For everyone -- dog owners and non-dog owners alike -- loving human beings is difficult, unpredictable, and often disappointing. Dog love is safer, perhaps more satisfying: Dogs can't betray us, undermine us, tell us they're angry or bored. Dogs can't leave.
Our voiceless companions, dogs are a blank canvas on which we can paint anything we wish... Behavioral research suggests that men and women love dogs equally, but often in different ways. Men usually love dogs because they don't talk, which makes them the perfect pals. A guy can have an intense relationship, like Samuel does with Namath, and never have to discuss it. Women are more likely to see dogs as emotionally complex creatures; it's disturbingly common to hear them say their dogs understand their moods better than their boyfriends; that their dogs know when they're upset, but their husbands don't.
This has to be a uniquely western pathology; for instance, in Asia, they eat dogs, but then, maybe they have relationships with their chickens and pigs there.
Now, I've heard from some of my dog-loving associates that dogs give 'unconditional' love, but if you're willing to put more effort into finding 'love' with your pets -- an odd phrase in this context to me -- then perhaps you may want to go see your shrink.
Some people seem to want everything to be easy, including their relationships, and rather than work at it, or -- gasp -- go it alone, they turn to an animal, who can't know any better.
More love going around for animals, and less for humans: what a wonderful world it will be.