Stories of dogs that remained faithful to their deceased owners all their lives now have scientific backing.
Studies by zoopsychologists have confirmed that pets can indeed experience the same strong feelings as people. This is evidenced by the level of the hormone oxytocin, which is responsible for the experience of love and affection. Psychologists at Claremont University (USA) observed animals while playing and communicating with each other and with humans. They then took blood samples from them and measured their oxytocin levels. It turned out that during games (even hard ones, with bared faces and light bites), dogs secreted more hormone than when alone and when communicating with wild counterparts.1. And goats completely surprised the researchers: the level of oxytocin in their blood was as high as that of a person in a state of love! According to the authors, as a result of evolution, the brain in domestic animals has adapted to the formation of close permanent relationships. Hence the hormonal changes. By the way, in this sense we are similar to our pets: “dog lovers”, for example, have more “love hormone” in their blood than cat owners.
1 Science, 2015, vol. 348, № 6232.