Can’t resist your dog’s loving gaze? There is an explanation

In the Disney animated film, ” Voltstar in spite of himself » (2008), we meet a dog hero of a hit series who, when he discovers real life, quickly learns the principle of “beaten dog look”. The one that all our four-legged canine companions know how to use to get exactly what they want from us. Something to put in the fangs, most often.

From University of Pittsburgh researchers (United States) confirm to us today that we are entirely responsible for this. Because the dog appears as the only domestic mammal with whom we have established a link through the gaze. Thus, over the course of the domestication history — a history dating back more than 30,000 years — of its best friend, humans may well have selected dogs based on their ability to produce facial expressions that resemble his.

This new study reveals key anatomical features that could explain how our dogs can adopt the famous “beaten dog look”. Everything would be played on the side of small muscles used to form facial expressions. The mimetic muscles. Ours are essentially made up of so-called fast-twitch myosin fibers. Thus allowing us to form facial expressions quickly. But without our being able to hold them for long.

Anatomical characteristics to study

The mimetic muscles of dogs are also made up of lots of fast-twitch fibers. Between 66 and 95%. Those of wolves have far fewer of these fibers — around 25%. On the other hand, they have a high percentage of slow-twitch fibers — 29% compared to only 10% on average in dogs. More effective fibers for movements long and controlled. Fibers that don’t tire as quickly.

The fast twitch fibers our dogs enjoy provide them with greater facial mobility. They allow faster muscle movements. They also allow small movements such as a eyebrow survey. And the short, powerful muscle contractions necessary for barking. Barking which, too, is used by dogs to communicate with us. Slow-twitch fibers, on the other hand, are important for prolonged muscle movements such as those wolves use for their screams.

Previous work had already highlightedlight the existence, in the dog, of a mimetic muscle which does not appear in the wolf. A muscle that also helps produce the “beaten dog look”. To learn more, the researchers now want to use the staining of antibody to differentiate from other types of myosin fibers. And shed even more light on the anatomical differences that humans have created between dogs and wolves.

Why does your dog’s gaze make you cringe?

Dogs sometimes take on endearing facial expressions. This look so cute would be linked to the development of particular muscles, which are not found in wolves. An evolutionary strategy reminiscent of the one that makes us melt in front of a baby.

Futura article with AFP-Relaxnews published on 06/18/2019

In study published Monday in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers explain that they have dissected the corpses of domestic dogs and wild wolves from which dogs diverged about 33,000 years ago. Animals were not killed for this study. Scientists have discovered two well-formed muscles around the eyes dogs, but not wolves.

In the other part of the study, they filmed two-minute interactions between dogs and a human unknown to them, then between wolves and a human. Only the dogs managed to produce movements of eyebrows high intensity looking at humans. “It helps them enlarge their eyes, like babies do”told AFP Anne Burrows, professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and co-author of the study. “It triggersa reaction of protection in people”. As the muscles were strongly developed in dogs but not in wolves, “this tells us that this muscle and its function have been selected” by humans, adds Anne Burrows.

A look that distinguishes the dog from the wolf

This study joins several others, including a famous one from 2015, conducted by researchers in Japan, which demonstrated that the exchange of looks between dogs and their masters led to a mutual peak in oxytocinWhere ” hormone of love “. Just like what happens between a mother and her baby.

The study published on Monday involved only four wolves and six domestic dogs. More would have to be dissected to confirm the link. Researchers would also like to study ancient dog breeds and compare them to their current descendants, such as Chihuahuas, and study other species friends of man, like horses and cats.

How does your dog talk to you?

Article of Jean-Luc Goudet published on October 23, 2017

A dog accentuates his facial expressions when a human looks at him. The statement will not surprise those who regularly meet these animals, but a scientific experiment now proves it. It is indeed an attempt or a request for social interaction and not the effect of an emotion. Without spectators, they are less talkative…

Half-mast ears, puppy dog ​​eyes, rolled up lips: man’s best friend could engage in these facial expressions to convey a message and not just under the influence of an emotion, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. Everyone knows that the dogs are very sensitive to human attention. “But our results go further by suggesting that we must interpret their facial movements as a mode of communication”explains to AFP Juliane Kaminski of thePortsmouth university in the United Kingdom, one of the co-authors of this work.

To reach these conclusions, Juliane Kaminski and her colleagues studied 24 purebred dogs different, aged from one to twelve years. All were pets. The researchers filmed the dogs and their expressions by placing them one meter from a human, facing or back, attentive or distracted. Result : “the muscles of their face move more if the human is attentive”says Juliane Kaminski.

And “dog eyes” is the expression they adopt most often. The comparison was made with reaction to food presentation. A source of desire and emotion, the situation could causefacial expressions. This is not the case. For the authors, experience shows that facial expression does not reflect an emotional state.

The dog’s expressions are attempts to communicate

The researchers deduce that in front of humans, the dog expresses more than a simple emotion. “The results may indicate that the dogs are susceptible to human attention and that their expressions are potentially active attempts to communicate, not mere emotional displays.explains the researcher.

But we should not deduce from this that a pet takes on its look of a beaten dog to appease its master. According to the team, this work does not confirm that dogs are aware of what a human being may think or feel in the face of his facial expressions. This faculty — to represent the way of thinking of another –, calledtheory of mindseems very rare in animals and is not demonstrated in this experiment.

With AFP