Measuring the Dog Side of the Dog-Human Bond

The domestic dog (Canis familiaris) plays a unique role in human society, functioning primarily as a social companion in millions of households worldwide. Considering this special relationship, researchers have examined the various ways in which dogs interact with humans and how these interactions may facilitate or even stem from an underlying attachment between dogs and humans. As a result, many different measures have been developed to evaluate how various factors influence dog-human attachment and interactions. Current advancements in the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in dogs have also allowed researchers to explore relationships between neural and behavioral responses, demonstrating additional evidence for dog-human attachment. In this chapter, we discuss different measures that have been used to evaluate various aspects of the dog-human bond and how fMRI can provide new insights in this area of research. Specifically, multimodal approaches combining behavioral and cognitive measures with fMRI provide the most comprehensive method of evaluating dog-human attachment. Additional considerations, such as utilizing neural models of human attachment as a reference for canine models and specific study designs that could be used to measure the neural attachment network in dogs, are also discussed to help inform future research on the dog-human bond.