Do Dogs Really Love Us?

Do dogs really love us? Mommy told me that the New York Times published an article by Gregory Burns, the author of a new book:“How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain.”  Here is an excerpt:

 With the help of my friend Mark Spivak, a dog trainer, we started teaching Callie to go into an M.R.I. simulator that I built in my living room. She learned to walk up steps into a tube, place her head in a custom-fitted chin rest, and hold rock-still for periods of up to 30 seconds. Oh, and she had to learn to wear earmuffs to protect her sensitive hearing from the 95 decibels of noise the scanner makes.

After months of training and some trial-and-error at the real M.R.I. scanner, we were rewarded with the first maps of brain activity. For our first tests, we measured Callie’s brain response to two hand signals in the scanner. In later experiments, not yet published, we determined which parts of her brain distinguished the scents of familiar and unfamiliar dogs and humans.

Soon, the local dog community learned of our quest to determine what dogs are thinking. Within a year, we had assembled a team of a dozen dogs who were all “M.R.I.-certified.”

Although we are just beginning to answer basic questions about the canine brain, we cannot ignore the striking similarity between dogs and humans in both the structure and function of a key brain region: the caudate nucleus.

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I can't wait for Mommy to read me the book. She says it might be hard for me to understand, but that’s OK.  When I don’t understand something, I just draw my eyebrows together and tilt my head to the side.  Mommy knows that she needs to give me an explanation. 

If Mr. Burns asked, I would have happily told him exactly what I feel and think. Yes, dogs love humans, and yes, we miss them when they leave the room, (unless we're too busy eating!) Perhaps he'll read my book too, Tales from a Tail Wagging Dog, and then he'll really know how deeply dogs love humans.​