Dogs have evolved to give us "sweet eyes"

Dog faces would evolve in response to human preferences

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

Puppy eyes, why do we melt in front of them? According to scientists from the University of Portsmouth, England, the faces of dogs would be evolved in response to human preferences and the reason is easy to say: it's easy for puppies who show off a great pair of sweet eyes, waving their eyebrows in the air, to have a better chance of being welcomed into a new family.

It is well known that humans are attracted to animals that remember children, but this research highlights how dogs evolved in response to this human preference for infantile characteristics.

To do this, in collaboration with the Waltham Center for Pet Nutrition, the British researchers used a newly developed tool called DogFACS, aimed at analyzing the facial expressions of dogs and focusing on 27 aged Staffordshore Bull Terrier and Mastiff breed dogs. between seven months and eight years of age.

In practice, DogFACS technology counts number of times dogs raise their eyebrows and thus "enlarge" their eyes - reproducing a childish expression - when a possible owner approaches. In experiments, dogs that produced these movements attracted an owner more quickly than those that didn't, supporting previous contention that humans find big eyes more attractive, not only in human infants, but also in animals. According to Dr Bridget Waller, an expert on the evolution of social communication at the University of Portsmouth and one of the authors of the study, dogs that they inherited from wolves this ability are "more tolerated by humans". Co-author, Dr Kaminski, states that: “Little is known about the domestication of wolves and it is likely to have been a complex evolutionary process, but it is clear that specific physical characteristics have been actively selected from tamed wolves to become dogs, but other functions may have been selected unconsciously ".

In short, according to the research - published on PlosOne - dogs have evolved by developing infant facial features that make them more attractive to humans. But that doesn't mean that these facial expressions make a particular dog a better pet than one that can't pull off two sugary eyes ...

On the subject you might also be interested in:

• Love for dogs? It's written in our genes
• 20 signs that you are 'crazy' about your dog (in a good way!)
• Sweet eyes and oxytocin - that's why dogs are like babies
• Like a dog it improves the health of the whole family. The scientific studies that confirm this
• All you need to know before adopting a dog to ensure a happy life
• 9 good reasons to never buy a puppy in a store

Germana Carillo