How To Make Your Dog Love You Even More
If you’re anything like me, you probably think your dog is the best thing on the planet. And while we know our pups love us, wouldn’t it be great to know what you can do to make that bond even stronger? Well, good news-scientists around the world have been studying exactly that, and the results are heartwarming,fascinating, and sometimes surprising.
Let’s dive into what research says about building a better bond with your furry best friend.
Do Dogs like Kisses
A scientist conducted an experiment with 10 dogs and their owners.After the owners interacted with their dogs for an hour, she measured the dog’s oxytocin levels, a hormone known to help with bonding.She found that the more times the owners kissed their dogs, the higher the dog oxytocin levels were. So, according to this study, if you want your dog to love you more, you should kiss them more.
Petting
A study from South Africa paired 18 dogs with 18 humans and had the humans pet the dogs. After just a few minutes of petting, the dog’s levels of oxytocin, dopamine, and other beneficial hormones increased.But this wasn’t the only benefit.The study also found that the dog’s blood pressure decreased.So, not only does petting your dog make them feel more love toward you, but it’s also good for their health.Even better, the study found that humans experience these benefits too.
Regular petting is good for both your heart and your pup’s
Stare Into Their Eyes
But dogs have more love languages than just physical touch.This next study gives new meaning to the phrase “fur baby.” A Japanese scientist,who was obsessed with dogs like us,wondered why the human-dog bond is so strong. So, he got 30 pairs of dogs and their humans together in a lab. Each pair spent 30 minutes in a room, with the humans petting and talking to their dogs while gazing into their eyes.Here’s what they found:in the pairs who spent the most time gazing into each other’s eyes, oxytocin increased by 130 percent in the dogs and 300 percent in the humans.For the human and dog pairs that spent very little time looking into each other’s eyes, the scientist found no oxytocin increase.
So what does this have to do with your dog being your “fur baby”?Well, when human mothers gaze into their babies’ eyes, their oxytocin spikes, which helps strengthen their bond.So, staring at your dog pretty much has the same hormonal effect on you as a mother staring at her baby.
You Are Their Safe Space
Is their a special bond between a dog and its owner, or do dogs just really love all people?An Austrian scientist designed an interesting study to test this out.She put dogs in a room with a challenging puzzle toy containing pieces of sausage.In the room with the dog was either their owner, a stranger, or they were alone. According to previous studies, dogs use their owners as a secure base and explore and manipulate objects more when their owner is around.But would having a random person in the room have the same effect?
According to the study, the answer is no.Dogs whose owners were in the room with them worked on the toy longer than if they were alone or with a stranger, signifying that they are more comfortable when their owners are around.But one thing I was surprised to learn was that if there was a stranger in the room with them or if they were alone, there wasn’t any significant difference in how long they played with the toy.
Avoid Punishment-Based Training
This next study is all about what not to do.So, we’ve learned a few things that your dog will love, but this next study shows an unfortunately common thing people do that stresses dogs out.In Portugal,scientists studied 92 dogs that were trained using either reward-based training, aversive training methods (also known as punishment-based training) or a mix of both.
This probably comes as no surprise, but after the training sessions, the dogs that were trained using aversive methods showed more signs of stress and had higher levels of cortisol, which is known as the stress hormone.But the crazy part is that this study didn’t just look at dogs during and right after their training sessions.The researchers also conducted a cognitive bias test when the dogs weren’t in a training session and found that the dogs trained with aversive methods were more pessimistic-meaning they had a more negative outlook on life than the dogs trained with reward-based methods.
So, if you want to have a happy dog, according to this study, you should only use reward-based training methods instead of punishment.
Yep-The “Dog Voice” Works
I hope you aren’t punishing your dog, but here’s something that probably everybody is doing__ using the “dog voice.” Yep, we all know the dog voice__high-pitched, sweet, and, uh, slightly annoying.For some reason, people use this voice to talk to dogs.But does it actually help your dog like you more?
A study from the University of York in the UK looked at how dogs react to the dog voice versus a regular adult voice.They found that when dogs were spoken to in the dog voice, they spent more time looking at the person and spent more time being physically closer to that person than if they used a regular human adult voice.
Of course you can’t have a dog voice without a ridiculous nickname for your dog!So leave a comment with your dog’s craziest nickname, and let’s see whose is the most hilarious.
Now you know that you can pet your dog, talk to them, and look at them to help them love you more.But there’s actually something you can do that requires even less effort and costs nothing-spending time with your dog.
Spending More Time Together
One study found that the more time you spend with your dog, the less likely they are to have separation anxiety.Another study found that the more time you spend with them, the fewer behavior problems they are likely to have.You probably would have guessed that, but here’s a big question that’s not so obvious: What do dogs like most-quality time with you or food?
Food vs. Praise: Which Do They Love More?
A study in Atlanta, Georgia tried to answer this question once and for all.They conducted three experiments. In the first two, they did MRI scans on dogs brains when presented with different objects that representing food or praise.In the third experiment, they put the dogs in a Y-maze with food in one branch of the Y and the dogs’ owner in the other.
So, what were the results?Well, they were pretty much split evenly_some dogs preferred food, and some dogs preferred human praise.But here’s the interesting part: which ever option a dog preferred was pretty consistent across all three experiments.The dogs were either a big foodie or a people lover.
Now, the results from this experiment could be different depending on which treats I use or how long it’s been since he’s seen me, and that disclaimer goes for pretty much all of these experiments. They’re not true for 100% of the situations, so take them with a grain of salt.
Your Attachment Style Matters
Now, we’re going to address a controversial thing that many dog owners do, but first, here’s a study about a simple thing you can do to get your dog to love you more.Scientists from Hungary looked at how a dog owner’s attachment style affected the dog through a survey of 1,508 dog owners.They found that dogs are more likely to have separation anxiety if their owners have an avoidant attachment style.
Now, what exactly is an avoidant attachment style?The study describes this as owners avoiding intimate contact and affection.So, one thing you can do to help your pup not develop separation anxiety is to give them lots of love so that they can be confident that you will be there for them.
Should You Let Your Dog Sleep With You?
Speaking of giving them lots of love, here’s a question that almost everyone has a strong opinion about-should you let your dog sleep with you?Well, here’s what Dr. Dana Varbo, the Chief Veterinary Officer for the North American Veterinary Community, says: “In general, it is a very good thing for animals to sleep with their people.”She said pets that sleep with their humans seem to have a higher level of trust and tighter bond with the humans that are in their lives.”
And here’s another quote from her:”Dogs and cats who are more closely bonded with their humans get additional health benefits, including increases in beneficial neurotransmitters such as oxytocin and dopamine.”
Do you sleep with your dog? No matter your stance on your dog sleeping in your bed,hear something that every dog owner has to do say hi and bye to their pup.And luckily for us, scientists have studied the best way to do each of these.
How To Say Hello And Goodbye
First, let’s talk about how to greet your pup.A Swedish researcher conducted a study where she had a person walk into a room with the dog. The person, whom the dog already knew, greeted them in one of three ways: by talking to them and giving them physical contact, only talking to them, or ignoring them.
There were 18 pairs of humans and dogs in the study, and researchers took blood samples to test the dog’s oxytocin levels after being greeted.Can you guess which type of greeting raised the dog’s oxytocin the most?Yep, talking to them while giving physical touch! Not only did these dogs have increased oxytocin levels, but their cortisol levels-the stress hormone-also decreased the most during this interaction.
But what about saying goodbye?An Italian study had people either pet their dogs for a minute before leaving or not pet them at all before leaving.For the dogs that were petted before separation, they showed calming behaviors for a longer period while waiting for their owner’s return, and their heart rate showed a notable decrease after the test. And now that you know how to make your dog love.
