husband, Scott, and me after a stressful day. They make us laugh too many times a day to count. Our attachment is strong. Evidently, we are in good company. I posed this question on social media:, “Have you ever felt like you love your dogs more than you love people, and why?” The number of responses was overwhelming—all but one person out of 200 answered “yes.” People called their dogs their therapy. They mentioned how words can hurt and with all the “trash talk” in their daily lives, a dog can never hurt a person in that way. “I love most people. I love all dogs.” This sentiment went on and on. “In their double-digit ‘teenage’ years, dogs don’t argue with you, talk back, or roll their eyes,” Tucker’s mom wrote. The term “unconditional love” was used, dozens of times. Other people wrote about not loving dogs more than people because dogs are people, in their eyes.
“Animals go straight to the heart of people’s emotional core,” says psychotherapist and attachment disorder specialist Mark Coen. Coen says it’s not a stretch to understand why people have such immense feelings for their dogs. “Animals are more attuned. Emotionally, they’re more easy to access. One of the things that is great is they give a lot of leeway. They may be a little bit shy, but they are very forgiving. A lot of people just are not like that.” Coen fully supports using dogs to help people heal; those who are in therapy for trauma or attachment disorders benefit especially well. He cites a study done in Japan that shows how humans bond with their dogs in a similar way that they bonded with their own mothers during infancy. “The study showed that when dogs gaze into our eyes, our bodies release oxytocin. The dogs in turn can smell the hormone and this increases their eye-gazing behavior. When
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