Do dogs show love through eye contact?

Eye contact can mean many things, but strong eye contact or staring is uncomfortable for dogs. It can make them worried or feel threatened. When your dog looks at you with soft, relaxed eye contact, that means they trust you. And, it could be argued, trust is the highest form of love you can receive from your pooch. Compare how awkward and uncomfortable you can feel when someone stares at you. It’s the same for dogs.

It was just a look from a young dog, but somehow it made me feel warm and loved. When a child gazes at his or her caretaker it is interpreted as either an expression of affection or a request for some sort of interaction. The link to dogs comes from the fact that a survey conducted by the American Animal Hospital Association reports that 75% of dog owners consider their pets to be pretty much the equivalent of young children. Most pet owners seem to treat and respond to the signals that dogs give out in much the same way that they would respond to signals from a child. The dogs that were well-bonded to their owners tended to gaze at them a lot more, and the data confirmed that the more they gazed at their owners the higher the oxytocin levels rose, suggesting that their human caretaker's feelings of well-being, and of being loved, were also rising. So the bottom line seems to be that dogs do have a "look of love" which can tug at your heartstrings and make you feel better—but only if you already have an affectionate bond with that dog. The oxytocin concentration was obtained in the human participants' urine, which was collected before and after each test session. The findings were interesting, it had been expected that the oxytocin level in the human would rise based on the dog and owner making visual contact, and it did, but only for the group which had the stronger bond.

Our dogs will look directly at us if they trust us and feel at ease, but they will frequently turn their head or look away to show they are being non-confrontational. To a dog, however, maintaining eye contact is perceived as a challenge or a threat. Prolonged periods of eye contact can make a dog feel really worried. When you looking at your dog, try to do so with as soft a gaze as possible to keep them calm and comfortable, and avoid holding direct eye contact. Turning their head away from whatever is bothering or worrying them is also a telltale sign of doggy stress, sometimes they will also close or partially close their eyes.