Why are dogs loyal? Mahdi Keimanesh, a famous Iranian coach gives explanations with scientific reasons
- Guest Posts
- July 26, 2021
Dogs are known for their loyalty and companionship. The majority of people don’t know why dogs are like that.
In 2017, pet owners in the United States spent about $ 69.5 billion on pets including food, veterinary care, and pet grooming.
Dog owners are often asked these questions: “How much did it cost to buy your dog bed”, “How many toys does your dog need?”. The main question for people is why do dog owners spend a lot on their dogs? The answer is that dog owners believe that their dogs deserve the best life and facilities.
Finally, this question arises “whether this level of loyalty has something to do with the survival of the dog or there is an emotional and scientific aspect for it. Furthermore, the question that dog owners are usually asked is why are dogs so loyal?
What is clear is that humans have accepted dogs, and reciprocally, wolves or dogs have accepted this to have easier access to food sources for their survival.
This survival technique has led to the survival of a large gene bank of these animals. These accepted dogs or wolves have reproduced, and eventually, we are observing modern breeds of dogs. In the process of reproduction, dogs or wolves that were acceptable to humans are usually preserved and those that are not desired have been killed.
Is it true that we have domesticated dogs to the point that they need us for a living?
Does feeding, supporting, and helping them solve their problems? Yes. But that does not reveal how dogs developed their social skills like human beings, we are still wondering if dogs care about us.
As you know, dogs are amazing at perceiving and reacting to human signs.
Fill an empty container with food and ask your dog where the food is. As soon as you look at the container, the dogs will instantly start to answer your question and bring the container to you. But cats, on the other hand, do not respond to your questions.
Dogs have always been expressing empathy toward humans. Researchers have studied how dogs react to their owners’ sadness in comparison with strangers. The results brought out of this research were surprising. When a dog owner or stranger was crying, the dogs tended to show empathy by rubbing their noses, licking, and being completely calm and obedient.
To investigate this in an unbiased way, we can study how ordinary dogs perform in an event that requires emergency reactions.
In this study, dog owners pretended to have a heart attack or be stuck, where it was found that no dog asked for help from strangers. The dog might realize that it was just a pretense and not true, or because it did not feel any response from strangers.
As you know, many dogs are trained to search, rescue, etc. Many dogs are trained to help in other purposes, such as guiding deaf and blind people or individuals who suffer from epilepsy, and so on.