021 - Man's Best Friend

Of all the reasons dogs have become man’s best friend, perhaps none is greater than the work of an errant eyebrow. Dogs are the descendants of wolves. Over the past twenty thousand years we have succeeded in pulling them closer to us, domesticating them as it were, into all the roles that dogs have played in human lives. We bred them to hunt: from elk (Elkhounds) to fox (foxhounds) to birds (birddogs) to rats (the rat terrier). We bred them to guard livestock (Great Pyrenees) and shepherd (Australian Shepherd). Eventually we bred them for affection and companionship (lapdogs). But why dogs? Why not guard penguins? Or pigs? Or pigeons? Why was it dogs?

It is because of how they look at us. It is because, to human eyes, the dog face registers a certain emotional intelligence, a certain expressivity, and the reason that their faces do this is because we are hard-wired to read faces through our autonomic physiology. The great success of dogs, and you can whip this out as an interesting little anecdote at parties, is due to the Levator Angle Oculi Medialis - or LAOM- a small eyebrow muscle, which is innervated by the facial and trigeminal nerves, the same nerves that innervate our human faces.

This is the muscle that allows your dog to look pensive, his face resting on his paws, or to give you those puppy dog eyes. It is what causes your dog to look like he is paying attention, or slightly embarrassed. It is why, when he cocks his head slightly to the side, and looks at you, you can hear him thinking, "Are you ready to go yet? Can we go now? Please?"

Can we go now? Please?