Man's best friend: Dog owners' love for their pooches rivals motherly affection

By Daily Mail Reporter

Dog owners get the same surge of emotions when looking at their pooch as mothers do with their infants, scientists say.

In a trial they found the owners experienced a burst in the hormone called oxytocin when playing with their pets. Known as the 'cuddle chemical' or 'love drug', it has been found to dampen stress, combat depression, and breed trust in humans.

Playing with dogs releases the 'love drug' oxytocin, according to new research

Biologists Miho Nagasawa and Takefumi Kikusui from Azuba University in Japan, were inspired by their own experiences.

'Miho and I are big dog lovers and feel something changed in our bodies when gazed (upon) by our dogs,' Mr Kikusui told New Scientist.

They recruited 55 dog owners and their pets and took a urine sample from the owners before and after a half hour laboratory play session.

Some owners were put in a control group who sat in a room with their dog and were told to completely avoid the gaze of their pets.

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Dog-owners who spent an average of two and a half minutes making eye contact during the play session, experienced a 20 per cent rise in their oxytocin levels.

But the group that avoided looking at their dog were shown to have a slight drop in their oxytocin levels.

Those who spent longer gazing at their hounds tended to rate their relationship with their pet as more satisfying than those who only held a short gaze during play.

Kikusui said that a flood of the cuddle chemical could explain why playing with dogs can lift moods and even improve symptoms of anxiety and depression.

They even suggested that oxytocin might have played a part in the domestication of dogs from wolves, about 15,000 years ago.

'Maybe during the evolutionary process, humans and dogs came to share the same social cues', such as eye contact and hand gestures, said Mr Kikusui.

He added: 'This is why dogs can adapt to human society.'

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Olivia Newton-John's partner 'staged his own death to avoid debt repayments and is alive and well,' U.S. investigators claim

By Daily Mail Reporter

The former partner of Olivia Newton-John, who was believed to have drowned at sea nearly four years ago, staged his own disappearance, private U.S. investigators have claimed.

Patrick McDermott is said to be travelling along the Mexican and South America coastline under an alias to avoid paying debts and enable his teenage son to cash in on a $151,000 insurance policy.

McDermott was 48 years old when he disappeared after boarding a fishing charter boat called The Freedom in California in June 2005.

Patrick McDermott, pictured here with Olivia Newton-John in 2005, just months before he allegedly staged his own death in an apparent boating tragedy

U.S. Coast Guard officials concluded that the cameraman had most likely drowned in a boating tragedy - which Newton-John, his parter of eight years, has always accepted.

But suspicion remained over McDermott's disappearance after it emerged he filed for bankruptcy before his disappearance.

He also owed thousands of dollars in child support payments to his ex-wife.

Olivia married John Easterling in 2008

The explosive new claims will be detailed in U.S. network NBC's current affairs show Dateline this week.

The show hired a private investigators agency in March 2007 to find McDermott and now believe they are getting close.

'He's alive - there's no doubt in my mind, this guy's alive,' lead investigator Philip Klein told the programme.

'Maybe in his mind if he stages his death, the insurance policy will pay off his debts and he can leave his child a gift by pretending he's dead.'

Klein claims that McDermott's life insurance policy 'is in full force and effect. The premiums have been paid every month. There has also been an inquiry by a person or persons in an attempt to possibly file a claim on the insurance money.'

Klein's agency set up a website called findpatrickmcdermott.com.

But it was actually a ruse to find McDermott by showing investigators the locations of people logging on to the site.

Klein began tracking hits from what he believes was a boat travelling along the Mexican coastline as far as South America.

'Sayulita, Mexico, is where many of the hits were coming from,' Klein said.

'We got to Sayulita, we began to show his picture around to witnesses in the area, and we found people who said, "Yeah, I know him, he comes here all the time." We have witnesses, including five Americans, willing to give us signed affidavits that they've seen him.

'He asked waiters to put him in corners, he had changed his appearance once or twice. He's moving as a lone wolf.'

'The rule of thumb is always this - when you're running you are always looking over your shoulder and we're going to catch him looking at us,' he said.

'We fully anticipate he's going to go underground for a while," Klein said. "But when he raises his head, he's not just going to have 20 eyes looking for him, he's going to have a million eyes looking for him.'

The investigator said that Newton-John, who declined to be interviewed for the Dateline programme, apparently was also accessing the site on a regular basis for updates on efforts to find McDermott.

'The most unusual hits we've gotten were Olivia Newton-John when she was on tour in Asia. Every hotel she was registered at and staying at there were hits from that hotel on that night where she was staying,' Klein said.

He said his team had 'confirmed' sightings of McDermott from at least 17 witnesses across Mexico.

In 2008 Grease star Newton-John married John Easterling, founder and president of natural remedy firm, Amazon Herb Company.

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