When your dog makes sad puppy eyes to get you to do something, that's not an accident. A new study found that about 33,000 years of evolution has helped dogs develop the muscles to make that face because it helps them get what they want from humans!
Basically dogs are in on it with nature.
A new study out of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh found that the sad puppy look is the result of tens of thousands of years of evolution.
The researchers believe that when dogs were domesticated about 33,000 years ago, some of them started figuring out that when they made that face, it helped them get what they wanted from humans.
So the muscles in their faces evolved to make it easier for them to make that facial expression . . . to the point where it's now widespread.
Ancient dogs didn't have those muscles . . . and still to this day wolves don't either since they aren't domesticated.
The researchers say, quote, "You don't typically see such muscle differences in species that are that closely related" . . . which means that dogs evolved those muscles for a reason. And that reason is to manipulate you.