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Wednesday, July 8, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Paw
Prints
Jodi Schneider McNamee
Columnist
The human-dog
bond
Jill had lost her husband
a few years ago to cancer,
and during the months fol-
lowing his passing, deep
loneliness had set in. After
all, they had been together
for over 30 years. Her best
friend advised her to get a
dog because they make great
companions, so she did. A
year later Jill and her best
furry friend went every-
where together, a special
bond had been formed.
Pet parents talk about
their furry friends like
they’re part of the family,
and it often seems as though
the family pooch is seen as
another one of the kids.
In fact, when you speak
to folks about what it’s like
to live with a dog, many
will tell you that they dis-
covered a degree of solace
that’s extremely difficult
to achieve in relationships
with people. That it’s a way
of experiencing solitude
without the loneliness.
And now behavioral sci-
ence is starting to reveal how
this friendship/bond came to
be.
Less than 20 years
ago, scientific teams led
by psychologist Michael
Tomasello of the Max Planck
Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology in Germany
and Vilmos Csanyi in
Budapest, independently
published research papers on
how family dogs can follow
human pointing gestures to
find hidden food. Maybe that
doesn’t sound like much, but
that work marked the birth
of a thriving field of inves-
tigation into the biological
foundations of the human-
dog bond.
Since then researchers
have learned that most peo-
ple and their furry friends
live in an attachment rela-
tionship, just like mothers
and infants. Not only do they
enjoy one another’s com-
pany, but humans help dogs
navigate modern society, and
dogs, in return, help humans
when they lack a specific
ability, such as sight.
Dogs are unique in the
animal kingdom because
they have figured out how
to join the community of an
entirely different species,
which is evidence of sophis-
ticated social competence.
In other words, dogs have
a good set of social skills,
including the abilities to
form attachments, regulate
aggression, learn and follow
rules, provide assistance and
participate in various group
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It’s a win-win situa-
tion for both species — but
maybe humans get the better
end of the deal.
Dogs can learn by watch-
ing us, which helps them
master the rules in fitting
into human groups. Dogs are
often admired for their emo-
tional sensitivity.
For years academic
researchers refused to attri-
bute emotions to animals.
That attitude is changing
slowly.
Another reason for the
strong bond between dogs
and humans is a chemical
connection that happens in a
loving gaze.
Takefumi Kikusui, a pro-
fessor of veterinary medicine
at the Companion Animal
Research Lab at Azabu
University in Japan, won-
dered exactly what dogs are
getting out of their affec-
tionate gazing at humans.
In the a new study in the
journal Science, Kikusui
and his colleagues measured
the oxytocin levels of dogs
and their pet parents before
and after the pairs spent 30
minutes together. And after
they spent quality time pet-
ting, playing, and gazing into
their furry friend’s eyes, both
the people and dogs showed
increases in the levels of
oxytocin.
Oxytocin, often called the
“love hormone,” performs
various actions in humans,
such as reducing stress, and
photo by Jodi Schneider McnaMee
dale Coats and Buddy have a very significant bond. Buddy was a therapy
dog and is now retired.
it also triggers the onset of
labor. But in mammals, one
of its key roles is to help a
parent and infant bond. In
humans, both moms and
babies get a spike in oxyto-
cin during breast feeding,
and they will spend hours
gazing at each other, which
is nature’s way of forming a
bond.
The findings may help
explain one of the most puz-
zling stories in human his-
tory: how a predatory, fear-
some wolf transformed into
man’s best friend. Kikusui
speculated that, at some
point early in the domestica-
tion of dogs, a small group of
naturally more friendly dogs
may have gazed at humans
for bonding.
More than one third of
all Americans live with dogs
today. Americans are in
the midst of a genuine love
affair with dogs: people are
spending more money on
their furry friends than ever
before, and they are indulg-
ing their companions with
more services than ever
before, such as doggie day-
care, doggie summer camp,
doggie clothes and high-end
doghouses.
So this dance is about
love. It’s about attachment
that’s mutual and it’s about a
kind of connection that’s vir-
tually unknowable in human
relationships because it’s
essentially wordless.
THE
DOG SHOW
A fetching Display of Canine Imagery
— JULY 24 THROUGH SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 —
The community is invited to
attend the artist reception,
friday, July 24, 4 to 7 p.m.
during the 4th friday Art Stroll.
A PORTION OF PROCEEDS BENEFIT FURRY FRIENDS FOUNDATION
SISTERS ART WORKS
ENTRY GALLERY
204 W. ADAMS AVENUE, SISTERS, OREGON
SPONSORED BY
THE ROUNDHOUSE FOUNDATION