Puppy eyes can help Dog bond with Owner: Research

Japanese researchers carried out a research in which they observed 30 dog owners and their pets, and found that when they looked into each others' eyes, there was a surge of oxytocin hormone.

Oxytocin is the hormone associated with love and attachment, which acts as an agent to bond parents and children.

Researchers found that the longer they locked eyes, the more oxytocin was released. When they give the dogs extra doses of oxytocin through nasal spray, the female dogs started gazing at their owners even more than before, although the male dogs did not.

Researchers also conducted the same research on wolves and the humans who raised them, and found that wolves barely looked at the humans. It may be because wolves generally use eye contact to size up competition. Also, the oxytocin levels did not go up for the wolves or people.

As per the Los Angeles Times report, the study, published on Thursday in the journal Science, has suggested that over the course of co-evolution, dogs likely insinuated themselves even more deeply into human society by 'co- opting' the behavior and the neural machinery, that resulted into drawing humans and dogs together in tight pair-bonds.

Dog owners across the world generally think that the female dog stares at him because she loves him or because she wants another biscuit? The latest research has answered this question.

According to the research, love (or something close) could be behind that stare. The work showed that when dogs and their people gaze into each other's eyes, all get a boost in their circulating levels of oxytocin, a hormone thought to play a role in trust and emotional bonding.

The study findings have suggested that both dogs and people feel it, though it is something a few dog owners would doubt.