New preliminary data offers insight into why we may find dogs to be so darn lovable. A study found that dogs generally have faster facial muscles than wolves—muscles that allow them to quickly react with more expression, similar to humans. These same muscles may also help explain why dogs tend to bark, while wolves usually howl instead.Watch
The team plans to collect more facial muscle data before submitting their findings for peer review by the end of the summer, Burrows said. And they won’t stop there in trying to trace the origins of modern dogs. Their next goal is to study and compare the ear muscles of dogs and wolves, in order to understand how they may be involved in social communication and hearing.
That dogs can easily worm their way into our hearts is no secret. But for years, researcher Anne Burrows and her colleagues have been trying to figure out how dogs have evolved over millennia to become the adorable ragamuffins we know and love. Their earlier research has suggested, for instance, that dogs have a certain muscle largely absent in wolves that allows their eyes to open up big and wide to create that “puppy dog face” look.
The evolution of these faster facial muscles may not have only changed dogs’ capacity for expression but also how they verbally communicate, Burrows said. While wolves do occasionally produce short-timed barks, they more often stick to longer-lasting howls, and the reverse is generally true for dogs. The team theorizes that these behaviors are directly influenced by the facial muscles that each line of canine is now working with.Advertisement
The team observed muscle tissue taken from a range of dog breeds and the gray wolf under a microscope, looking for two different types of muscle fibers in particular: fast-twitch and slow-twitch fibers. Fast-twitch fibers can contract quickly but get exhausted sooner, while slow-twitch fibers are the opposite and allow for longer-lasting expressions. The tissues were taken from the orbicularis oris muscle (OOM), which surrounds the mouth, and the zygomaticus major muscle (ZM), located along the cheek. Both are important to creating facial expressions in dogs and humans, and the researchers were specifically looking at the ratio of slow-twitch to fast-twitch fibers in these muscles.
Long Walks
Long walks encourage engagement from the pectoral muscles but not the muscles along the back.
Some of the muscles and muscle groups used include:
Bekoff has worked with coyotes and wolves that were reared by humans after being born in the wild. While the adult animals were generally not as obedient as dogs, “hand-reared coyotes and wolves can communicate well with humans,” he said. “No one’s ever studied whether they are as good as dogs at communicating with us, but they are social animals.”
The muscles of all mammals, humans and dogs included, are made of millions of fibers of a protein called myosin. Each muscle has a mix of fast-twitch fibers that contract quickly but are fast to fatigue, and slow-twitch fibers that are slower to contract but don’t tire as fast.
The research by Burroughs and Omstead suggests that the high proportion of fast-twitch fibers in the faces of dogs is now closer to that of humans than that of wolves.
“When Upper Paleolithic people across Europe and Asia were domesticating the first dogs about 40,000 years ago, they seem to have selected dogs that had faces that moved very quickly,” she said.
That study found that the muscle was undeveloped in wolves, which suggests that “puppy dog eyes” is something dogs have evolved specifically to manipulate people.
Do Dogs View Humans As Dogs? ( Sounds Weird )
We are constantly talking about muscles with our dog owners, in this article we have tried to simplify the complexities of what your dogs muscles do and explore which major muscles are used during different types of exercises.
Any dog owner that has run playfully through their local park with their beloved pet has no doubt marvelled at the speed and graceful manoeuvrability a dog possesses. The muscular anatomy of a dog, while serving the same purpose in a dog, differs in structure and function from the muscular system in a human body. Just as the human muscular system is composed of units of tissue connected to the skeletal system, skin, and other muscles, a dog’s muscle anatomy is arranged in a similar fashion. Additionally, both muscular systems use the power of contraction to produce movement.
The muscle anatomy of a dog serves two important purposes. The first, and most obvious, is to facilitate movement of the limbs, head, neck, and joints. An equally important function for muscles is to provide stability to the joints of the body, making it easier for them to function under pressure.