Dogsey

Man's best friend's ability to win over the human heart is all down to his puppy dog eyes, scientists have found.
Researchers discovered that eye contact between humans and dogs sparks a surge in hormones which promotes feelings of affection.

The same hormone - called oxytocin - plays a key role in the bonding of mother and baby after birth.

When a woman and her child lock eyes it triggers a surge in levels of the hormone - which is also known as the 'love hormone'.

Scientists think that dogs 'hijacked' this mechanism when they first became domesticated some 30,000 years ago.

Whereas eye contact between humans and wolves - even those raised by man - do not have the same effect on the hormones.
This suggests that the evolutionary change differentiated dogs from wild canines very early on in the path to domestication.

The researchers, from the Japanese universities of Azabu, Jichi and Tokyo, also found that oxytocin levels increase in dogs, concreting their own feelings of affection and loyalty for their owners.

Writing in the international journal Science, they said: 'Gaze plays an important role in human communication. Gaze not only facilitates the understanding of another's intention but also the establishment of affiliative relationships with others.

'In humans, "mutual gaze" is the most fundamental manifestation of social attachment between a mother and infant, and maternal oxytocin is positively associated with the duration of mother-to-infant gaze.'


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