Do You Love Your Dog More Than Humans?

Elizabeth Anderson once had a dog named Grace. She and her husband cared for Grace and tried to keep her out of trouble. They took her on vacations and enjoyed her company around the house. When Grace died at age 14, they were deeply upset. Because Grace was a dog,"I was unable to talk to anyone about this great grief," says Anderson.

“But it's common to feel that way after the loss of a dog,” says Stanley Coren, a professor of psychology.“Our relationship with dogs is simple. Some might call it true love.”

The bond between people and their dogs is a lot like love. In one recent study, when the dogs and their owners just looked at each other, they both had a higher level of the hormone(荷尔蒙) associated with love.“It is very natural to form a bond between dogs and humans,” says Takefumi Kikusui, author of the study.“But we found the same can't be said for humans and wolves.”

“Dogs are man's best friend,” says Coren.“We've trained them to be that way. We invented the dog to fit in our lives. For 14,000 years, we've been creating an animal which understands our communications and we understand its communications. They have a bond with us."For example, if a person points to something in a distance, a dog will look in the direction of the finger, just like a human. But what about a wolf? “It would simply look at the finger,"Coren says.

For Anderson, dogs are more lovable than humans. She says, “They try their best to please us. They want to do whatever we want to do. Their love is not limited. They are good at all the things we enjoy in a relationship."

Coren does not understand people's grief over the loss of their dogs.