Title: "Can Dogs Experience Love?"
Transcript:
"Hi everyone. Petra with Petra's perspectives here. For those of you who don't know me, I'm a board-certified coach and a California-licensed marriage and family therapist. And today I would like to talk with you about dog love. But first I'd like to introduce you to an intern in our office. An intern is a therapist in training and since she's occasionally going to be on this Petra's Perspectives Youtube channel I thought it would be nice to introduce her.
Her name is Lucy. Lucy come and say hi to our youtube audience. This is Lucy. Hi everyone. Lucy is a therapy dog in training. She is now 18 months old she has passed her Good Citizen Award. Canine Good Citizen Award, and is on the way to earning her therapy dog certification. I love this dog so much and she seems to love me and people in general, but does she really?
Most people, if asked if their dog loves them would say "I think so" and I'd like to think the same, but are we really sure that our family dog members and doggy friends love us or is it really more about food and treats? Are they capable of the emotion of love or are they just smart opportunists faking love to get more goodies? And how do we really know?
We certainly know that dogs bring humans many psychological and physical benefits and many research articles have documented that dog owners have lower rates of depression and anxiety, they're less lonely, they have lower blood pressure and they get more consistent physical exercise. And a responsible dog owner brings many benefits to their dog as well. It's a mutually beneficial relationship to be sure but if we think about does my dog love me, how can we give a definitive answer to that question? I
n a way that question is almost a bit heartbreaking, isn't it? I mean, how can we love our dogs so much and have it potentially be a one-way love affair? Recently I read some fascinating research Clive Wynne is psychologist and founder of the K-9 Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University and is the author of Dog is Love, Why and How Your Dog Loves You, and I bet you can tell from the title of the book that there is finally research-based evidence that our dogs love us, and that makes me really happy because you know, I would have loved Lucy even if she wasn't capable of loving me but knowing that she does makes my relationship with her that much more special.
In biology, such beliefs as my dog loves me is called anthropomorphism or assigning human qualities to animals and it is generally really frowned upon. In fact, Dr. Wynne describes himself a reluctant convert to dog love and describes himself as being a vehemently anti-anthropomorphic scientist but after reviewing many research articles and doing his own fascinating research, he concluded that even though dog and human love may have some differences there are also some very clear similarities that justify calling the bond that dogs have to their owners love.
Now, obviously, I can't summarize his whole book here but my favorite two pieces of research that he cites are, one when a dog is shown objects that remind them of food versus their owners in an MRI scanner. The reward centers in their brain light up more strongly to signals that their owner is nearby as compared to food.
A dog's love for its caretaker won over food. Wow! Another was research done in Japan where dogs and their owners gaze lovingly into each other's eyes. Then they measured the amount of oxytocin in both the dog's urine and in the human's urine. Oxytocin is a hormone that in lay person's terms is called the love hormone. And this hormone is present when loving people are in contact with each other in a wide variety of situations. And sure enough, when dogs and owners gazed lovingly into each other's eyes, oxytocin levels went up for both the dog and the human.
Dr. Wynne argues that based on such research, dogs and humans are very similar in how they form strong emotional bonds and that it is absolutely fair to say that dogs are capable of loving us. But here's where a dog's love is a bit different. Dogs are much more capable of falling in love quickly and more easily than humans, and that makes me feel really good about Lucy as a therapy dog because when she meets a client she actually starts to fall in love with them really quickly.
And in addition, what I think is so neat about this is that you don't have to own a dog to get a dog's love. If you don't have the time for a dog or you can't get one because of where you live, just being with a dog can give you many of the same psychological benefits as owning one. So babysitting a friend's dog, or walking dogs for a shelter, or walking a dog for an elderly homebound person can give you many of the same benefits as owning one, including getting some extra love. And as Dr. Jackson, who is the psychiatrist that I work with who I think so highly of here at Desert View Health says, Lucy has a Ph.D. in love and most dogs do. And today, as always, from my heart and from Lucy's heart, we wish you ample amounts of well-being. See you next time!