Having A Way With Dogs

The study which aimed to determine the optimal age of puppy cuteness, found that puppies are most appealing to humans at around 7 to 8 weeks of age. That's around the time when puppies are weaned from their mothers, leading to hypothesize that puppies reach peak cuteness right when they need human care the most.

Just as their mother is getting sick of them and is going to kick them out of the den and they're going to have to make their own way in life, at that age, that is exactly when they are most attractive to human beings.

The new findings may help scientists better understand howdogs evolvedto rely on human care.

This attraction of humans to dog pups at that phase of life may have given early dogs, and may continue to give today's free-living dogs, a competitive advantage by being adopted and cared for by humans.

Cute and cutest

Dogs evolved from wolves, but the two types ofcanineshave notable differences; for example, wolf puppies are reared by their parents for up to two years, while dog puppies are abandoned by their mothers after weaning, at around 7 to 10 weeks of age.

This early age of abandonment leads to a high mortality rate among puppies that are not in the care of humans; according to some estimates, more than 70 percent of puppies die in the first year of life without human care.

Previous studies have found that humans consideranimals to be cuterif they have "infantile features," such as large eyes, a round face and a small mouth. But these studies did not look at whether there might be an "optimal age" of adorableness.

In the new study, 51 (very lucky) student participants were put to work: They were shown photos of puppies at different ages, from birth to 7 months old, and were asked to rate the animals' cuteness. The photos included images of three breeds of dog: the Jack Russell terrier, the cane Corso, and the white shepherd.