Animals Your dog is wagging his tail, your cat is spinning: pet. How is that?
Cats purr contentedly as they are behind their ears to be scratched. Dogs are happy, tail wagging, across the chest rub. And also people caress each other like. But why do animals like to be petted?
“Pet causes endorphins to be released, in both human and animal,” explains gedragsbioloog and professor of veterinary science Claudia Vinke of Utrecht University. “That is an endogenous opiate (opium-containing soothing medicine, ed.) that is a fine feeling. The caress of a soft coat caused in a certain sense, a feeling of being high.”
Endorphin
Except endorphin is during the pet also oxytocin is created. That hormone reduces stress and thus also the blood pressure and heart rate. That is soothing and creates a feeling of connectedness between owner and beast.
Still not every animal on a kietelende hand waiting. Animals that are not people are used to it, find it generally unpleasant to be petted. Receive human attention and affection, therefore, must at an early age to be learned.
“For a puppy is the socialisatiefase between three and twelve weeks,” says Vinke. “Within that period, it is important that the animal met a lot of people and often be touched. If that doesn’t happen, then you get a dog that does not really loves the geaai and gegraai by human hands.”
