How Dogs Love Us
Dr. Gregory Berns
18 min
8 Key Points
4.2 RateWhat's inside?
Explore the fascinating journey of a neuroscientist and his adopted dog as they unravel the mysteries of the canine brain, offering insights into how dogs perceive and express love.
You'll learn
1. How do dogs understand us and our feelings?2. What's going on in your dog's brain?3. The love bond between you and your dog4. Tips to chat with your dog5. How adoption changes your dog's mood6. Using brain science to understand animal behavior.Key points
01You gotta be a dog to know what a dog's thinking
In "How Dogs Love Us," Dr. Gregory Berns takes us on a fascinating journey to understand the mind of our four-legged friends. The book's main idea is that to truly know what a dog is thinking, you'd have to be a dog yourself. This means that understanding a dog's thoughts and feelings isn't easy - you might need to see the world through a dog's eyes. Dr. Berns' adventure into the canine mind started with his own pooch, a pug named Newton. After the grueling routine of medical school, Berns and his wife, Kat, brought Newton into their lives. Newton quickly became a beloved member of their family, forming tight bonds with their kids, Helen and Maddy. But when Newton's health started to fail at 15, they had to say goodbye. Losing Newton hit Berns hard, and it made him wonder if Newton had loved him as much as he'd loved Newton. This question sparked Berns' deep dive into the canine mind. He wanted to find out if dogs could return the love and affection we humans give them. This curiosity led them to adopt another dog, Callie, from a shelter a few months after Newton's death. As Berns tried to understand the canine mind, he realized that most existing theories were based on two incorrect ideas. The first was anthropomorphism, which is when we humans assume animals think and feel the same way we do. The second was lupomorphism, which is when we interpret dog behavior based on how wolves behave. But dogs and wolves aren't the same - they share a common ancestor, but dogs didn't evolve directly from wolves. Berns believes that to really get what's going on in a dog's mind, we need to move past these incorrect ideas. If we could show that dogs can return human feelings, it would change everything we know about our relationships with dogs. It would make our relationships with dogs more like our relationships with other humans. So, this book is a journey into the mind of dogs, exploring the deep connections between Berns and his dogs. It tries to answer the question of whether dogs can love us humans as much as we love them. Plus, it gives us helpful insights that can make our bonds with our dogs even stronger.
02Callie's always on high alert, even when she's trying to sleep
Let's talk about Callie, a dog who was always on her toes, or rather, her paws. Even when she was trying to catch some Z's, she was always on the lookout. You could see it in the way she acted at home, always hunting chipmunks and avoiding touch. At night, she'd park herself at the foot of the bed, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. This was quite different from the other dogs in the house, especially Newton, and it got Dr. Berns thinking. To get a better handle on why Callie was always on high alert, Dr. Berns decided to take her to a basic obedience class at Comprehensive Pet Therapy (CPT), a place where dogs learn to behave. This idea was inspired by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian scientist who found out that dogs could be trained to react to certain things. He showed that if you rang a bell every time you gave a dog food, eventually the dog would start drooling just at the sound of the bell. But this kind of training, called "classical conditioning," isn't enough to fully train a dog. Instead, trainers use something called operant training or instrumental learning. This is where you teach a dog to do something by either rewarding them when they do it right or punishing them when they do it wrong. Like teaching a dog to sit by giving them a treat when they do it. For Callie, Dr. Berns and a trainer named Mark had to teach her to do things that don't come naturally to dogs, like lying still in a noisy MRI machine. This was a tough job, especially with Callie always being on high alert. To make sure the Dog Project was a success, Dr. Berns had to pick the right dogs to take part. The perfect dog would be friendly, okay with strangers, not scared of loud noises, and really motivated. Sadly, Callie didn't tick all these boxes, so Dr. Berns had to keep looking for the right dog. So, in a nutshell, Callie's constant alertness, even when she was trying to sleep, shows just how aware and vigilant she was. Even though this made her less suitable for the Dog Project, it gives us a fascinating look into the wide range of behaviors dogs can have.
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03The tricky part with MRIs is that we have to sedate the animals so they don't move
04A lot of animals and people have died for the sake of scientific progress in medicine
05A clicker is key to training dogs - it's how they know they've done something right
06How are dogs going to react to a noisy machine with pumps and a compressor?
07A dog's brain doesn't look anything like a human's - it's missing some key features
08Conclusion
About Dr. Gregory Berns
Dr. Gregory Berns is a distinguished professor of neuroeconomics at Emory University. He is a renowned neuroscientist known for using MRI imaging to study canine cognitive function. His groundbreaking research has significantly contributed to our understanding of the canine brain.
