I am writing this because it seems this is a question that is still being asked by others, even though they don't really know they are asking it. Defining love is not something that is easy to do, but describing what it is not is much easier to do.
Once when walking in the park with my first dog Freedom a man was sitting on a bench asking his small white dog to come to him. His commands to the little dog were getting louder and more insistent and the little dog was more and more hesitant to obey....crouching low on the ground, slowly moving forward. He wanted to please his owner, but the tone of the owners voice was clearly one in which he was not pleased.
Eventually the dog got close enough for the owner to grab him and then he started hitting him. I yelled - anger and outrage were my obvious response - but in walking away I had to ask myself, why come closer when all you are going to do is get hit?