What is it like to be a dog?
Scientifically, their capacity for emotions matches that of humans.
The canine population in the EU is 65 million dogs and continues to grow.
The relationship has changed a lot in the last 150 years, when they entered homes and were given a name, a routine and trained. But in the last 20 years the relationship has evolved a lot.
explain me
For the vast majority of owners, the dog is part of the family and strong bonds are established. One of the reasons for this unique bond with nature is that we both evolved in social groups, both humans and wolves.
What does science discover?
That when the human and his dog look into each other's eyes, they are overwhelmed by the same chemical substances: warmth, connection, affection.
When we look into each other's eyes do our pleasure hormones go off the rails?
Yes, a Japanese scientist has proven it. Takefumi Kikusui knew that when a mother looks into the eyes of her baby, they both produce oxytocin, the hormone of warmth and happiness. Kikusui summoned 30 friends with dogs, and both dogs and owners had to urinate in a container.
To detect the amount of oxytocin?
Right, and then they asked them to interact with their dogs for 30 minutes, petting, hugging and looking into their eyes with affection, and repeated the urine tests.
Surprises?
Yes, owners and dogs who had looked into each other's eyes with affection had higher doses of oxytocin than those who had only seen a few glances. Among the dogs that maintained more eye contact the increase in oxytocin was 130%, but the data from the owners was even more surprising.
Say, say
The increase was 300%. That oxytocin increases so much in both is a good indicator that dogs and humans are tightening social bonds, that both are transmitting warm and positive feelings to each other.
Gosfils they call them now.
In 1998 Csányi and Miklósi demonstrated the extent to which dogs feel attachment to their owners by subjecting them to a psychological test administered to human infants, and found that separation anxiety was comparable to that observed in mothers and their babies
It is a very powerful addiction.
Separation anxiety is not a disorder, it is to be expected from any relationship between two animal companions endowed with cognitive capacity and with a close bond.
Even if they express it by eating our shoe.
Yes, or defecating in the house, barking and even throwing up. Most dogs, when we leave them alone, have anxiety, stress and trauma, and it's worrying.
Are dogs' emotions like ours?
Nothing suggests otherwise. The scientific research that surprised me the most was about ten years ago, when they observed for the first time how the human brain lit up in an MRI machine and how it reacted when people talked about or thought about loved ones.
Was a specific area illuminated?
Yes, the caudate nucleus. A group of US scientists trained dogs living in homes to tolerate resonance and showed them a sausage.
Festival of lights?
The caudate nucleus lit up. They were then surprised by the appearance of their owners, and the caudate nucleus lit up again, the same part of our brain that lights up in the presence of loved ones.
is this love
It seems that our brains are emotionally wired in a similar way, and the feelings we call love can also be called love in dogs.
Why does it surprise him so much?
Science has been reluctant to use the term love when talking about animals, but the scientific evidence is very strong. The more freedom we give dogs to express themselves, the more we realize their complexity.
Does this estimate also occur with other mammals?
This is what I want to investigate. Domestic cats also have predictable increases in oxytocin when they are with their humans. And people who have guinea pigs, horses or pigs say that this well-being also manifests itself when they are together.
Better understanding and love than punishment.
It's sobering to discover that the more respect and compassion scientists offer dogs, the more they demonstrate what they're capable of. If we turn animals into beasts, they will behave like beasts.
