Dogs + Humans = Unmatched Bond

From playing fetch with your dog to researching CBD oil for dogs, you probably spend at least an hour a day taking care of your pooch. Even if you don’t have a dog, you most likely see at least one dog every time you leave your house.

It’s true, dogs and humans have an undeniable bond. You might be thinking “Duh, my dog is my best friend!” But the reason dogs and humans are such a great match has more to do with why we feel dogs are a man’s best friend. Humans understand dogs just as well over even better than other humans. Humans can be pretty confusing with their sarcasm and hidden feelings, all things done to feel socially accepted by unspoken societal rules we’ve derived. But with dogs, we know what emotion they are exhibiting without them having to verbalize it. And, they aren’t great at hiding or suppressing their emotions. 

We can tell when a dog is friendly and wants to play by their bark or when they want you to stay far away. When your dog or any dog for that matter gives you puppy dog eyes, you know you want to give in to whatever they are asking for. Dogs make it clear and we pick up on that clarity. 

You might think “well can’t you tell these signals in humans, too.” The short answer is yes, you can. But the long answer is that you can tell these signals in humans and dogs while you can’t readily see subtle nuances or recognize certain emotions or actions in other animals such as birds or rabbits. We have grown up around humans, learning the language of the area, but have also grown up around dogs, learning dog’s universal language.

There’s a ton of other animals like cats, cows, horses, etcetera that people feel bonded to or live with. However, if we think of our relationship with them as a marble cake where you can see where one part ends and another begins, we can see the subtle detachments we can have with these animals. But, dogs and humans aren’t like a marble cake; we are much more intertwined to the point of mixing before arranging ourselves together. We are simply a cake with no layers, no marbling, and perhaps with some icing and sprinkles because, come on, dogs are pretty great.

The first time humans and dogs are known to have been living together was 14,000 years ago in which they were buried together. Humans got buried with their dogs, now that’s a bond! There are some implications that it was even further back than that when dogs and humans became so intertwined. While dogs have been practical before, helping hunt for and even move humans, they’re necessity dwindled while our love and attention to them has arguably heightened.