One important understanding of the canine-human relationship is that canines, even before partnering with us, were social animals. What made our canine ancestor, the gray wolf, so easy to domesticate is that they were already willing to work closely with another species for survival. Gray wolves would live on humans’ scrap food when unable to hunt, leading canines to understand the relationship was useful for survival. This once forced relationship became a friendship and ultimately led to domestication and evolution of the dog, canis familiaris. So, just why were dogs able to integrate into human society so seamlessly while other animals could not?
It’s all about canine theory of mind.
Theory of mind refers to an individual’s capacity to understand another species’ or individual’s emotional displays and needs.
We as humans do this frequently, especially when it comes to reading our dogs’ body language to understand what they are feeling. Humans, chimps and canines are currently the only species known to display this ‘theory of mind’. One of the main differences between humans and canines before domestication were their eating habits.
Canines, being carnivorous, are skilled hunters. When a canine is hunting their prey, they must get into the mind of that animal and make predictions about the events about to take place. The canine must get into the “theory of mind” and think, ‘Will they dart off? And if so, when and in what direction?’ Canines could prepare for their prey’s next move by reading their body language. Although body language is a main factor, dogs also have a great ability to understand emotions.
Dogs can sense and understand a broad range of emotions. While we know our dogs can feel happiness, love and joy, we must also remember they feel other emotions such as hurt, sadness and anger. Dogs clearly read our emotions better than we can even understand at this point ourselves.
Not only can they read our emotions, dogs and humans benefit one another mentally, releasing oxytocin during interactions, and balancing other hormones. Oxytocin is known as the bonding hormone giving us feelings of positive energy. It is highly prevalent in maternal care during the early puppy stage and plays a huge role in creating an attachment between owner and dog. While oxytocin is released during your pets and cuddles, it is even released with just a simple locking of eyes for a few seconds. This is also why dogs are such successful service animals.
While the human-canine relationship originally formed for physical survival, it seems, overtime, we now support each other’s emotional survival as well. So, when we ask ourselves ‘What is my dog thinking about?’ they’re often trying to know what you are thinking too.
