It is Sunday and my last day of sanity with real live people…..today I would like to talk about a subject dear to my heart……DOGS.

My regulars know that I am a dog person…..they are my friends and family……and to say I love them would be an understatement……..and I know the feeling is mutual……and now there is proof…..

A new study from researchers at Japan’s Azabu University may contain the key to understanding the timeless bond between humans and dogs — and it has to do with the most basic kind of connection. According to the researchers, when humans and dogs look into each other’s eyes, each participant experiences a surge of oxytocin, the hormone associated with trust and love that is released that is largely responsible for maternal bonding.

To test their theory, the researchers observed 30 dog owners interact with their dogs and then measured how much oxytocin the dogs produced via urine tests.

The Guardian’s Ian Sample reports:

Urine tests before and after the session revealed that oxytocin levels spiked in people whose dogs stared at them the most. But their dogs experienced a similar effect, with their own oxytocin rising too. When the scientists repeated the experiment with hand-raised wolves, the effect was nowhere to be seen.

They went on to perform a further experiment. This time, the researchers sprayed either salt solution or a dose of oxytocin up the dogs’ noses before watching them in a room with their owners. Dogs that had received the hormone boost stared for longer at their owners, though the effect only stood out in females. Again, tests on the owners found that the longer their dogs gazed at them, the higher their oxytocin levels rose. Why the effect was so vivid in females, but not in males, will become the focus of future research.

Personally, I did not need a study but some people just have to have scientific proof…….

In closing a little something for my dogs, Baby Girl and Little Man……….