Eye contact helped dogs become our friends
The secret to puppy love is in the eyes, researchers said Thursday after studying how that locking gaze boosts the love hormone, oxytocin, in both dogs and people.
The study by Japanese researchers in the US journal Science suggests that humans and dogs co-evolved to become close over the centuries via the mutual eye contact and the higher levels of oxytocin, which fosters trust and emotional connection, that it builds.
Previous research has shown that when mothers look into the eyes of their babies, this leads to production of oxytocin and with it, an outflow of loving, and protective and close feelings.
The reason dogs evolved from wild wolves to become domestic pets and friends is because of this same mechanism, researchers said.
Dogs are more skillful than wolves and chimpanzees, the closest respective relatives of dogs and humans, at using human social communicative behaviors.
“Female dogs responded to the treatment by increasing the amount of time they gazed at their owners,” said the study. It was unclear why the same effect was not seen in male dogs.
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