Research Dogs Hijack Human Bonding Pathway

[Born to Run]

Interesting article: Dogs hijack the human bonding pathway
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Research paper behind it: Oxytocin-gaze positive loop and the coevolution of human-dog bonds
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Abstract:
Human-like modes of communication, including mutual gaze, in dogs may have been acquired during domestication with humans. We show that gazing behavior from dogs, but not wolves, increased urinary oxytocin concentrations in owners, which consequently facilitated owners’ affiliation and increased oxytocin concentration in dogs. Further, nasally administered oxytocin increased gazing behavior in dogs, which in turn increased urinary oxytocin concentrations in owners. These findings support the existence of an interspecies oxytocin-mediated positive loop facilitated and modulated by gazing, which may have supported the coevolution of human-dog bonding by engaging common modes of communicating social attachment.

 

[Chava]

I'm just researching this (came across this post on an "oxytocin" search). This morning I timed myself and held my cat for 10 minutes. I know you think "poor cat" but I let him fall asleep on my back or legs and snuggle a lot through the day, but just being still and holding him for a while...I notice it's hard to do that. I am also working on making eye contact with my pets. It's hard with humans, so I'm working on it with my dog and cat! If it doesn't help me at least I know it's good for them (and sidenote: they are very good buddies, which helps them make-up for the times my contact is lacking).

 

[Friday]

You can do it with wolves. It's part of the bonding & dominance thing one does with puppies. (If you're raising a pup up). Anyone higher ranked can lock eyes with anyone lower ranked, and they -lower ranked- have to look away. Puppies don't "get" that until they're older. Whether it's a human raising them or pack. And by then the bonding is pretty seared. But it's important to know, if you're maintaining dominance, not to look away. Even as pups. When I need to I kiss the bridge of their nose, or let them lick my jaw (yuck. but it's an admitting subservient position to do so), or shove them off. Anything to not concede, but keep things light. Just as it's important to know that with an adult (unless they're yours)? At best you're a neutral party to be tolerated & generally ignored. Which means never get into a dominance challenge by locking eyes. Not unless you're prepared to fight. And they're better armed! 5 of their 6 ends are sharp!. LOL. You can see well trained wolves being über-polite by ignoring unintentional eye contact. They look "bored", but it's because they're staring off to the side or above your head.

It's undoubtedly how we first came to domesticate dogs to begin with. Wolfish & Human social patterns are some of the closest out there. And if we hijack their bonding when young? Well. It takes about 2 years of constant raising, unlike dogs. You can also almost never transfer 'ownership'. Either they're yours or they strike out on their own. They don't shift allegiance readily, if at all, unlike dogs.

It's one of the quirky things about dogs... In many ways it's like we freeze /have frozen certain aspects of their development in a constant state of puppyhood. So they do the puppy gaze, and shift allegiance, and rarely question dominance outside of puppy-games (annoys their owners, but it's rarely serious, it's just gaming / practicing for a stage of development which never seems to hit).

 

[Kintsugi]

Adding to this...

Dogs have evolved to the point where they will look to a human for direction in how to solve a problem. Wolves never will. Dogs have evolved to think of us as their guides.

ALSO National Geographic reported a couple years back that while chimpanzees will not follow a human's pointing finger to discover resources (food, etc.), dogs will. Dogs will also follow your gaze, taking cues from our eyes to find hidden resources.

Aaaand... also... in case there is any lingering doubt of the evolutionary strength between dogs and humans:
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[greenleaf]

Don't they mean that dogs hijack the natural human-cat bonding pathway?

 

[void]

You can do it with wolves. It's part of the bonding & dominance thing one does with puppies. (If you...

Geneticist proved that you are correct.
We have frozen dogs into genetic 'puppyhood', it is why they are rarely aggressive like a free wolf.
They figured out how to alter foxes and used the same genetic mechanism to keep them in a puppy state permanently.

Btw, very few ppl intuit dogs/wolves like you do, Cesar Millan teaches exactly what you do.
You are a good 'Packleader' to use Cesar's parlance.