject of many scientific studies. The science confirms what we knew all along, that most dogs actively choose proximity to humans and, within a few months of being born, a puppy’s attraction is clearly toward people rather than other dogs. Dogs exhibit varying degrees of separation anxiety when their humans temporarily leave them. Blood pressure rates in dogs lower when they are being stroked by us. It is a form of storge that we share with one another. No question.
Studies of brain chemicals add further weight to this relationship. In dogs and humans (in fact all mammals) the behaviours that bond individuals are maintained through a cocktail of molecules that are absorbed in different ways by the brain. Many of these are regulated by brain hormones that include vasopressin and oxytocin, the (dramatically over-hyped) “love” molecule. In all mammals (including humans) production of this hormone spikes when individuals are sexually aroused, while giving birth and while nursing offspring. It also rises when we see those that we love, particularly close family members. Interestingly, dogs respond with an oxytocin surge not only when interacting with one another, but also (unlike nearly all other mammals) when interacting with humans.
A similar phenomenon occurs with cats. One small-scale study suggests that cats do receive an oxytocin boost upon being petted by their owners, so there may be love there, but it reflects one-fifth of the amount seen in dogs. If anything sums up cats, it’s this.
But what of eros? Thankfully, most dogs or cats don’t view us in an erotic light. Even leg-humping isn’t likely to be a sex thing. The intentions of a horny dog may not necessarily be to inseminate their owner’s leg, but instead to manage unresolved tensions within the human-canine household. Some argue it could be about dominance; others that it could be to let off steam. There is also a chance that, well, a bit of friendly leg-humping just feels really nice to a dog, but not necessarily in a knowing, sexual way. The behaviour is seen in male and female dogs, and, occasionally, in cats.
Birds, however, are another story. Birds are far more likely to feel a warmth for their owners that you could term eros. A parrot that is tenderly stroked in the wrong places by its minder, for instance, will often misread friendship signals as foreplay and begin producing sex hormones. Should you wish not to sexually excite a parrot, try not to stroke down its back or on, or under, its wings. These are the areas that males and females preen in the early stages of their courtship in the wild. A stroke like this is like the kiss and a cuddle that readies them for sex. Upon discovering this fact, I realised I had more than once inadvertently sexed up a parrot.
Creature comforts: has the US's emotional support animal epidemic gone too far? – videoAncient Greeks had no word for cupboard love, but, undoubtedly, this is a love the vast majority of animal pets may feel for us. The pet frog or snake that readies itself from its slumber when the humans appear with food. The fish that swarm to the top of a tank at feeding time. Even invertebrates such as stick insects and hissing cockroaches might approach something like this form of love. And you really could argue that it’s a kind of love – something close to philia, a loyalty or a dependable friendship, with the emphasis on food dependability. Sure, it’s not a love that inspires sonnets, but it’s something.
A desperately depressed part of me wonders if Dustin loved only himself – that he exhibited philautia. That his each and every day was consumed with where best to hide, how best to be fed and how best to maintain the status quo of survival. This is the ultimate slap in the face for self-obsessed human carers like me, and so considering Dustin in this way naturally saddens me. But then I remember something wonderful. Rare moments of … something else.
Every few months, when he thought we were fast asleep, a very different Dustin would show himself to us – but he would only emerge in the darkest of night. Dustin would sit on the end of the bed and he would watch me sleep. As I lay on my front, he would wait a few minutes before making a stealthy approach and he would begin to pummel his paws against my ribs. A deep purr would emanate from his broad body. This choking purr moved my bones as I held my eyes closed. Minute after minute, he would go on like this, purring and pummelling, and then he would change position. He would lie down and rest his chin in the cleft between my shoulder blades and stretch his paws over my shoulders as if cuddling me.
I would lie there motionless, eager not to ruin these rare and magical moments, breathing in the rhythmic vibrations of his deep purrs. Sometimes, a long, sinuous blob of gelatinous pleasure-drool would roll down my neck. I didn’t care. I wore it as a badge of honour. But then it would end. After about 20 minutes, the spell would lift. Dustin would run out of the door, apparently disgusted with himself for exposing his emotion so wantonly. I don’t think the ancient Greeks had a word for a love like that. A love like that is hard to pin down, hard to put into words. You know it when it happens, that is as close as I can get to putting it into a sentence.
And so, you loved like you lived, dearest Dustin. Cautiously. Yours was a careful love, but a real and vivid love, nonetheless – a love on a spectrum of incredible ways in which humans engage with other animals on planet Earth and, in fleeting moments or in lifelong infatuation, they engage back.
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