Dogs cry tears of joy
Not everyone is a dog person but dog people really love their dogs. Ask any dog owner: they can list hilarious personality traits and swear their dogs feel shame when caught being naughty. They also might gush about how much their four-legged pal loves them unconditionally. And now there's research to back up the claim of unparalleled love from dogs. Japanese scientists are saying dogs' eyes well up with tears of joy after being reunited with their owners. Well, shoot. Now, I need a Kleenex.
You mean to tell us our furry best friends miss us so much that they cry tears of joy? Before this study, dog tears were not linked to emotions. Much like human tears, dogs tears were believed to have solely served the functional purpose of keeping their eyes clean. But thanks to professor, Takefumi Kikusui at the Laboratory of Human-Animal Interaction and Reciprocity at Azabu University in Japan, there's now a study. Kikusui noticed his standard poodle's eyes filling with tears when she nursed her puppies, which piqued his curiosity around what appeared to be an emotional provocation of tears in his dog.
This is my beautiful wife kissing our Golden retriever Oakley. As you can see, this little boy is so happy in this moment. Photo by Nicholas Brownlow on UnsplashThe image of a new dog mama tearing up while nursing her babies is fascinatingly human and may deepen the bond that already exists between man and dog. Kikusui used the Schirmer Tear Test to measure the amount of tears produced by 18 different dogs. The study tested the dogs tear production before and and up to 5 minutes after they were reunited with their owners after a separation period of 5 to 7 hours.
Kikusui told CNN, "Tear volume was evaluated by the length of the wet part on the STT. The baseline was about 22 mm, and the reunion with the owner increased by 10%." And in case you were wondering if these tears of joy applied to everyone your dog is familiar with - they don't. The researchers conducted further tests on dogs to see if familiarity would induce the same response but it didn't. Dogs being studied only produced increased tears when reunited with their owners.
happy white shih tzu puppy running on the grass
Photo by Joe Caione on UnsplashJust to cement the mutual love, researchers tested to see if the dogs responded to oxytocin. You know, the happy love chemical produced by our brains when we see our children or partner. After testing 22 dogs by putting a solution containing oxytocin in their eyes, the doggos produced way more tears than when they introduced the control solution. While researchers didn't attempt to find out if dogs cry emotionally due to negative situations, or if their tears served a purpose among other dogs, the tears of joy research is pretty interesting.
Thanks to this study, you can finally tell your sister that your dog does not love her more than you because research says so. Now, you have the "pics or it didn't happen" proof to back it up.