Any proud dog owner knows that their pup loves them, no matter how much detractors will disagree. We know they love us just as much as we love them (and most importantly, that they don't only adore us because we feed them) - and now good old science is here to back us up.

A new report in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience has shown that dogs seek praise just as much as they seek food, with brain scans of man's best friend showing that some even prefer praise to treats.

Gregory Berns, the author of How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Brain and the mastermind behind the experiment, convinced 15 dog owners to let him scan their pets' brains so he could try to decode what they were really thinking. He wanted to figure out whether they really care about our praise, or whether it's all about getting that elusive treat in your hand.

“There’s a long-standing debate about dogs: why do they do what they do?” he told The Times. “They are very dependent on humans. Is that dependency just about food - do they act cuddly and lick us primarily because they have learnt that’s how to get food? Or do they get an intrinsic reward just from social contact?”

We knew it: science shows dogs love us even more than they love food