'Cuddle Hormone" that could reveal if your dog really does love you

Oxytocin is traditionally the way mother's bond with their children

But researchers now believe it could be behind another long lasting relationship - between dogs and their owners.

Patting and talking to a dog for just three minutes has been found to increase oxytocin levels in the blood stream of both human and dog, researchers say.

Australian researchers say that canines were far more alert after given the hormone.

'It has been postulated that the neuropeptide, oxytocin, is involved in human–dog bonding,' said Jessica Oliva, who carried out the research as part of her PhD in biological sciences at Monash University.

'The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of intranasal oxytocin administration, which is known to increase social cognition in humans, on domestic dogs' ability to perform such a task.'

In the study, Oliva and colleagues looked at the impact of oxytocin on dogs' ability to use human cues to pick which of two bowls contained a hidden treat.

Importantly, in this study, oxytocin was administered to dogs via a nasal spray that ensured it would easily get into the brain.

The results, published in the journal Animal Cognition, show that animals given oxytocin outperformed those not given the chemical.

'The only time I have seen such a surge in oxytocin in humans is when someone sees their loved one, is romantically attracted to someone, or is shown an enormous kindness.'

'Given oxytocinn came about to help bonding, it seems that domesticated animals form bonds and feel love in the same way we do.'

I actually did this with my dog the other day and it resulted in a half hour session in my face getting a bath, along with my ears and she tried to get my eyeballs too, but I covered those up. LOL Definitely an interesting study!

Dogs...if I wanted something needy & high maintenance, Id get a girlfriend.

If I slip some Oxytocin into a woman's drink at the bar, will she fall in love with me?

Maybe this is the secret ingredient in love potion #9?

a reply to: Anyafaj

do you mean that you gave your dog oxytocin? or you tried patting it on the head and talking to it for three minutes?

i know if i do the latter with any of my dogs they will definitely start wagging and getting all up in my biz for some cuddles. lol

We called oxytocin "milk let down hormone" in human physiology. Its responsible for the feeling women get when they say "My milk just came in."

I remember numerous times my wife feeling it with our five kids and saying "The baby must be hungry. Got to feed her/him."

I marveled at the incredible ability of non verbal babies to effectuate physical changes in my wife's physiology. Stunning.

I didn't think men produced appreciable amounts of oxytocin but I definitely feel some kind of quasi-sexual feeling when my dogs greet me and lick my face when I come home from work. There is definitely some kind of energy transfer going both ways.

Don't take it wrong. There is no sex between us but its as close as I can come to describing the effect of what I believe, after reading the article, is the effect of a quasi sexual hormone on my physical/chemical complex.

Very cool article.

originally posted by: CallmeRaskolnikov
a reply to: Anyafaj

do you mean that you gave your dog oxytocin? or you tried patting it on the head and talking to it for three minutes?

i know if i do the latter with any of my dogs they will definitely start wagging and getting all up in my biz for some cuddles. lol

My dog is a monster for belly rubs. I just gave her non-stop belly rubs for 3 full minutes, to "test out the theory", if you will. Obviously there might be skewed results, but it worked in this case. LOL

originally posted by: mcChoodles
We called oxytocin "milk let down hormone" in human physiology. Its responsible for the feeling women get when they say "My milk just came in."

I remember numerous times my wife feeling it with our five kids and saying "The baby must be hungry. Got to feed her/him."

I marveled at the incredible ability of non verbal babies to effectuate physical changes in my wife's physiology. Stunning.

I didn't think men produced appreciable amounts of oxytocin but I definitely feel some kind of quasi-sexual feeling when my dogs greet me and lick my face when I come home from work. There is definitely some kind of energy transfer going both ways.

Don't take it wrong. There is no sex between us but its as close as I can come to describing the effect of what I believe, after reading the article, is the effect of a quasi sexual hormone on my physical/chemical complex.


Very cool article.

Some women can feel it even when the baby is not in the house. I was one of them. My daughter was still in the hospital and I could tell when she was crying at the hospital, my milk would let down, and sure enough, the hospital would call and tell me she was waking all the babies on the ward and could I come and calm her. It was actually in her records.

(I didn't have a ride to the hospital, so I always had to beg, borrow, or steal a ride to calm her down. And she was a screamer! As soon as she was awake in NICU, ALL the babies were awake! And once she was awake, she would NOT go back down until she was in my arms. So needless to say I got called a LOT. LOL)

There are a LOT of notes in her medical chart from NICU. Quite a number of them are "called mom, asked her to come hold child to get her to sleep". LOL If the hospital had an extra bed, I would have been able to stay there, unfortunately it was baby month and a lot of babies were born that month, so a lot of beds were taken, and they had no couches, only few chairs.

a reply to: Anyafaj

I`m not surprised at all, there are, completely to me strange dogs which I do not have to pet for three minutes before they are starting to lick my hand (that`s how dogs show they love you).

I also have cats just walking up to me when walking down a street and start talking to me, or I saw even one who would just lay on his back when I was biking towards him (I didn`t know him and he did it 15 minutes later again when I came back).

a reply to: BornAgainAlien

I, too, am an animal whisperer! A squirrel let me pet it's head once.

a reply to: Anyafaj

oh yeah, mine too! love, love, love the belly rub. i also find each dog has their own pitch, in terms of the voices frequency that gets them really excited and amped up. kind of like the baby voice for dogs. once you find their pitch and talk to them with it, i find that along with simultaneous two hand rubs my dogs will go bananas and get supper lovey dovey. like rub the belly and scratch the head, backs/bottoms of the ears and they're in heaven. and seeing them in heaven, so happy, makes me incredibly happy regardless of what kind of mood i am in. after i have em all hyped up like that for a few minutes i'll stop abruptly and they'll be climbing all over me licking non-stop, like c'mon! don't stop that affection, i love you! lol

god, i love dogs! haha

originally posted by: Eunuchorn
a reply to: BornAgainAlien

I, too, am an animal whisperer! A squirrel let me pet it's head once.

And you didn't even know you were seconds away from a violent squirrel attack. My gma used to feed them cookies out of her hand. Cool stuff.

a reply to: Eunuchorn

Eunuchorn - I think I love you. You make me laugh all the time. I love your humour.

And no, I'm not feeling milky when I say that.

a reply to: Anyafaj

Very cool article! I have posted this video before, but it's my husband coming home from a long motorcycle ride (days) and the greeting that ensued... Pretty sure their oxytocin levels were off the charts! The love is unquestionable.

s116.photobucket.com...

Awww....I think I just maternally bonded with your dogs

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

That was one happy pack of dogs. Cool video.

Cool article. I try to spend a couple hours a day cuddling with my dogs. If there was a competition, they'd be champions. I noticed that I feel really relaxed afterward, too.

awww!!

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

OMFG, that`s nuts, they really love him !

It reminds of when I went to my aunt and uncle, I hadn`t been there for a while, 6 months or so, but I had been babysitting a few times my nephew and niece before that.

They had also a dog, and when I came again, I went in quickly but had to pee also, so I turned away to go to the toilet and grabbed the door to open to the hall, and then the dog started to go up and down on two legs and started to haul also like crazy...my niece started to laugh and saying to the dog, that I was only going to toilet, so I asked her if he had done that before, she said it was the first time.

a reply to: ccseagull

Rub my belly plz!

a reply to: Eunuchorn

Who's a good boy? Want a tummy rub? How about a butt massage? Let's work on that leg, oh yeah that feels good doesn't it. Oops, I think I just betrayed my dog (that's our "love speak"). Shhhh, don't tell him I strayed.

originally posted by: Shakawkaw

originally posted by: Eunuchorn
a reply to: BornAgainAlien

I, too, am an animal whisperer! A squirrel let me pet it's head once.

And you didn't even know you were seconds away from a violent squirrel attack. My gma used to feed them cookies out of her hand. Cool stuff.

We had some nice squirrels in our neighborhood that would sit on our lap and eat nuts we would buy for them. Sadly some people were jerks and would aim their cars for them, unfortunately they were successful a few times.