At the New York Times Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi explains the physiological basis of the relationship we have with other animals:
Studies have shown, for example, that piglets appear to become stressed by seeing and hearing other piglets that have been placed in restraints. Horses, too, appear to respond differently to people who smile or snarl; the horses responded to a snarling facial expression with an increased heart rate.
Other research found that dogs and people had a similar response to hearing the sound of a human baby crying. In the study, researchers exposed 75 pet dogs and 74 people to one of three distinct sounds: a baby crying, a baby babbling and radio static. Each sound was played for more than 10 minutes, and then researchers checked their salivary cortisol levels, an indicator of stress.
Neither the humans nor the dogs showed much response in cortisol levels to the sound of a baby babbling. The radio static also did not alter cortisol levels, though the humans described it as “unpleasant†and the dogs’ body language, which included lowered heads, flattened ears and lowered tails, suggested that it might have caused some distress.
But the sound of a baby crying produced a drastic response. Cortisol levels spiked in both people and dogs. The dogs responded with submissive behaviors like tucking their tails, a reaction that Ted Ruffman, a study author and professor of psychology at the University of Otago in New Zealand, described as low-level empathy.
“Emotional contagion is a primitive form of empathy,†Dr. Ruffman said. “It is plausible that when breeding dogs, humans would have selected for qualities that facilitated emotional links between dogs and humans.â€
My wife has been giving workshops on this subject for years. The physical reactions aren’t limited to cortisol levels in both humans and dogs but extend through a variety of other responses as well.
My own pet view is that looking at the human-canine relationship as one in which humans bred dogs for reduced stress response in contact with humans is too limited. I think that humans and dogs have co-evolved, with one species influencing the other over a period of thousands of generations. Dogs who could live with humans were more successful than those who couldn’t. Humans who could live with dogs were similarly more successful.
Interesting thing happened to me when me husband died. I was crying in our office and the African grey asked, “Are you okay, baby?”
It’s not an evolutionary accident that in both humans and dogs, looking at the other triggers an increase of oxytocin to levels expected when gazing upon a parent or child. We domesticated them and they domesticated us, although they seem much more grateful and appreciative of the relationship.
Remember what Sam Clemens said. The difference between a man and a dog is that if you feed a dog and make him prosperous he won’t bite you.
I think Stanley Coren has a book on the history of the dog-human bond, doesn’t he?
He’s written a bunch of them and I’ve probably got one or two on my shelf.
Yeah I have the one on intelligence. It’s been years since I read it but I remember enjoying his description of the heritance of herding behavior.
BC breeders are absolutely convinced of the heritability of herding behaviors. They say they can trace come-byes and away-to-mes back through their lines.
My first Sam had a herding title. We haven’t pursued it with any of the others.