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Dog is generally accepted a mans best friend and the most loyal and faithful pet. It was found in a study that cats became domesticated for treats.

Is that possible that loyalty of a dog is in fact its way of sticking to the source of food and anyone can take a dog from its owner by giving it food?

"Man's best friend" is a phrase referring to domestic dogs, highlighting their close relations, loyalty, and companionship with humans within many societies. Wikipedia

Loyalty: Loyalty is faithfulness or a devotion to a person, country, group, or cause. Wikipedia

Friendship: Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between two or more people. Wikipedia

Update

It is observed that dog follow its owner, obey the orders and stick with the owner everywhere. This behavior of dog make people call dog a Loyal (as in loyalty between people) animal or even a man's best friend (as in friendship between people).

Does dog really show these behaviors or is it just people, who find the dog's behavior and way of sticking to the source of food, call it loyalty and friendship?

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smUsamaShah
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  • This link says that http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2420793/Dogs-loyal-ANYTHING-feeds-Scientists-bond-robots.html dogs are loyal to ANYTHING that feeds them. – smUsamaShah Mar 18 '15 at 11:09
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    therefore they're loyal to their owners... you should really define loyalty for this question to be answerable. – nico Mar 18 '15 at 12:27
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    The Daily Mail article said they learn better from "sociable" robots, which their owners talked and shook hands with (i.e. which their owners had told them are 'friends of the family'). – ChrisW Mar 18 '15 at 12:37
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    There are at least two stories I know of. The revolve around the idea the dog waited for their dead owner to return from a trip. One even has a movie of it I believe. They were supposedly quite true, so if that's not a sign of loyalty and not just hunger... Most living creatures need some form of food, hence hunger and looking for food is a strong instinct for many. I am sure if it was ONLY for food, the dogs would've simply abandoned the owner and went to get whatever food they could get. – Sharain Mar 18 '15 at 15:14
  • @nico dog is considered a *friend* as well. How will I define friend than? – smUsamaShah Mar 18 '15 at 16:10
  • Well, my point is: faithfulness, loyalty etc. are essentially human constructs. How do you objectively define it for a dog? Or, to put it in another way, what kind of evidence are you looking for to answer your question? (see https://youtu.be/4BXuv2KfEFA?t=5m9s ) – nico Mar 18 '15 at 19:27
  • @Sharain: Purely anecdotal, but I've seen the "return from trip" effect several times, from either taking care of friends' dogs while they're away, or leaving mine with friends. Usually the dog will be fairly content while the owner is away (and gets fed, played with, &c just like the caretakers' dogs do), but reacts to the owner's return with excitement and apparent joy. – jamesqf Mar 18 '15 at 21:39
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    The standard way I always hear this claim is "Dogs will stick with their master/pack no matter what, whilst a cat will stick to their territory (provided there is food) and cares little for food". A way such claim could be proven is having cats and dogs fed automatically by machine and then have the owners for example move to a nearby house for a couple of days and see how the cats and dogs react (as long as the food giving machine stays in the original house). I am sure there must be better ways, but the point is that it's definitely possible to research such a thing. – David Mulder Mar 18 '15 at 21:41
  • @David Mulder: But does that experimental setup really measure loyalty? If the dogs come to the owners' new residence, is it 'loyalty', or e.g. boredom from being alone in the old house? – jamesqf Mar 19 '15 at 04:03
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    What exactly is the claim here? If the claim is "you can't sway a dog from the owner with food", there's zero evidence shown that the claim is made by anyone. If it's that "dogs are loyal", it's too vague to be answerable. – user5341 Mar 19 '15 at 14:43
  • @DVK I think we have an answer now http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27363-dogs-tap-into-human-bonding-system-to-get-close-to-our-hearts.html?utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=SOC&utm_campaign=hoot&cmpid=SOC[NSNS]2015-GLOBAL-hoot – smUsamaShah Apr 18 '15 at 16:21

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Robin McKie. How hunting with wolves helped humans outsmart the Neanderthals. The Guardian. March 1, 2015:

Dogs are humanity’s oldest friends, renowned for their loyalty and abilities to guard, hunt and chase.

Sir John Lubbock, 1889:

That the dog is a loyal, true, and affectionate friend must be gratefully admitted

Science Friday:

how did they [dogs] become such loyal companions?

Barbara Hannah. The Archetypal Symbolism of Animals: Lectures Given at the C. G. Jung Institute, Zurich, 1954-1958. p 18:

The dog, through domestication and his affectionate and loyal nature

livescience.com:

Their loyal and obedient behavior ...

phys.org:

Dogs — they're loyal...

darrrin
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    I don't know that this answers the question as to whether this loyalty can be swayed if someone else has better food. – Sean Duggan Mar 18 '15 at 18:57
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    These sources just repeat the claim without presenting additional evidence. – gerrit Mar 18 '15 at 18:59
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    These are not studies about the "loyalty" of dogs, I don't understand the relevance. – Sklivvz Mar 19 '15 at 00:54
  • [Welcome to Skeptics!](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/1505/welcome-to-new-users) We are looking for definitive answers based on empirical evidence. This just seems to be anecdotal evidence that people *believe* that they are loyal. Effectively, it is evidence that the claim is notable, but not that it is true. – Oddthinking Mar 19 '15 at 03:11
  • "How hunting with wolves helped humans outsmart the Neanderthals." I wasn't aware that there neanderthals weren't human.... – Ten Bitcomb Mar 19 '15 at 21:01
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    @user10800 Technically, they weren't human - *homo neanderthalensis* vs. *homo sapiens*, although the issue is up for debate. – HDE 226868 Mar 22 '15 at 16:21