Exploring the Oxytocin Connection: How Puppy Playtime and Eye Contact Strengthen the Bond Between Humans and Dogs
Oxytocin, often called the bonding hormone, is produced by the hypothalamus and sparks feelings of affection, generosity, and nurturing. It surges in the blood of couples, friends, and especially new mothers and infants. Hare and Woods, experts in fostering its production through social interaction, manage the Duke dog reading program. This 12-week puppy kindergarten, where 10 puppies, starting at 8 weeks old, undergo daily training and assessment, is not just a training ground for service dogs, but a program that fosters human-dog bonding. The benefits of this program are far-reaching, enhancing the lives of both the dogs and the humans they interact with.
When the puppies are taken for walks around campus, they draw crowds, inspire photo-taking, and prompt students to drop down for hugs and snuggles, creating opportunities for positive social interaction that releases oxytocin in dogs and humans. Inside this kindergarten for dogs, up to 100 student volunteers sign up for two-hour shifts each semester, helping with tasks like brushing puppy teeth, cleaning sleepy puppy eyes, and searching for missed droppings. The Duke dog reading program is a testament to the power of social interaction in enhancing oxytocin levels and strengthening the bond between humans and dogs.
The Science of Canine-Human Bonding
A 2015 study from Azabu University in Japan found that when dogs gaze into their human owners’ eyes, urinary oxytocin levels increase 130% in dogs and 300% in humans. This intriguing discovery about dogs and the research at this puppy university shows that higher oxytocin levels in dogs appear to enhance their ability to interpret human social cues like pointing, an essential aspect of social communication. This showcases the remarkable intelligence of dogs, making us appreciate their ability to understand and respond to human social cues.
“Dogs with elevated oxytocin are better at grasping our intentions,” Hare explains. “They make more eye contact and are more attentive, facilitating social attachment.”
The Locked Box Game: Testing Puppy Problem-Solving
This discovery has led Hare and Woods to develop a simple yet effective game with their puppies at the dog kindergarten. This game helps them determine which puppies are best suited for different work as adults. Social interaction strengthens the emotional bonding between the animals and their human companions, creating a positive feedback loop. It’s a game that families can quickly try with their puppies at home to promote affiliative behavior and boost natural oxytocin for dogs.
The benefits of seeking help
Hare, Woods, or a student helper starts the game by placing a treat in a small, see-through container and showing it to the puppies, who eagerly eat it. Then, they present the food in the same box with an open lid; the puppies push off the top and eat again. Lastly, they repeat the test, but this time with the box’s lid locked shut.
Puppies usually react in three ways: Some try briefly to get the food and then stop. Others are persistent, using their mouths and paws to tip the box, trying to unlock it. Some use a different approach—looking at the human tester and making eye contact, clearly asking for help through this human-like communication that releases oxytocin pets.
The Power of Eye Contact
“I often joke that the dog looks up as if to say, ‘Hey, you’re the one with thumbs; can you help me out?'” Hare remarks. This mutual gaze promotes social interaction and answers what chemical is released when you pet a dog.
Dogs also try other ways to get human help, like barking or nudging, but eye contact is their main method. This pays off. Hare and Woods have found that puppies aged eight to 20 weeks who play this game for just five minutes every two weeks as part of the dog kindergarten program make about twice as much eye contact with their humans as puppies who don’t play or who play but either give up or keep trying with the box without seeking help.
“People with dogs that make a lot of eye contact say they’re happier with their dog-owner relationship,” Woods explains. “Dogs that make a lot of eye contact also get adopted from shelters faster, likely due to the social reward and stress reduction from this social buffering.”
Canine Evolution and Human Interaction
Other canine family members—wolves, jackals, foxes, dingoes—don’t seek human help the same way. Hare and Woods have tried the food test with wolf pups and got very different results. “Wolf puppies don’t make much eye contact with humans—in fact, they basically don’t make any eye contact, showing less social affiliation.”
Survival of the cutest
It’s not just behavior that has brought out this trait in pet dogs through domestication and coevolution: It’s physical changes, too. Dogs have a face muscle near the eye called the AU101 that pulls the lids to show more of the eye’s white part, or sclera. Seeing sclera on another person’s face, Hare says, is one-way babies just a few months old identify another living thing as human, aiding in maternal bonding. When dogs show us their sclera, we react strongly, promoting interspecies bonding and increasing urinary oxytocin.
“They make that kind of adorable, irresistible, guilty eye look,” says Hare. This gazing behavior elicits a social reward and boosts oxytocin in dogs.
Predicting Canine Career Paths
The box game in the Duke Puppy Kindergarten reveals a lot about a dog’s future potential. Pups who keep trying to open the locked box without seeking help often become great at tasks like bomb detection or searching for survivors after disasters.
“This persistence is a good sign for such work,” Hare explains. “The best detector dogs can work independently. You can let them search an area on their own.”
On the flip side, dogs who look for help and make frequent eye contact are better suited for roles as assistance dogs or canine companions. They excel at assisting the blind, homebound, or those with PTSD.
“Dogs that look up and make eye contact are more likely to notice when someone needs help, like picking up dropped keys or opening a door,” says Hare. This social cognition aids in their role as assistance dogs.
The Enduring Bond: Dogs as Companions
Most of the world’s 470 million pet dogs won’t have these specialized jobs. Instead, they’ll focus on heart matters: giving and receiving love through social interaction. They’ll continue the interspecies attachment that began about 23,000 years ago when a wild dog and a human first locked eyes. This special connection, strengthened by oxytocin, the hormone responsible for dogs’ loving behavior, has lasted ever since, with research showing that petting a dog does release oxytocin.
Source:
Jeffery Kluger (September 17, 2024). The 5-Minutes Game that will improve the relationship with your dog. https://time.com/7021635/how-to-improve-relationship-with-dog/. Accessed September 23, 2024
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