Posted on 04/16/2015 1:18:41 PM PDT by Kartographer
Dogs are called "man's best friend" - women's, too - and scientists say the bond between people and their pooches may be deeper than you might think.
Researchers in Japan said on Thursday oxytocin, a hormone that among other things helps reinforce bonds between parents and their babies, increases in humans and their dogs when they interact, particularly when looking into one another's eyes.
They described a series of experiments that suggest that people and their canine companions have mutually developed this instinctual bonding mechanism in the thousands of years since dogs were first domesticated.
(Excerpt) Read more at ca.news.yahoo.com ...
The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog. A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer. He will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings, and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.
If fortune drives the master forth, an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against danger, to fight against his enemies. And when the last scene of all comes, and death takes his master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by the graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad, but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even in death.
George Graham Vest - c. 1855
Love your pics!
There is a special bond between humans and canines
Truer words were never written!!
MAN AND DOG
Long ago, in the beginning, Man and the Animals
were together. They lived together, they hunted
together, and they worked together. One day, The
Great Spirit decided to separate Man and the
Animals. He lined up all the Men and all the
Animals from horizon to horizon facing each other
and began to open a deep chasm in the Earth
between them. As the chasm in the Earth began to
open, at the last moment before it got too wide, Dog
jumped back over the chasm to the other side to be
with Man, and Man and Dog have been together
ever since.
An American Indian Legend
That is just beautiful, Kartographer!
From the beginning God gave man dominion over all the animals of the Earth, but only horse and dogs know it.
I have always felt this way, and recent studies indicate that this is indeed the case, this is simply one of the latest.
From the standpoint of evolutionary psychology I believe this is true.
I’ve been searching for a nice little poem, the title was something like, “An Old Man Remembers Many Dogs” maybe a fellow Freeper has seen or heard of it?
What a handsome dog! Poodles may be the most intelligent of dogs.
How adorable!
Great pic! So earnest!
I sometimes think that if we could be more like our dogs we would be better for it.
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