There are (many) dogs who love humans and (many) dogs who suffer from them, some to the point of being openly hostile towards them.
It is generally thought that when dogs have problems with humans it is due to bad experience, particularly mistreatment and trauma. In reality, this question, like many others concerning dogs, is more subtle and complicated than what is believed: it is in fact common for dogs to have difficulty – with the different degrees and ways in which it manifests itself – towards men and women. are instead more serene and relaxed with women, and without having any history of abuse. Dogs, women and men
Traumas are certainly an element that leads dogs to be afraid of people and more of men than of women because it is statistically much more likely to have suffered violence, abuse, coercion, etc. by both men and women.
That said, as seen at the outset, it’s not just dogs that have suffered trauma that are uncomfortable with humans. The perception that dogs have of humans is made up of visual, auditory, instinctual, olfactory (and therefore hormonal) and contextual components, compared to which men and women are different and it has been observed that dogs prefer women .
Let’s see better. The role of smell
The sense of smell and the main sense of dogs and smells are a very important means of transmitting information: compared to other signals that social animals send, smells have the advantage (for those who receive them and know how to interpret, of course) of not be controllable so they are unambiguous .
In other words, the emotions and moods, and therefore also the intentions, which are transmitted with smells cannot be hidden or disguised by modifying one’s behavior (which instead can be done, for example, with visual signals. and sound) so from the smells, which they hear, and interpret with such skill, dogs collect important information about who they are in front of. And, as far as dogs are concerned, men are at a disadvantage in terms of olfactory signals compared to women. The richness of odors
On the odor front, there are several factors to consider:

  • the emotional states transmitted by smells are mainly negative (among these, anxiety, stress, fear, etc.)
  • in general, men have much stronger odors than women
  • hence the smells that men produce when they are stressed, afraid, angry, etc. they are stronger than those produced by women and even stronger due to the highly sensitive canine smell
  • even when relaxed, sweat and other body secretions that men release contain much higher concentrations of substances that convey negative emotions
  • men have a much higher concentration of testosterone, a hormone associated with greater aggression both in the individual and in those around him

Dogs are not indifferent to what their nose transmits to them and, scholars tell us, particularly anxious dogs who rely even more on smell to evaluate who they are in front of, respond with suspicion, discomfort, if not really hostility. , to the smells that men release. Oxytocin also plays a role
Some time ago we saw that it is scientifically proven that dogs are like children, behavioral and physiological factors reveal it.
A central role in the bond that forms between dogs and humans has oxytocin, also called the love hormone, which as it serves for the development of the bond between the human mother and the children, thus contributes to that between the dog and its humans – its levels, in fact, rise both in the dog and in humans already few seconds after they begin to interact (just a prolonged exchange of glances is enough for both to benefit from the effects of this almost magical hormone).
The researchers found, however, that the behavior of oxytocin is not the same in men and women when there are interactions with dogs: in interacting women and dogs, oxytocin levels rise; the same does not happen in men.
The data is interesting because it emerged that dogs reciprocate the preference: scholars believe that their levels of oxytocin rise more when they interact with women than with men, which would explain the preference towards women and the bond more forte that they develop with them. The role of behaviors
Men and women respond differently in stressful situations, both their own and others. Faced with a stressful agent, men tend either to distance themselves or to go against them and their action is partially mediated by testosterone, a hormone that promotes aggression and lowers inhibitory controls; women, on the other hand, tend to react with pacifying and nurturing behaviors, and tend to reduce risks through pacification.
The two different ways of responding to risk situations do not escape dogs who, we have seen on other occasions, perceive and interpret how those in front of them feel and escape the negative and appreciate the positive. It is not surprising, therefore, the scholars explain, that they react better and prefer the non-reactive, calm and reassuring attitude of women over the confrontational one of men. Greater sensitivity
At least in the eyes of dogs, women are superior to men also for another reason: they are generally more sensitive to non-verbal social signals and in the relationship with dogs it results in a greater ability to grasp even the very subtle signals that are part of the communication of dogs and therefore to understand how they feel, and dogs appreciate being understood. The role of sounds and vocalizations
Women generally have a lower and gentler tone of voice than men and use the language used with children with dogs, elements that make them preferable to dogs. That said, scholars say that men who approach dogs in a gentle and gentle way are equally effective in approaching and interacting with them.

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