Many people believe that dogs don’t love people back, that they’re just concerned about us and humoring us because we feed them. Science seems to indicate that many dogs will pick praise from their people over food! Science supports the idea that our dogs love us, or at least enjoy us.
It should be noted that the sample size in this study was somewhat small, but it’s a good pilot study that indicates that there might be more going on in our canine friend’s mind to create the human-dog bond than we understand at this time.