It is clear that all of us who belong to the Community Super Puppies love our dogs and can assure that they love us. But does a dog really feel love? or is it just our interpretation?
Scientifically it is proven that all mammals, including dogs and humans, have a pleasure center in the brain that is stimulated by substances such as dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin; substances responsible for making us feel good . On the other hand behavioral scholars assure that animals that are sociable need to understand their peers in order to communicate and establish links, which is a very clear signal that definitely have emotions .
Even having all the evidence in various fields, science maintains the issue as "controversial and undefined" because establishing that animals feel the same way we do, would imply a change of vision and a completely different approach to our position as "leaders of the animal kingdom. "
The concept of love as we understand it is quite complex, but taken to the simple form and landing the subject as an" affective bond "the SI dogs generate emotional ties and important ties with their family. They are social mammals and within their main needs is to be able to satisfy that social contact.
We also know that we share the limbic system of the brain with all mammals and in general it is practically the same, so we share the same emotions. That is to say, dogs also feel fear, anxiety, disgust, pleasure etc.
When we "feel" love, that is the product of an accumulation of chemical substances and physiological changes. There are many studies that have shown that when a dog sees its owner (a person with whom it has a healthy and strong affective bond), it has physiological changes very similar to ours, where the production of hormones such as oxytocin, among others , is present. In the branch of studies of modern canine etiology and behavior, there is not much doubt about it.
Regardless of all the above, most of the people who share life with a dog, we can assure that dogs love and feel love , and its delivery capacity is much higher than that of most people. If you ask us, what are the main qualities of a dog? among the list, we would surely find:
- Unconditional affection
- Sorry
- Loyalty
- Absolute disposition
- Tenderness
- Happiness
- There is no egotism in them
If we take all the points of the previous list and we liquefy them, we would have a delicious milkshake neither more nor less than LOVE! And maybe that's the reason why Jeffrey Moussaieff, author of the book "Dogs never lie about love" , wrote in that publication: " Dogs ARE love ". So the question is not whether dogs feel love, the mystery lies in how they manage to have that enormous capacity to love. Even abused or neglected dogs always keep space for hope, hope for a bit of affection from humans.
Thanks to all of our Super Cubs for reminding us every day that the most important thing in the life is learning to love and be loved.
Source
supercachorros.org