You may think you’re doing a pretty good job of hiding a bad mood from your pet, but even if you remain calm and carry on with your normal routine, your animal companion may be reacting to those subtle changes.
Dogs, in particular, are constantly taking in information from the people around them. They can pick up on changes in facial expressions, body language, movement, breathing, voice and even scent, Shawna Baskette, a dog behavior researcher and founder of The Dog Library, told Newsweek.
“If we think we’re successfully hiding stress by keeping our voice calm, we’re wrong,” Baskette said. “Our physiology gives us away.”
And when dogs pick up on those changes, it can sometimes show up in their behavior. A dog may become more clingy, restless or withdrawn, for example, or even become more fearful or difficult to handle.
Veterinary surgeon Mathieu Glassman has seen this play out in his own exam rooms.
Glassman told Newsweek that when an owner is particularly stressed or anxious during a veterinary visit, their dog can sometimes become fearful, aggressive or difficult to handle. But when he takes the dog into the examination area away from the owner, the animal may become noticeably calmer and behave like a “completely different animal.”
Glassman believes dogs often respond to their owner’s anxiety or pick up on their other emotions, although he noted that an animal may also be trying to protect its owner.
Dogs Can Smell Stress
Research has shown that dogs can detect changes in our bodies that accompany stress.
In a 2022 PLOS ONE study, dogs correctly distinguished between both breath and sweat samples from 36 people before and after they completed a psychological stress task with 93.75 percent accuracy. The findings suggested dogs can detect stress-produced changes in compounds released through human breath and sweat.
And the connection may not stop at detection.
Other research has also found correlations between dogs’ and owners’ long-term cortisol levels, as well as aspects of their heart-rate variability and activity during interactions. Together, these findings suggest that the relationship between people and their dogs can involve a degree of physiological and behavioral co-regulation, Baskette said.
That doesn’t necessarily mean dogs consciously absorb or understand their owners’ emotions. Instead, they may be highly responsive to the physical and behavioral signals that accompany those emotions.
“Our dogs are incredibly attentive to our moods and emotions, even when we’re not deliberately communicating anything,” Baskette said.
Look for a Change From Your Pet’s Normal Behavior
So how might a dog respond when it notices that something is different about its owner?
Baskette said owners shouldn’t look for one specific clue. Instead, pay attention to changes from their dog’s normal behavior.
A dog that suddenly watches its owner more closely, follows them around, seeks physical contact, withdraws or begins pacing could be responding to a change in their human. For some dogs, that response may look like increased attention-seeking, while others may become more restless, distant or reactive.
But those behaviors don’t necessarily mean the dog is reacting to its owner’s mood.
A sudden behavior change can have many explanations, including pain, illness, anxiety or changes in its environment. Owners shouldn’t assume that their own emotions are responsible for every instance of unusual behavior.
The key is to consider the bigger picture rather than focusing on one behavior in isolation. The timing is also worth considering.
If your dog begins acting differently around the same time you’re experiencing an unusually stressful period, it may be worth considering what your dog could be picking up from you.
What looks like your dog acting out may sometimes be your dog responding to a change it noticed before you did.