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Whatand why is the very real bond between dogs and people?

rhinefire

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We live with and domesticate several animals but the love of a dog and visa versa is different. Since they came from wolves why are they so loyal versus a cat or horse? Stray dogs can become 100% bonded to people on the first meeting as some of us have experienced. Why? Can they sense something in us? They show more affection than any other animals and are protective of our children and infants. It is as if it is part of evolution.
 
Training of the humans since birth and the breeding of the dogs for compliancy and dependence. Not everyone is so into dogs, or pets in general for that matter.
 
Dogs are pack animals (social predators).

When a dog moves in to your home you and your family become its pack.

Simple as that.
 
Same as between cats and people. I love my cat dearly and the cat seems to love me.

I have thought about this bonding, and it seems to me that all mammals are instinctively given to bonding with others.

We tend to bond with any that treat us well and seem to love us.

Dogs and cats do the same thing.

It seems to be a common mammalian trait -- orca, elephant, horse, canine, feline, monkey, dolphin, weasel, ferret, etc.
 
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We live with and domesticate several animals but the love of a dog and visa versa is different. Since they came from wolves why are they so loyal versus a cat or horse? Stray dogs can become 100% bonded to people on the first meeting as some of us have experienced. Why? Can they sense something in us? They show more affection than any other animals and are protective of our children and infants. It is as if it is part of evolution.

How long have we been evolving together?
 
It IS evolution. From before even the days when wolves teamed up with humans and vice versa.

If you weren't the biggest and strongest creature around in what your habitat provided, your chances of survival were lesser. Forming bands was the answer for both humans and wolves.

Of course exceptions to the "principle" do not generally refute its validity. As such Mammoths had a greater chance but even there the advantage lay in numbers.

With carnivores survival depended on the kill, that again depending on how the table was laid. And for wolves it was laid with meals bigger than any single one of them, not to mention faster at least in short bursts of speed. For the same reason that wolves resort to forming packs, so do lions of Africa. The Tiger can be principally a loner because it hunts stuff smaller that is also impeded by the habitat (jungle). Same as the Jaguar and Cougar and other stalkers.

To effectively kill a prey that is bigger and most often faster requires organization and strategy. The equally carnivorous humans soon excelled at it and progressed and so did wolves. Others went to extinction. Organization, contrary to communist beliefs, requires hierarchy, something that soon established itself in both species (in the case of primates even prior to the advent of sapiensis) and was readily accepted, seeing how it led to success.

So wolves and the dogs that arose (were arisen by us?) from them had little difficulty in fitting into OUR hierarchical societies, that's how we're both by now hard wired.

The problems arise when owners do not have the sense to assert their dominance. Even the smallest canine, when in its early rowdy years, will make an attempt to compete for the role of the alpha animal. A natural reflex. Let a Dobermann or a German shepherd get away with that and you have trouble. Heck, let a German get away with that and you have it.:mrgreen:

When your dog(s) pester(s) you to go walkies, it's no different from the lower ranks in a wolf pack persuading the alpha to finally open the hunt. And, if you're a sheepherder, once your dogs (usually collies) have helped drive the bleaters into the corral, they look at you, tongues all alolling, "saying" "Ok boss, now we've got 'em altogether, when do we kill them?"

It's your dominance that stops this going further although they probably think that for a dog (wolf) that big, you sure are pretty dumb.:lol: But seeing how you're the distributor of food just like in the pack, they also think "Ah, WTH".
 
Same as between cats and people. I love my cat dearly and the cat seems to love me.
the bolded being the operative word. Mine, just as much as yours, thinks I'm (you are) its servant. And it's right. Had I not humiliated myself into that role, it would have gone in search of somebody else who's more in line with its egomaniac sense of own grandiosity.

With wild cats that doesn't work, incidentally. They never become domesticated even where they'll eat what you lay out for them.

I have thought about this bonding, and it seems to me that all mammals are instinctively given to bonding with others.
Well, I'm not going to bond with any Tiger, believe you me.

We tend to bond with any that treat us well and seem to love us.

Dogs and cats do the same thing.
Actually they do it only because they're accustomed to us. If raised by us from puppy- respectively kittenhood. Hence my example above of wild cats. Try even getting near a wild wolf. Where we haven't bred any feral instincts out of them completely, we're suppressing thos all their lives by keeping them puppy or kitten permanently. Since it benefits them it doesn't occur to them to mind that.
It seems to be a common mammalian trait -- orca, elephant, horse, canine, feline, monkey, dolphin, weasel, ferret, etc.
Objection, yer honor. Orcas savaging other whales is not my idea of bonding, nor is chimp gangs doing the same to another. In the latter case, come across one like that in the wilds and you'd better make tracks. Every single one if them is stronger than you are. Horses, devoid of claws and hooves, are by necessity animals of flight. They won't bond with you in the wild, you need to break them. In the more modern method "persuade".

Etc., etc.
 
the bolded being the operative word. Mine, just as much as yours, thinks I'm (you are) its servant. And it's right. Had I not humiliated myself into that role, it would have gone in search of somebody else who's more in line with its egomaniac sense of own grandiosity.

With wild cats that doesn't work, incidentally. They never become domesticated even where they'll eat what you lay out for them.

Well, I'm not going to bond with any Tiger, believe you me.

Actually they do it only because they're accustomed to us. If raised by us from puppy- respectively kittenhood. Hence my example above of wild cats. Try even getting near a wild wolf. Where we haven't bred any feral instincts out of them completely, we're suppressing thos all their lives by keeping them puppy or kitten permanently. Since it benefits them it doesn't occur to them to mind that.
Objection, yer honor. Orcas savaging other whales is not my idea of bonding, nor is chimp gangs doing the same to another. In the latter case, come across one like that in the wilds and you'd better make tracks. Every single one if them is stronger than you are. Horses, devoid of claws and hooves, are by necessity animals of flight. They won't bond with you in the wild, you need to break them. In the more modern method "persuade".

Etc., etc.

Dear Chagos, when I mentioned Orcas I had the aquarium captives in mind. With monkeys, the pets. With horses, the domesticated. I am no expert at these species however.

NO wild animal of any kind is going to get close to or bond with a human. Not even feral cats and dogs.

I raised my cat since the day he was born, from within an hour of his birth, by his feral mother cat in the closet on my patio on a cold winter night. He is not socialized and runs away from everyone else except for me. He sleeps curled up next to me on my bed. If he hears a sound in the night he stirs and wakes me too, then he leaps after the sound and whatever made it. He wakes me to feed him in the mornings around dawn. He sits next to me on my desk when I work on my computer. When he sees me outside he comes running to me and rolls over so I can scratch his belly. Whenever he wants something he meows. Whenever I pet him he purrs and stretches.

He licks my fingers, my hands, and my face.

I think it is love.

He has killed 4 squirrels, 4 birds, 1 mouse and 1 big rat. So he is not a kitten anymore. He brings these carcasses home to feed me. (Naturally I throw them all away of course.)

His job is to wake me at night whenever he hears anything and to keep the neighborhood free of rodents. He is very good at his job.

I truly enjoy his company more than any human that I have ever known. (Sorry but I come from a broken family.)

I think it is also love.
 
"They have a soul, damn you!"
 
We live with and domesticate several animals but the love of a dog and visa versa is different. Since they came from wolves why are they so loyal versus a cat or horse? Stray dogs can become 100% bonded to people on the first meeting as some of us have experienced. Why? Can they sense something in us? They show more affection than any other animals and are protective of our children and infants. It is as if it is part of evolution.

Domesticated animals have been selected and bred for certain traits and we should be surprised that they have those traits? Bizarre question.
 
Dogs make a nice main course in some parts of the world.
 
Dear Chagos, when I mentioned Orcas I had the aquarium captives in mind. With monkeys, the pets. With horses, the domesticated. I am no expert at these species however.

NO wild animal of any kind is going to get close to or bond with a human. Not even feral cats and dogs.

I raised my cat since the day he was born, from within an hour of his birth, by his feral mother cat in the closet on my patio on a cold winter night. He is not socialized and runs away from everyone else except for me. He sleeps curled up next to me on my bed. If he hears a sound in the night he stirs and wakes me too, then he leaps after the sound and whatever made it. He wakes me to feed him in the mornings around dawn. He sits next to me on my desk when I work on my computer. When he sees me outside he comes running to me and rolls over so I can scratch his belly. Whenever he wants something he meows. Whenever I pet him he purrs and stretches.

He licks my fingers, my hands, and my face.

I think it is love.

He has killed 4 squirrels, 4 birds, 1 mouse and 1 big rat. So he is not a kitten anymore. He brings these carcasses home to feed me. (Naturally I throw them all away of course.)

His job is to wake me at night whenever he hears anything and to keep the neighborhood free of rodents. He is very good at his job.

I truly enjoy his company more than any human that I have ever known. (Sorry but I come from a broken family.)

I think it is also love.
You're lucky, mine lies down ON the keyboard, laptop, anything that gets more attention than it does.:mrgreen:

That bringing home of kills (sometimes often not that "killed" at all) is actually about teaching you something, not primarily about feeding you. You're a big cat or something akin in his/her eyes but you've shown yourself to be absolutely clueless about proper hunting, proper killing and proper eating of the kill.

So next time he brings home a kill, wait til he start chewing (it's his lesson to you) watch patiently and make an intelligent face. He'll think you're understanding and will eventually stop the habit. It's a reflex of the cat's hard wiring, teaching its kittens. Where usually done by females that, domesticated, have no offsprings, Toms have been seen to do it as well.

Same with bringing home an animal alive and then hunting it all over the house where they shouldn't. Hunting lesson. I finally joined in one day and brought the darn rat down all by myself (no guns or anything).

Lesson learned and Felice was very proud of me.

I don't go hunting with her though and I won't eat mice. There's a line.:mrgreen:
 
If anyone has the time I highly suggest reading Malcolm Gladwell's "What the Dog saw" article. It explains the reasoning for the OP and much much more
 
The reason is human selection. Humans have created the dog by continually choosing animals with appealing behavior for breeding. It is like natural selection except faster. The dog is only about 35,000 years old as a species.
 
watch this if you have the time.

 
Yeah......NO.

Cats are not like dogs at all.

You are loyal to your cat.

Dogs are loyal to you.

There's a HUGE and very real difference.

I think fairly often about how cats own you while you own a dog. I guess by nature, I'm a cat-person, but I have had a dog since moving to the country, and I've always been grateful for the partnership. My dogs have always been working animals, and some of that work included protecting and snitching on my kids when they were little.

But my cats have always been family members too and devoted to me. It's just a different relationship. My man-cat is a half-feral rescue and a bunny-hunter. He's very charming and "romantic" and "kisses" on command, but I am always a little wary because when he becomes over-stimulated, well, did I mention that he's half-feral? ;)
 
About 7 years ago, I heard of a dog breeder with a large litter of goldens available. I decided to visit her, and when I got there, I sat down in an area well away from the puppies and paid them no mind. Within seconds, one little fellow came up to me a bit shyly, and we started to interact. Soon thereafter, all of the rest of the litter discovered my and I was soon engulfed in a writhing mass of puppy. One by one they drifted off again, however, until only one remained.

I came back a week later thinking I had found my dog, and so sat down again following the same M.O. as before. The same thing happened. He came up to me first, stayed through the wildness of his litter mates and this time ended up sleeping on my lap afterwords. We have been inseparable since.

He's not a perfect dog. He has too much a fondness for socks, runs after cats wanting to play, and is prone to little bouts of arbitrary stubbornness, and when control freak type people ask me why I haven't trained him to be an automaton, I just look at them with a confused look on my face and tell them "He's not perfect, but he's perfect for me". .
 
Dogs are pack animals (social predators).

When a dog moves in to your home you and your family become its pack.

Simple as that.

There is a huge difference in social behavior between a dog and a wolf, or even a hydrid. Dogs don't loose the 'puppy' behavior as they get older. It is very interesting to see either a dog/wolf hybrid react in a social setting and a wolf, no matter how well socialized. So, no, it is not quite a 'simple as that'.
 
We live with and domesticate several animals but the love of a dog and visa versa is different. Since they came from wolves why are they so loyal versus a cat or horse? Stray dogs can become 100% bonded to people on the first meeting as some of us have experienced. Why? Can they sense something in us? They show more affection than any other animals and are protective of our children and infants. It is as if it is part of evolution.

Unconditional love. If you lie down on the floor and roll around on the carpet, not only will your dog not criticize or rebuke you, he will join you and enjoy every minute of it.
 
Well, from what I know the dog was specifically bred over and over with animals that more and more showed the traits that humans needed to get work done, whether it be for hunting, protection, and aiding humans in various tasks.

Whenever I see an animal, any animal I would rather talk to the animal than the human.

Animals show no deceit, one can tell what an animal wants to do, no deceit which stands in direct contrast from humans. Whenever innocence meets deceitfulness I turn my back on deceit and communicate with innocence. That is where animals will win.
 
True Story-A news item recently told of a very unusual bond between an elderly man and his dog. The man died and a woman was given one or some of his organs and someone came up with the idea to bring that dog to the hospital the day the woman left. The dog waited outside and as the woman approached the exit door while still inside the dog got excited and instantly went to her. She as so overwhelmed she adopted the dog. Cool eh?
 
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