It’s tough for the family and friends of soldiers who are sent out on deployment. Men and women can spend between 90 days and 15 months on location, though a 12-month deployment is most common.
Many people would say that the wives, husbands and children are the ones who miss their hero family member the most. But this isn’t always the case.
There are hundreds of videos on the internet that show dogs excitedly greeting their moms or dads when they finally return home. Being loyal animals, it’s likely that dogs miss their owners just as much as their human family do.
Once the initial excitement of being reunited with their favorite person wears off, a dog may show signs of clinginess and a stubborn refusal to leave their owner alone. This is another sign of their instinctive loyalty, and it can make for a pretty amusing situation.
The latest video to show a clingy dog and his soldier dad has already hit more than 23,000 views on YouTube. In the video, which was shared by The Dodo, a big St Bernard can be seen sitting with his front paws around his dad’s shoulders. It has been a full year since he’s seen his dad, and there’s no way he’s going to let him out of his sight again.
Dad obligingly pets his devoted friend on the stomach, but he can’t hang around all day. The dog’s human mom, who is recording the clip, says,
“Okay, we’ve got to show dad the house.”
Dad attempts to pull away, but the St Bernard isn’t letting him go. He locks his front paws, keeping them firmly pressed on his dad’s shoulders as he tries to pull away. It’s such an adorably funny sight that mom can’t help laughing behind the camera.
Even with a few pushes against the couch, dad can’t get away from his dog’s grip. Whether he did eventually manage to break free remains a mystery, as the video finishes there. Something tells us the pair were still locked in an embrace several hours later.
So what exactly makes a dog so loyal to his human? Scientifically, it all comes down to evolution. Dogs started off as wolves, before gradually becoming domesticized. As dogs became a more common pet for humans, their hormones changed, making them more docile and tame.
But dogs still share genes with the modern wolf of today. Being natural pack animals, dogs look to a leader rather than doing things alone. They have a deep respect for their pack leader, the alpha – or, in this case, one or both of their owners.
A combination of this instinctive loyalty and hormonal changes that have lead to a docile behavior in dogs is the reason for their ability to show love and devotion to their humans.
And while dogs don’t have the best memories, they have something called associative memory, which helps them to remember their favorite things. This means that if their favorite person is to head off into the unknown for months or years, they’re likely to remember that person based on associations like their voice, the sound of their feet, their clothes, and so on.
It’s clear to see that this St Bernard has no trouble remembering his soldier dad, and, by the looks of things, he’s banned him from his army duties from this moment on.
If you want a giggle, the video below is sure to do it.
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