A Symbiotic Relationship is a close relationship between two species in which at least one of the species benefits. The three basic Symbiotic Relationships are labeled as Mutualism in which both species benefit, Commensalism which is a relationship where one species benefits, and the other neither benefits nor is harmed and the third relationship considered to be Symbiotic is Parasitism in which the species that benefits is considered to be a parasite, and the other species, the host, is harmed.
Man’s best friend began approximately 15,000 years ago. This discovery came about after finding the mandible, the lower jaw bone, of a dog buried with two humans in Germany.
The last few decades have shown a dramatic rise in the practice of using service dogs to assist humans as guide dogs, mobility dogs, and medical alert dogs. Animal Facilitated Therapy, AFT, are certified, trained dogs that promote a healing climate and help to lower the psychological effects brought on by patients with illnesses like cancer, seizures, and lethal allergies. Additionally, therapy dogs bring comfort, love, and affection to people who suffer from mental illness, isolation, and depression to the point of being unable to handle day-to-day life.
Dogs that provide emotional support are not certified or required to have specific training. Our best canine friends automatically provide us with complimentary support for emotional issues such as anxiety, depression, and stress as well as health-related benefits such as lower blood pressure and decreased cardiovascular disease.
The fact that canines are capable of understanding human speech and there is social compatibility between our two species, dogs have risen from family dog to member of the family, and they are treated as such.
Add to that, their remarkable ability to read our body language, predict what their human family members are about to do, interpret our emotions, whether we are angry, sad, frightened, or happy, reinforced with their incredible unconditional expression of affection, dogs have earned their place in our hearts and homes. A house is not a home without a dog!
So what do we provide our dogs with to earn their love for us? Well, just as we humans consider our dogs to be part of our family, our dogs feel the same way. The mere smell of a human family member brings incredible joy to our canines. But it’s more than that. We provide everything necessary for survival, well being, comfort, safety, amusement, companionship, belonging, leadership, purpose, understanding, love, respect, trust, and beyond for our dogs. Often, we even provide other dogs.
Humans may spend more time with their dogs than other humans. Once a human-canine bond has formed, an adult dog may spend the better part of daily life eating with, watching television with, traveling with, playing with, exercising with, and sleeping with their human family. We may at times feel that dogs require a lot yet the truth is, they ask for very little. Not to be funny, dogs never make us feel bad about ourselves, they never hurt our feelings, and never want anything beyond our ability to give.
The human-canine relationship is a mutual relationship unlike any other, and the bond is usually never broken.
