A wagging tail, soft and relaxed eyes, slurpy licks, and a body wiggle to show the belly may be some telltale signs of a happy dog. But now new research, published in the journal Current Biology, suggests that dogs can also cry happy tears when they meet their owners.
“Tear volume (in dogs) increased significantly during reunion with the owner, but not with a familiar non-owner,” the researchers said.
The research team used the Schirmer Tear Test (STT), which reveals the amount of watery tear production in each eye, to arrive at their results.
First tear volume of 18 dogs was measured using the STT in their normal home environment with the owner. The same test was conducted on dogs within the first five minutes of their owners after a separation of five to seven hours. Tear volume for reunion with familiar non-owners was also measured.
“Following separation from the owner in the dogs’ day care centres, dogs secreted larger tear volumes during reunions with their owners than with familiar non-owners, and tear volume during reunion with the owner was significantly greater than the baseline tear volume,” the study noted.
This welling-up of the eyes is attributed to the “bonding hormone” oxytocin.
The research team has also hypothesized that teary-eyed dogs might receive better care from their human owners.
However, it is not yet known if dogs produce tears when they experience negative emotions. Further, the team also did not look at whether dogs make tears when they get back together with other dogs.
The authors of the study, meanwhile, said that this is “the first report on positive emotion stimulating tear secretion in a non-human animal”, adding that no previous studies have “investigated the relationship between emotional arousal and tear volume in animals”.
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