Does My Dog Love Me? An Answer for Valentine’s Day

We know you adore your dog. After all, you’re reading this article. But have you ever wondered on Valentine’s Day: “Does my dog love me?” Sure, they wag their tails when they see you. They lick you and cuddle with you. But do they really love you – or is it just the food and shelter you provide?

This Valentine’s Month we thought it as good a time as any to delve into the question of whether our dogs really love us.

Does my dog love me or does it love food?

In surfing the internet you’ll find a number of studies on whether our pups love us.

At least one of them seems to show our dogs love us, at least as much as they love food. Neuroscientists at Emory University used an MRI machine to scan the brains of 90 dogs to find out what goes on in their heads.

First, they learned that a dog’s prefrontal lobe activity is similar to humans. This means they use the same parts of the brain for problem solving. Then, they measured the dogs’ brain activity when presented with treats – in this case, hot dogs. They then praised the dogs and measured their neurological responses.

When comparing the reward centres in the dogs’ brains, the vast number of dogs responded to praise and food equally. About 20% had stronger responses to praise than to food.

From that, we can conclude that yes, our dogs do love us (i.e. our attention, affection, praise and so on) and many love us even more than food! It says a lot for positive reinforcement for dog training too.

You smell like someone I love

Another study, also conducted by Emory University, showed dogs recognise and react to their owner’s scent.

In it, 12 dogs of various breeds were presented with five different scents then had brain scans done after smelling each. The scents included the dog’s own smell plus that of a strange dog, a dog that shares its home, a strange human and a person who shares the dog’s home.

The scans showed that the dogs’ brains reacted the most to a familiar human rather than to strangers or even dogs that shared the home.

Study leader Gregory Berns noted how humans can be triggered by scents too. A particular perfume may make us remember someone or we may have a certain emotional connection to the smell of books, for example.

“Our experiment may be showing the same process in dogs,” Berns said. “But since dogs are so much more olfactory than humans, their responses would likely be even more powerful than the ones we might have.”

Researchers hope to use this knowledge to improve selection and training of service dogs.

Doggo love

There are other signs that show our dogs love us, and they’re in their behaviour and body language.

When we observe how puppies show affection to each other, we can see they show us their affection in similar ways. This includes sleeping next to each other, licking, nuzzling and leaning against each other, sharing toys, and playing.

Dogs show excitement when they see us. They seek physical contact, check on us around the house, miss us when we’re gone (which, in the extreme, can lead to separation anxiety in pets) and will actively try and protect us from danger.

A dog’s love is more than adorable, it can actually have major mental and physical health benefits to humans.

So … does my dog love me?

The above study seems to point to a positive answer. Dogs love us… at least as much as food, anyway.

And when you get those friendly licks from your pup, a paw on your shoulder when you’re feeling sad or anxious whine when you have to leave, no science could tell you your dog doesn’t love you.

We, for one, think dogs definitely love us – and we love them even more in turn.

Now that you know your dog loves you, why not check out 5 Ways To Show Your Pet You Love Them This Valentine’s Day.

Insurance for the one you love

This Valentine’s Day, make sure your dog is covered in case of accident or emergency. With pet insurance, you can really focus on your pet’s love without worrying about what might happen. Because if it does happen, you’ll be able to get them the medical attention they deserve.