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Canine Endogenous Oxytocin Responses to Dog-Walking and Affiliative Human–Dog Interactions

SIMPLE SUMMARY: It is widely recognized that humans and dogs share a unique relationship. However, the biological mechanisms that may contribute to this bond between owners and their pet dogs are still unclear. As such, we measured the concentration of oxytocin, a hormone that is important in social...

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Autores principales: Powell, Lauren, Edwards, Kate M., Bauman, Adrian, Guastella, Adam J., Drayton, Bradley, Stamatakis, Emmanuel, McGreevy, Paul
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6406532/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30744052
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani9020051
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author Powell, Lauren
Edwards, Kate M.
Bauman, Adrian
Guastella, Adam J.
Drayton, Bradley
Stamatakis, Emmanuel
McGreevy, Paul
author_facet Powell, Lauren
Edwards, Kate M.
Bauman, Adrian
Guastella, Adam J.
Drayton, Bradley
Stamatakis, Emmanuel
McGreevy, Paul
author_sort Powell, Lauren
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: It is widely recognized that humans and dogs share a unique relationship. However, the biological mechanisms that may contribute to this bond between owners and their pet dogs are still unclear. As such, we measured the concentration of oxytocin, a hormone that is important in social bonding, in dogs before and after two different activities: dog-walking and human–dog interactions. We also investigated whether the strength of an owner’s attachment to their dog affected the dog’s oxytocin concentration. Contradicting our suppositions, the experiment showed that the concentration of dog oxytocin was not substantially different following either dog-walking or human–dog interactions. Additionally, the strength of the human–dog bond did not affect oxytocin concentrations. We suggest that more research is needed to fully understand the role of oxytocin in human–dog bonding. ABSTRACT: Several studies suggest human–dog interactions elicit a positive effect on canine oxytocin concentrations. However, empirical investigations are scant and the joint influence of human–dog interaction and physical activity remains unexplored. The aims of the current study were to (a) examine the canine endogenous oxytocin response to owner-led dog-walking and affiliative human–dog interactions and (b) investigate the moderating effect of the owner-reported strength of the human–dog bond on such responses. Twenty-six dogs took part in a random order cross-over trial, involving dog-walking and human–dog interactions. Urinary samples were collected before and after each condition. The data were analyzed using linear mixed models with condition, order of conditions, condition duration, and latency from initiation of condition to urine sample collection considered as fixed effects, and the participant was considered a random effect. Canine urinary oxytocin concentrations did not differ significantly following dog-walking (mean change: −14.66 pg/mg Cr; 95% CI: −47.22, 17.90) or affiliative human–dog interactions (mean change: 6.94 pg/mg Cr; 95% CI: −26.99, 40.87). The reported strength of the human–dog bond did not significantly moderate the canine oxytocin response to either experimental condition. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not observe evidence for a positive oxytocin response to dog-walking or human–dog interactions.
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spelling pubmed-64065322019-03-08 Canine Endogenous Oxytocin Responses to Dog-Walking and Affiliative Human–Dog Interactions Powell, Lauren Edwards, Kate M. Bauman, Adrian Guastella, Adam J. Drayton, Bradley Stamatakis, Emmanuel McGreevy, Paul Animals (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: It is widely recognized that humans and dogs share a unique relationship. However, the biological mechanisms that may contribute to this bond between owners and their pet dogs are still unclear. As such, we measured the concentration of oxytocin, a hormone that is important in social bonding, in dogs before and after two different activities: dog-walking and human–dog interactions. We also investigated whether the strength of an owner’s attachment to their dog affected the dog’s oxytocin concentration. Contradicting our suppositions, the experiment showed that the concentration of dog oxytocin was not substantially different following either dog-walking or human–dog interactions. Additionally, the strength of the human–dog bond did not affect oxytocin concentrations. We suggest that more research is needed to fully understand the role of oxytocin in human–dog bonding. ABSTRACT: Several studies suggest human–dog interactions elicit a positive effect on canine oxytocin concentrations. However, empirical investigations are scant and the joint influence of human–dog interaction and physical activity remains unexplored. The aims of the current study were to (a) examine the canine endogenous oxytocin response to owner-led dog-walking and affiliative human–dog interactions and (b) investigate the moderating effect of the owner-reported strength of the human–dog bond on such responses. Twenty-six dogs took part in a random order cross-over trial, involving dog-walking and human–dog interactions. Urinary samples were collected before and after each condition. The data were analyzed using linear mixed models with condition, order of conditions, condition duration, and latency from initiation of condition to urine sample collection considered as fixed effects, and the participant was considered a random effect. Canine urinary oxytocin concentrations did not differ significantly following dog-walking (mean change: −14.66 pg/mg Cr; 95% CI: −47.22, 17.90) or affiliative human–dog interactions (mean change: 6.94 pg/mg Cr; 95% CI: −26.99, 40.87). The reported strength of the human–dog bond did not significantly moderate the canine oxytocin response to either experimental condition. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not observe evidence for a positive oxytocin response to dog-walking or human–dog interactions. MDPI 2019-02-08 /pmc/articles/PMC6406532/ /pubmed/30744052 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani9020051 Text en © 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Powell, Lauren
Edwards, Kate M.
Bauman, Adrian
Guastella, Adam J.
Drayton, Bradley
Stamatakis, Emmanuel
McGreevy, Paul
Canine Endogenous Oxytocin Responses to Dog-Walking and Affiliative Human–Dog Interactions
title Canine Endogenous Oxytocin Responses to Dog-Walking and Affiliative Human–Dog Interactions
title_full Canine Endogenous Oxytocin Responses to Dog-Walking and Affiliative Human–Dog Interactions
title_fullStr Canine Endogenous Oxytocin Responses to Dog-Walking and Affiliative Human–Dog Interactions
title_full_unstemmed Canine Endogenous Oxytocin Responses to Dog-Walking and Affiliative Human–Dog Interactions
title_short Canine Endogenous Oxytocin Responses to Dog-Walking and Affiliative Human–Dog Interactions
title_sort canine endogenous oxytocin responses to dog-walking and affiliative human–dog interactions
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6406532/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30744052
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani9020051
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