I would just like to understand why my dog seems to see me as her person and not another animal she must fight or escape from.
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Humans and dogs have been co-evolving together for like, a really really long time. We’re talking tens of thousands of years, since the Paleolithic era when humans were still cavemen chasing animals with sticks. Back then, a tentative alliance formed between some wolves, who realized they could get free food from the leftover scraps from human kills, and some humans, who realized that having the wolves hanging around gave an early warning system against approaching threats (because wolves would notice and growl).
Because the relationship was beneficial to both, it grew stronger over time, with the friendliest humans and wolves who were best able to work together flourishing. And because both of our species are social pack animals, we both already had a framework for working closely together as others; we just needed to learn to see each other as part of the same pack. Fast forward a couple thousand years, and you’ve got the makings of a great team: Humans (the brains of the operation) selectively breeding dogs for specific tasks and telling them what to do, and dogs (the nose and paws of the equation) hugely optimizing human hunting, herding, and guarding; the two species emotionally bonded together as family.
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