Humans and dogs certainly share a special affinity. But, like people, do dogs cry more when they’re feeling very emotional?

A new study, which was published in Current Biology today and may be the first to look into this question, says that, yes, our dog friends do cry.

In fact, this happens often when they see you again.

According to Takefumi Kikusui of Azabu University in Japan, “we found that dogs shed tears associated with positive emotions.” 

“We also made the discovery of oxytocin as a possible mechanism underlying it.”

Kikusui and his colleagues made the discovery six years ago when one of his two standard poodles had puppies. He observed that as his dog was feeding the puppies, the dog’s expression changed; tears appeared. Although those tears don’t fall as frequently as they do in humans, they nonetheless have teary eyes.

“That gave me the idea that oxytocin might increase tears,” adds Kikusui.

According to him, oxytocin is the “love hormone” or “maternal hormone.” Additionally, the researchers were aware that during encounters, oxytocin is released in both dogs and their owners. So, they conducted a reunification study to test if it caused canine tears.

Before rejoining with their owners, the dogs underwent a normal test to measure how much they cried. They discovered that when they reconnected with the familiar human and not with a stranger, their tear production did in fact increase.

The volume of tears the dogs produced increased after oxytocin was injected into their eyes. This finding backs up the idea that the release of oxytocin has something to do with why dogs cry when they see their people again.

Additionally, they asked people to rate images of dogs’ faces with and without artificial tears, and it found that participants responded more favorably to images of dogs with watery eyes. These results imply that dogs’ tears contribute to the development of deeper bonds between owners and their canine companions.

Kikusui claims that the results were unexpected. 

“We had never heard of the discovery that animals shed tears in joyful situations, such as reuniting with their owners, and we were all excited that this would be a world first!”

It appears that this particular dog cries in responses that humans would label “happy.”

It has not yet been investigated whether dogs also cry when they experience bad feelings. Also unknown at this time is if dogs cry when they reunite with other dogs.

They want to find out if this reaction also has a social purpose in the canine community. However, they claim that for the time being, it appears to have clear implications for the relationship between dogs and people.

“Dogs have become a partner of humans, and we can form bonds,” Kikusui adds. “In this process, it is possible that the dogs that show teary eyes during interaction with the owner would be cared for by the owner more.”

Image Credit: Getty

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