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