Read Online How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain by Gregory Berns - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Gregory Berns
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general can improve human health probably won’t meet most medical standards of evidence. But that doesn’t mean animals don’t help people. One study found that animal therapy helped hospitalized heart failure patients by decreasing blood pressure in the lungs, a measure of how much fluid is backing up. Another study suggested that animal therapy reduced the need for pain medications. Hospitalized children in particular seem to benefit from pet therapy, with marked decreases in pain experienced. Many of these studies, however, have used subjective measures like pain as their endpoints. The few studies that have attempted to measure the effects of animals on human biologic measures, like blood pressure or stress hormone levels, have come up with contradictory results.
Interestingly, when you look at the entire literature on animal-assisted therapy, patterns begin to emerge. Of the different animals used in therapy, dogs are the ones associated with the largest beneficial effects on health. And although positive effects were observed in most age groups, children seem to derive the most benefit.
Up until that point, I hadn’t given much thought to how dogs and humans were matched to each other. But watching Helen and Lyra together, it became obvious that Lyra helped soothe Helen’s frustration and that Lyra enjoyed doing so, curling up next to Helen when she was needed most. Callie was a different story. She wasn’t nearly as demonstrative. Even her body language was different. While Lyra was content to put her head in Helen’s lap, Callie preferred to curl up nearby, just out of physical contact. Lyra appeared to be well matched to Helen’s personality, but it surprised me that Callie was better suited to mine. I didn’t care for dogs that fawned over you like slobbering sycophants. I liked dogs that saw themselves as your partner.
In his book
Man Meets Dog
, the great Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz wrote about the different types of dog-human relationships. Lorenz realized that the loyalty of dogs had no counterpart in human relationships, but that alone did not make them better than people. He believed dogs are “amoral,” without any instinctive sense of right and wrong. Modern research has disputed that statement. For instance, research by primatologist Frans de Waal shows that many animals demonstrate an understanding of fairness.
Lorenz, however, believed that the ideal canine companion was a “resonance dog.” He noted the extraordinary parallelism in personality between many dogs and their owners, sometimes to the point that they even looked alike. According to Lorenz, strong dog-human bonds were created when both human and dog resonated with each other.
Certainly Helen and Lyra resonated. And even though Callie was the relatively new, and somewhat standoffish, dog in the house, I had to admit that she was beginning to resonate with me.
Leaving Helen and Lyra alone after our discussion about science class, I padded downstairs to find my resonant dog. As usual, she was in the backyard.
“Callie, here girl!”
She came bounding into the kitchen smelling like dirt and dog sweat. Wagging her stiff tail very quickly, she looked at me and ran out the door again. Clearly, she wanted me to follow her.
Callie had her nose buried in the ivy with her butt in the air. As I approached, she looked up and started shaking her rear end back and forth. Callie took something in her mouth and flipped it in the air. Whatever it was (probably a mole) emitted a high-pitched squeal, which was soon cut short.
I was impressed with Callie’s hunting skills. Since she had no interest in eating her prey, she hunted either for her own enjoyment or for mine. There was no need to tell Helen about Callie’s predatory activity. That would remain a secret between us.
“Good girl,” I said. “You’re a SuperFeist.”
7
Lawyers Get Involved
D ECADES AGO, WHEN COLLEGES had fewer rules and regulations, dogs were a fixture
Interestingly, when you look at the entire literature on animal-assisted therapy, patterns begin to emerge. Of the different animals used in therapy, dogs are the ones associated with the largest beneficial effects on health. And although positive effects were observed in most age groups, children seem to derive the most benefit.
Up until that point, I hadn’t given much thought to how dogs and humans were matched to each other. But watching Helen and Lyra together, it became obvious that Lyra helped soothe Helen’s frustration and that Lyra enjoyed doing so, curling up next to Helen when she was needed most. Callie was a different story. She wasn’t nearly as demonstrative. Even her body language was different. While Lyra was content to put her head in Helen’s lap, Callie preferred to curl up nearby, just out of physical contact. Lyra appeared to be well matched to Helen’s personality, but it surprised me that Callie was better suited to mine. I didn’t care for dogs that fawned over you like slobbering sycophants. I liked dogs that saw themselves as your partner.
In his book
Man Meets Dog
, the great Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz wrote about the different types of dog-human relationships. Lorenz realized that the loyalty of dogs had no counterpart in human relationships, but that alone did not make them better than people. He believed dogs are “amoral,” without any instinctive sense of right and wrong. Modern research has disputed that statement. For instance, research by primatologist Frans de Waal shows that many animals demonstrate an understanding of fairness.
Lorenz, however, believed that the ideal canine companion was a “resonance dog.” He noted the extraordinary parallelism in personality between many dogs and their owners, sometimes to the point that they even looked alike. According to Lorenz, strong dog-human bonds were created when both human and dog resonated with each other.
Certainly Helen and Lyra resonated. And even though Callie was the relatively new, and somewhat standoffish, dog in the house, I had to admit that she was beginning to resonate with me.
Leaving Helen and Lyra alone after our discussion about science class, I padded downstairs to find my resonant dog. As usual, she was in the backyard.
“Callie, here girl!”
She came bounding into the kitchen smelling like dirt and dog sweat. Wagging her stiff tail very quickly, she looked at me and ran out the door again. Clearly, she wanted me to follow her.
Callie had her nose buried in the ivy with her butt in the air. As I approached, she looked up and started shaking her rear end back and forth. Callie took something in her mouth and flipped it in the air. Whatever it was (probably a mole) emitted a high-pitched squeal, which was soon cut short.
I was impressed with Callie’s hunting skills. Since she had no interest in eating her prey, she hunted either for her own enjoyment or for mine. There was no need to tell Helen about Callie’s predatory activity. That would remain a secret between us.
“Good girl,” I said. “You’re a SuperFeist.”
7
Lawyers Get Involved
D ECADES AGO, WHEN COLLEGES had fewer rules and regulations, dogs were a fixture
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