It’s hard to be away from someone dear to your heart. The emotional torture of not seeing them is never easy to handle, especially if you’re used to being with them almost every day. Little do we know, this doesn’t only apply to humans.

Dogs also miss their humans.

When the sense of belongingness finally sets into a dog’s mind, they become the most loving and loyal creatures on Earth. They’d want nothing but their owner’s attention and I think we’d all agree that it’s what every dog owner wants as well, right?

For someone who owns or had owned a dog, they’d tell you that they absolutely feel their dog’s love and affection. Dogs don’t talk but their body language says it all when it comes to showing how important their humans are to them.

That’s why it’s sad to be separated from them, under some circumstances, foreseen or not, it’s really hard to be away from them. While we, humans, have tons of ways to divert our attention to someone or something, it isn’t the same case for our furry friends.

Dogs find it hard to handle loneliness that’s why they get emotional once they get reunited with their owners.

Other people might say that dogs are just mere animals, but not the researchers at the Laboratory of Human-Animal Interaction and Reciprocity at Azabu University in Japan.

A new study called “Increase of tear volume in dogs after reunion with owners is mediated by oxytocin,” was also published in the journal Current Biology. The said study about dogs’ behavior shows that they produce emotion-elicited tears whenever they get to see their humans after being separated from them for a period of time.

In fact, this was solidified by the lead author of the study himself, Professor Takefumi Kikusui. In a press release, he explained that the idea of researching dogs’ behavior first came to his mind when he noticed his own dog, a poodle, had teary eyes when nursing her puppies.

“That gave me the idea that oxytocin might increase tears,” Professor Kikusui said.

Proven and tested.

To strengthen the foundation of their study, researchers decided to measure dogs’ tear volume. There, they were able to determine the amount of tears produced by the pooches during two instances – before their owners left and when they reunited with them.

Moreover, they also calculated and compared the amount of tears produced by dogs after interacting with people they didn’t know.

The researchers then came to the conclusion that dogs’ tear volume increased after seeing their beloved owners compared to when they tried socializing with strangers. They also discovered that the dogs’ tear volume increased when oxytocin was added to their eyes, which strengthens the idea that oxytocin plays an important role in dogs’ tear production.

“We found that dogs shed tears associated with positive emotions. We also made the discovery of oxytocin as a possible mechanism underlying it,” Professor Kikusui said in a press release.

“We had never heard of the discovery that animals shed tears in joyful situations, such as reuniting with their owners, and we were all excited that this would be a world first!” he added.

This only proves that dogs have emotions too.

Watch the video below to see how a dog reacted when she saw her owner again after being separated from him for months.

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Source: Good News, YouTube – Rumble Viral