A UK-based company has been able to show through research that dogs react when we say “I love you”.
It is known that having a dog as a pet can be very beneficial for our mental and physical health; He is also the best friend and they give us unconditional love. It has been shown to help us reduce stress, regulate blood pressure and prevent heart disease.
Not only do we benefit from being loved, but our beloved pets also experience similar magic when they receive love. In order to prove this, an organization called Canine Cottages spoke with dog behavior experts to conduct an investigative study.
Dogs React When You Say “I Love You”
The purpose of the research is to discover the true meaning of the different behaviors that dogs have such as: licking, begging, barking and more. To do this, the UK-based company put several dogs through their paces and measured their heart rates to find out how they reacted to different scenarios.
After several days of study, with the help of canine behavior experts, they were able to draw several important conclusions.
The most striking finding was that when their owners said the word “I love you” to the puppies in the study, their heart rate increased by 46.2%. In conclusion, we must shower our four-legged friends with words of love, caresses and unconditional love.
The same experiment was also able to show that human heart rate increased by 10.4% when looking at their furry children. Therefore, the happiness that our dogs experience when they receive love is actually something reciprocal that manages to reach the depths of the human heart.
Plus, if our canine friend is having a bad day, the solution is to hug him, as the study showed that this reduced his pulse rate by 22.7%.
Although dog heart rates can demonstrate emotional behavior, it’s worth remembering that humans and pets express love differently, especially with specific affectionate behaviors.
Canine Cottages has named the most common signs of affection: licking and kissing, hugging, waving, begging, belly showing, jumping and more.
The organization also recommended not to get angry when our dogs destroy our belongings, because curiously this can also be seen as a gesture of love.
According to the company, dogs often steal our stuff and chew on it, just to get the attention they need, especially when we’re not around.
When our dog feels he misses us he is likely to pick up a personal item that smells like us and chew on it, this can release endorphins and relax him.
Shannon Keary, campaign manager for Canine Cottages, said in a statement:
It’s amazing how our dogs’ heart rates go up when told they are loved, showing excitement, and go down when they are hugged, showing contentment.
Without a doubt, this study shows that the feelings of our furry people are real and sincere, and that they just want to give us lots of love. So we cannot be selfish and we have to let out that love that we have to give them and express it in the best possible way.
A simple, loving word like “I love you” can totally change our best friend’s day.