9 Things Science tells about your Dog
Dogs are man’s best friend. They have not become our close friend by accident, but science has a lot to tell on why we love them and why they love us back. If you are a person who has dog as pet you would be aware of many of its behavioral patterns like, what they want to convey by wagging their tail or going round and round before sleeping.
But did you know that most of these behaviors are not just instinctive or related to only your dog, but science have explained it through experiments the reason behind their behavior.
- Pups Poop Along North-South Magnetic Lines
Dogs apparently prefer to poop while aligned with the north-south axis of the Earth’s magnetic field.
This is based on study carried out by y German and Czech researchers, who spent two years watching 70 dogs while they defecated and urinated thousands of times. The dog researchers used 37 different breeds in their study, from beagles and borzois to Transylvanian hounds.
2. Dogs hair grey faster if they are more anxious
Researchers have found that dogs that are anxious and impulsive were more likely to have prematurely gray hair than dogs that were not regarded as anxious or impulsive. Also researchers found that Female dogs tended to have higher levels of grayness than male dogs.
3. When dogs eyes meet yours, did you know both are in love (so it’s not only a human feeling) :
Researchers have found that mutual gazing had profound effect on both the dogs and their owners. Of the duos that had spent the greatest amount of time looking into each other’s eyes, both male and female dogs experienced a 130% rise in oxytocin levels, and both male and female owners a 300% increase ( oxytocin, a hormone that plays a role in maternal bonding, trust, and altruism).
4. Your labrador is all time behind food: it is in its genes
A genetic variation in Labrador retrievers says that they are more likely to seek out food. So Labrador owners should be aware of the fact that their dogs are hard-wired to pester them more about food, and are more likely to beg.
5. Chocolates are toxic for Dogs !
Chocolate contains theobromine and caffeine that are dangerous to dogs. Once they chew chocolate they may begin to drool excessively or even vomit and have diarrhea. These are signs that the chocolate is toxic to the dog. Research has found that dogs are four times more likely to go to the doc for chocolate poisoning during Christmas time of the year. No wonder chocolate cakes and cookies !
6. Tail wagging. It’s not that simple
A tail wag that’s skewed toward the right indicates positive emotions, while a left wag suggests negative emotions. A tail held high above the spine may indicate arousal, while a tail tucked between the dog’s rear legs can suggest fear.
7. Dogs find Smiling human faces more attractive
Research has found that dogs find smiling faces more attractive. This could be because of the hormone oxytocin. Under the influence of this hormone dogs found angry faces to be less threatening. Oxytocin, a hormone associated with affection and trust, plays a key role in the interaction between dogs and humans.
Though dogs are great at sniffing and have found to be good in sniffing out cancer cells, researchers have not found success with dogs with large number of samples. There has been an interesting report about a dog continuously sniffing its masters lesion every day and even making an attempt to bite it off. Concerned, the dogs owner had doctors inspect the lesion, which turned out to be a malignant melanoma.
9. Owning a dog can make you live longer
New research just proved that owning a dog could actually reduce your chances of dying by a significant margin. It has always been found that dog owners are more happy, but its for the first time a study has been carried out in 3.4 million citizens to determine the relationship of having a pet and mortality rate.
