Paws for thought: Hypersocial dogs form deep emotional bonds & can help us be our best selves
Dogs are important to a lot of humans, but what makes them so?
Apart from being warm, soft and capable of inspiring our unconditional love, there are a number of unique characteristics that set dogs apart from other animals.
As a dog researcher, animal behaviour consultant and canophile (which means I love dogs), let me share five traits that I think make dogs so special.
Dogs are hypersocial
We all know those golden retriever-type dogs that appear absurdly delighted to meet any new social being. It's hard not to be taken in by their infectious friendliness. These furry, hypersocial creatures have some key genetic differences even to other domestic dogs.
Most fascinatingly, these genetic differences are in the area of the genome associated with hypersociability in people with a genetic condition called Williams-Beuren syndrome. Although people with this syndrome experience negative health effects, they also tend to be very open, engaging and sociable.
Not all dogs fall into this hypersocial category — but even those that don't are unusually accepting of unfamiliar people and dogs.
Unlike other social wild canids such as wolves, domestic dogs can quite happily live in harmony with different species, as well as individuals of their own species that aren't from their family. This is what makes it so easy to slot dogs into our lives.
Dogs are wired to understand us
Humans have selectively bred dogs for many generations. And in many cases, we've bred them to take direction to help us in a wide variety of jobs — including being companions to us. This has led to domestic dogs being born with an interest in humans.
From an early age, puppies are attracted to human faces. While dogs are as co-operative as wolves, they tend to be
