The love of a dog is constant snuggled up, slobber and wiggles and wet noses, unconditional love.
The love of a person is a choice. They must choose over and over again to love. They must choose love over striking out, turning away, giving up. I think that is what makes the love of a person, and the love between people, feel so good — they choose me and I them.
I wonder if we were all like dogs before. We were sent here, and we have to make choices about so many things. One of those things is love. Who/what/when/how/if we choose to love. We loved before because God is love, but now we choose (not) to love.
God is supposed to be omniscient, and he knows our measure, and the purpose of being here is so that we will know ourselves as he does. I can’t help but wonder, though, that even if he knows our choices, it still feels good when we choose him (and bad when we do not).