von How often do you pet your dog? Gaze into its loving eyes? Smile at it? Hopefully, very often, because the more you do it, the more your dog will love you — and research helps us to understand why.
Every time you gaze lovingly into your dogs’ eyes, its levels of oxytocin — the “attachment hormone” — go up. And so do yours.
Oxytocin has long been referred to as “the love hormone” and the “cuddle hormone,” because we (and our pets) release it when we hug, touch, or look lovingly into someone’s eyes. This increases our attachment to that person (or animal.)
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