I just recieved an article from about.com about dog bonding, and while we have touched on this topic many times on this forum I'm sure everyone will agree in that it is a very important one at that!

That article touched on a few important issues first talking about the domestication on dogs and the different theories, such as the speculation that people bred wild dogs for specific traits and the other theory about wild dogs/wolves turning to a scavenging life style around human camps.

Not only is the bond between a dog and its human important for training and getting a dog to listen to you but we get other benifits from it too. For the dogs they get their basic needs taken care of if the person is a responsible owner and for the person they get the companionship that we as people thrive on. Having dogs also has been attributed to better health, lower blood pressure and a multitude of other services such as guidedogs, police dogs, etc.

The last part of the article, and probably the most important was HOW to create this bond with your dog. It can be done through training, grooming, and play/exercise sessions. Each dog will be different and will like one bonding experience rather than another.

Definitely worth the read you guys, there are some links in the article leading to more indepth writings about different subjects such as responsible ownership and history of dogs: http://dogs.about.com/od/caringfordogsandpuppies/qt/human_canine_bond.htm?nl=1

oh! that's very cool and interesting!

This is a good article and follows what I have been teaching for the past 25+ years.

The bond starts at the very second you and your dog meet. But the article forgets to mention one CRITICAL point. A bond can be negitive as well as a positive experence for the dog. What you choose to do with this relationship makes it positive or negitive.

This article delt with the positive side of bonding. Playing, training and spending time working with your dog. I always like to add that the more time you spend with the dog, the faster the bond will grow and the stronger it will be.

The negitive side (something we as dog lovers dont often think about) is that dogs are put out in the yard or an outdoor kennel and ignored, physcally and mentally abused, and worst case they are used for fighting. A dog put into these kinds of situations becomes mean, anti-social, and even down-right dangerous. Most of these dogs are put down. It's our responsiblity to do the right thing by our dogs.

Bonding is not an option, its a part of being a responsable dog owner!

I totally agree with you Michael, its definitely not an option to create this bond with your dog. Although in some situations a negative bond with a dog can be sometimes effectively be called fear as is the case with abused dogs.