Other than making us cater to their every whim, clean up after them (some with more class than others), and pay for the entire privilege, dogs remain at the mercy of their owners.

Not a day goes by without thousands of cute dog videos uploaded to the internet (it’s what that person in the office is chuckling about to themselves), but don’t be entirely fooled by those ‘puppy eyes’.

You know, the ones that are busted out when your pooch is caught doing something naughty.

According to a study co-authored by Dr Juliane Kaminski at the University of Portsmouth, it’s evident that dogs’ eyes are evolving to further manipulate your feelings.

Over to the BBC:

Researchers have found that dogs have evolved muscles around their eyes, which allow them to make expressions that particularly appeal to humans.

A small facial muscle allows dog eyes to mimic an “infant-like” expression which prompts a “nurturing response”.

The study says such “puppy eyes” helped domesticated dogs to bond with humans.

Previous studies have shown how such canine expressions can appeal to humans, but this research from the UK and US shows there has been an anatomical change around dogs’ eyes to make it possible.

This allows dogs to create what the researchers call “expressive eyebrows” and to “create the illusion of human-like communication”.

In other words, they’re playing you like a fiddle.

Kaminski says that dogs using this extra muscle would give them a greater chance of being bred, and protected, by humans, reinforcing this change in subsequent generations.

The change has happened over thousands of years of humans living alongside hounds, and backs up an earlier study that showed dogs are more likely to make use of the ‘puppy eyes’ when a human was watching them.

Anatomist and report co-author, Professor Anne Burrows of Duquesne University in the US, says that in evolutionary terms the changes to dogs’ facial muscles was “remarkably fast” and could be “directly linked to dogs’ enhanced social interaction with humans”.

They know what they want, and they know how to get it. Admit it – one set of puppy eyes and you’re already considering what treats you can buy them from Pet Culture.

That Outdoor Pet Raincoat is probably a decent place to start, given that we’re in the throes of winter.

Just remember that next time your lovable pooch bats its eyes, it knows exactly what it’s doing.

[source:bbc]