Dogs in love: fact or fantasy?

Can dogs really fall in love with their owner?

You know that dogs can feel a lot of different emotions such as happiness, stress, fear and melancholy. Some ethological studies, in fact, report that some complex emotions of our four-legged friends are very similar to the ones of kids from 2 to 3 years old. Every dog builds a solid relationship with their owner, thanks to a long cohabitation and a hierarchical relationship, which is essential in their social life.

As for love, some researchers from the Japanese University of Azabu, report that both humans and dogs have similar physical reactions, that is the release of the hormone oxytocin, when they meet their favourite loving individual. In fact, you just need eye contact between you and your dog to stimulate “the love hormone”: for this reason, when you look into each other’s eyes, oxytocin’s values start increasing.

Despite this, there are differences on how dogs and their owners show their love: on one hand, for us love is way more complex and it is defined by different concepts and values. On the other hand, dogs have an instinctive behaviour, which makes them clearly show all their feelings - even more truly than humans - in the blink of an eye.

How do dogs show love for their owner?

It’s all about their simple, repetitive daily actions: we should consider them as dogs’ genuine, loving signs. They could jump in front of us after a working day or wag their tail: they could sleep deeply near us or lick our hands and face. On other occasions, they are way more energetic while showing their love, e.g. they start running towards us, sometimes they bark or keep an object or a toy they’re used to playing with in their mouth and they want us to follow them. Why? They just want to spend some time with us. Besides, a situation with a dog trying to protect their owner from dangers may have happened to many of us.

Can dogs fall in love with another dog?

It may be, although in dogs’ love there is nothing related to sexual references regarding the choice of a “partner”, like we humans do: when your dog is emotionally getting used to another animal or a person, you should know they need to build a long, hierarchical relationship. Ultimately, the longer the dog will stay with another animal or person, the stronger the relationship will be, especially with their leader.