Why are Dogs so Cute? Some Unknown Facts

Dogs. Be it big or small are adorable, aren’t they? There is just something about these furry creatures that make on go Aww. With their big heads, button noses, and big round eyes, puppies share numerous physical features like human babies. Looking into your dog’s innocent round eyes and having this innate urge to cuddle them and hug them. Sounds familiar? We all have been there. The reason dogs are people’s favorite pets is that they are cute, fun, lovable, and fiercely loyal.

Be it babies or baby animals, they invoke an automatic cute response from within. That is how human brains are wired – we are supposed to respond to cuteness. Seeing a small baby, human or animal, makes us want to take care of them and nurture them. It triggers a warm compassionate feeling within us.

This is called Kinderschema. Let’s talk about it:

Kinderschema

Kinderschema is about how most baby or young mammals share similar appearance and configuration such as little mouths and chins, small noses, and big rounded eyes. Human brains are wired in a manner that we find these physical characteristics adorable and cut

Due to this phenomenon, whenever we see a baby, we are compelled to be gentle with them and both nurture and protect them. And when that happens, when we respond to these instincts, dopamine, the feel-good chemical is released unleashing happiness.

Furthermore, this response does not resort to human babies. We feel the same way when we come across cuddly baby animals like lion cubs, baby elephants, kittens, and puppies! What we feel for puppies and other baby animals, in general, is an involuntary response.

The Domestication Syndrome

There is another theory that answers why humans find dogs so cute called the domestication syndrome. Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, was the first person to have made this observation over a century ago. He was trying to find the answers as to why the animals in the wild and the domesticated ones, like dogs had similar features but even then were very different from one another.

In Germany, at the Humboldt University of Berlin, research was conducted. It concluded that humans play a key role in the domestication syndrome. When humans breed particular traits such as fur color and floppy ears, they, prefer genetic defects. Some features are more attractive to humans which Mother Nature didn’t particularly include in the gene pool.

This is why you would see that a wolf or a wild dog would look very much like a dog but different from them. Domestic pets are essential. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that humans wouldn’t have survived without them. They relied on them in the past and still do. Apart from making pests and rodents go away, they offer companionship.

Humans are significant in the global ecosystem even though their actions are against nature. So, after reading the above now you know why we find dogs cute. Well, they ARE cute. And we humans are built in such a way that finds them adorable, cute, and cuddly.