What is the only living thing that loves you more than you love yourself, is most excited to see you after a long day at school or work or gets so excited just to be on the same couch as you? Your dog!
For as long as dogs have been domesticated, they have had a deep mutual connection with humans. We think we know that dogs love every fiber of our every being, but how do we know that they aren’t just loving the smell of food around us or the knowledge of a treat to come? A few scientists thought of the same questions and tested them.
Dogs smell everything. They process the world and its entire existence through smell. Therefore, scientists at Emory University used a smell test to see what sparked the most excitement in the dog’s brain. The scientists placed something familiar and something strange in front of the dog to smell. With each dog, the smell of an owner sparked up the rewards part of the brain. This means that each has a special place for our smells.
According to a recent piece by Mic in partnership with GE, “Not only do dogs seem to love us back, they actually see us as their family. It turns out that dogs rely on humans more than they do their own kind for affection, protection and everything in between.”
More so, what have we done to deserve dogs? When we are sad, the dog is the first to comfort. When we are happy, the dog is the always the first to say “I am happy too! Let’s play!” Dogs are great in every way possible and they never really let us down. As I’m writing this, I wish I had my dog here to cuddle.
My dog, Bear, is a pure mutt. My dad picked him up off the side of the road when he was about eight weeks old. As soon as I walked through the door and saw my dad holding my sweet little dog, I fell in love. More so, ever since I named him, my little Bear has picked me over everyone in the house. I know that my dog loves me more than just food because we have a connection. My dog is more than 50 minutes away from me and I only get to see him on the weekends when I go home. My parents have told me that he gets depressed and droops his head over the couch looking at my bedroom door just waiting for me to come out of it. He gets out of that depression every time he hears my truck pull in the drive way. He is always the first one to meet me at the door as he jumps on me and smiles at me.
There will always be some dogs who love food more than family. However, dogs love us more than we deserve. In our eyes, dogs may just be pets, but in their eyes, we are their entire world. They may only take a few short years of our life, but we are their entire lives.
