Dogs: They Know Us Better Than We Know Ourselves

I was really intrigued by an article in the New York Times that noted that through breeding, dogs have become finely tuned to humans. They know our emotions--better than we know them ourselves at times. And they like us--more than we like each other. This struck a chord with me. I have three dogs currently, and have had between 2 and 4 dogs my entire adult life. In other words, I am a big fan. When I am home alone with them, they form a semi-circle around me, and whenever I move, they all get up and follow me. To them, I am fascinating. The center of their world. Nothing can distract them from their task of being with me fully. There is nothing in my life that gives me that kind of single-minded attention. Their companionship is silent but sincere. How do they do it? Well, apparently we made them that way. It is by now generally accepted that the dog is a wolf modified through 15,000 or more years of sometimes intensive breeding to live in human society. In Darwin's terms, the dog is a product of artificial selection, or "selection under domestication," while the wild wolf is subject to the laws of natural selection. They come from the Middle East, and we have co-habitated as species ever since. Such a lovely long term relationship :-)