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Abstract
Oxytocin (OT) has been shown to play an important role in social bonding in animals.
However, it is unclear whether OT is related to inter-species social bonding. In this
study, to examine the possibility that urinary OT concentrations of owners were increased
by their "dog's gaze", perhaps representing social attachment to their owners, we
measured urinary OT concentrations of owners before and after interaction with their
dogs. Dog owners interacted with their dogs as usual for 30 min (interaction experiment)
or were instructed not to look at their dogs directly (control experiment). We observed
the behaviors of owners and their dogs during the experiments, and measured OT concentrations
by radioimmunoassay in urine samples from the owners collected just before and 20
min after interaction with their dogs. Using a cluster analysis, owners could be divided
into two groups: one received a longer duration of gaze from their dogs and reported
a higher degree of relationship with their dogs (LG); the other received a shorter
duration of gaze and reported a lower degree of relationship (SG). Urinary OT was
higher in LG than SG after usual interaction with their dogs, but not in the control
experiment. In the interaction experiment, a high correlation was found in LG between
the frequency of behavioral exchanges initiated by the dog's gaze and the increase
in urinary OT. We conclude that interactions with dogs, especially those initiated
by the dog's gaze, can increase the urinary OT concentrations of their owners as a
manifestation of attachment behavior.