re: Do you think your dog loves you?

Dogs definitely show emotion

Probably more than my wife does...

My boy will go outside, lay down on the front porch and just watch people walk by. May go say hi to the kids amd other dogs, but he doesn't leave the yard.

Not saying he loves me. He does however love his territory.

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I had a dog who used to escape the back yard to run around the front door and wait to get back inside.

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This is exactly what my dogs do.

I don't know if dogs can "love" but I do know they are fiercely loyal and recognize the relationship between a human and them as part of a "pack"

My dogs are Beagle Hunting Dogs. They are kept in a pen, with a dog house.
I can open their gate and yell "Load Up" and they run to my truck, up a loading ramp, and into the dog box.

When I get to the running ground I drop the tailgate and open the dog box. They jump off and head for the nearest thick briars and brambles. I whistle and talk to them as I walk along and they hunt "with me". When I am tired I whistle and they come back and follow me back to the truck. I yell, "Load Up". They run back up the Ramp and into the dog box.

I don't know if they "Love Me". but they appreciate that I feed them and that I take them out to do the thing they were bred to do.

If I leave one at home, when I take their pack mates out for exercise/hunt, the ones left behind bark and howl in disappointment.

But they still "Like" me.

I haven't shot a rabbit in years but the dogs don't mind. They just love to chase them. Bred in instincts!

My two don't go anywhere. They know they have it good here.

I don't know if she loves me but I love my cantankerous, flatulent old lab enough for both of us. So much so that when she got too old to hunt I quit also. Now she spends most of her time on couch making snide remarks about my wife's cooking and housecleaning....

I could and have left the door open many times and she will be sitting at the entrance.....for hours on end. She knows the world outside the house ain't nearly as dog friendly as the world inside the house...and she is also well trained. She likes to sit in the open door and see if there is any smart assed remarks she can sling at me while I am in the font yard.

My dog has it way better at our house than running away to live on the streets. That spoiled bitch would be back in no time IF she even decided to leave the yard which I highly doubt.

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I had a dog who used to escape the back yard to run around the front door and wait to get back inside.

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Same here. I had a yellow lab that would dig under my fence and get out at night. He would be sleeping on my front lawn when I woke up in the morning.