The Look of Love Is in the Dog’s Eyes

well.blogs.nytimes.com

34 points·romefort··9 comments

There have been studies (will update if I find link again) that show that people who care for dogs have lower levels of anxiety. Even "lending" a dog for a few hours per week already had this effect.

Wondering, is it possible to increase one's levels of oxytocin with drugs?

There have been preliminary experiments intended to answer this question. I remember one of them involved administering oxytocin as some sort of spray. I can't remember if these trials were in animals or humans.

One of the hypothesized effects of increasing oxytocin levels is making people with autistic minds think and behave in more typical ways. If this comes to fruition, I hope that autistic people will be able to help decide whether they become more typical or not.

Because it's not well understood (and may be very powerful), a widely-used oxytocin-increasing drug seems to be quite a few years away.

What about looking at a picture of a dog looking at you?

My dog has to have eye surgery on Thursday. She is a 5 year old rottweiler. That has nothing to do with the article, but please give her your best wishes, her name is Ruby.

Also, I heard somewhere and repeat often that some dogs have human eyes in a dog body.

Be will little rottweiler doggie!

5 is young, she is still a pup! She will be fine.

Speedy recovery. :)

Mmmh, wild extrapolation appeared...

The type of look that women in a romantic dinner appreciate in a man also. Now we know why it works.

Keep her oxitocine high, son! (or take a cute puppy of mass destruction with you to the restaurant)

Measuring the oxytocine of people before and after a psychologist session is another interesting experiment waiting to happen.

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