I disagree wholeheartedly with your analysis. Yes, all relationships are transacttional at the start. Cats I would argue maintain this transactional nature to a great extent. I had cats until young adulthood and still love them, but the are fundamentally different in temperment to dogs.

Dogs, after they accept that you are part of their pack, do love you unconditionally. My wife is the one who feeds our dog. Yet he loves me and comes to me for affection. This is a dog that was horribly treated the first 1 1/2 years of his life, was clearly beaten and mistreated and completely unsocialized with both humans and animals before he came to live with us.

Aegon (our husky) asks me for treats. He asks me to play. He does not "give me the cold shoulder" if I refuse to give him treats. He does not trade his snuggles for affection. When I was traveling for nearly 4 weeks straight and came home, his entire body "wagged" with joy for about a minute straight. I didn't give him anything. He was just happy to see me because we are part of a pack.

If we had no food he'd get hungry and I expect he'd defend a scrap he found or got. That doesn't make his love for me conditional or transactional. It would just mean he's hungry.