How Dogs Sense Our Emotions

If you are a dog owner and have a close, loving bond with your pup, you have probably wondered if he can read your mind or know what kind of mood you are feeling.  Does he get clingy when you’re depressed or feeling sick?  When you have an argument with your partner, does your dog go and hide?

Our dogs aren’t clairvoyant, but they do have an uncanny ability to sense our emotions.  How do they do it?

Dog Truth

Humans and dogs have similar social systems. Both live in tight-knit family units (or packs) who protect each other and are very loyal. We both have complex language of facial expressions, vocalizations, and body posture that promote bonding.  At some point in history, the early dogs learned to decode human nonverbal language.  The better they anticipated our feelings and thoughts, the more they were rewarded with food, shelter, and affection.

Are They Mind Readers?

We are often amazed that our dogs are so astute, but think about it….. why wouldn’t they be? A renowned dog trainer and author, Brian Kilcommons, pointed out:  what else do they have to do but watch us all day and study our every move?  “Is she happy?”  “Is she angry or upset?” “Should I find a place to hide?”  Dogs must realize somehow that their fates are so closely tied to our feelings and whims, and so they are wise to monitor our moods.  A good mood might mean an extra ear scratch or snuggle or a game of fetch….or even a treat!  A bad mood might mean scary loud noises and yelling, and a day spent hiding under the bed.   It makes good sense that our dogs would watch us closely because our changing moods give them essential clues as to what is about to happen next for them.

Dogs are great watchers and may be better observers than humans. We pay so much attention to spoken language that it often interferes with our ability to see the other things that are happening around us. In some ways, we rely too heavily on what we can see.  Our visual system is so highly evolved that it tends to override the more primitive senses – smell, touch, and hearing.  Those senses are highly developed in dogs, and we are often not aware of what we are missing.

Another point is that we can’t see ourselves.  Your family, your friends, and your dog know your habitual movements, expressions, and verbalizations, but you may not.  If you make a video of yourself interacting with your dog, you may be amazed at what you notice.

Body Language

It is commonly said that around 90% of human communication is nonverbal (and only 10% is verbal).  This may be difficult to believe, but if that is true then it’s no wonder that our dogs can read us like a book.  Our posture, gait, head carriage, and facial expressions speak volumes about our mood, motivation, and intent.  If we act happy, our dogs wag tails excitedly and bring you their favorite toy for us to toss, or roll over for a belly rub.   If we hang our head in sorrow, they slowly slink over and may affectionately press their head in our lap.

Dogs can sense our feelings of sadness

Dogs are so good at reading facial expressions. Just for fun, try this mirroring experiment:  Sit facing your dog and make an exaggerated happy face. There’s a very good chance that your dog will light up as well with an open mouth, relaxed ears, open facial expression……in other words, a big puppy grin.  Now try furrowing your brow and look stern and angry.  Your dog will avert his eyes, stiffen, and look scared or ashamed.

A dog’s understanding of body language can explain their uncanny ability to find the one person in the room who doesn’t like dogs.  A fearful person tends to tense up and stare.  Dogs sometimes mis-read a fearful person’s behavior as being a “challenge” posture, similar to that of a dominant dog squaring up to an opponent.  This immediately puts a dog on the defensive.

Sounds

Dogs can hear a wider range of frequencies and their ears are much more sensitive than ours. If you’ve ever wondered how your dog anticipates your arrival home, their radar ears pick up the subtle sounds of your car braking, your car door closing, footfalls on the sidewalk, and the jingle of your keys. These sounds may seem inaudible to us, but our dogs hear them very well.

Your dog may not understand every word you say, but he definitely knows the tone of your voice. Dogs can hear the different inflections in our voices that mean we’re happy, anxious, tentative, sad, or angry.  All you have to do is start a sentence when you discover the overturned kitchen trash and your dog will hang his head and skulk away.  To most dogs, the sound or tone of your voice is worth a thousand words.

Smell

As with hearing, a dog’s sense of smell is so much more sensitive than ours.  For one thing, they possess up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses, compared to about six million in ours.  And the part of a dog’s brain that is devoted to analyzing smells is, proportionally speaking, 40 times greater than ours.  Subtle changes in a person’s scent are obvious to our dogs, just as we might notice a person’s new haircut or if they’ve lost weight.

This may be one way that dogs detect illness.  When we are sick, our metabolism changes and different chemicals appear in our breath and through our skin.  Dogs can sense this. Changes in breath chemicals may be one way that seizure-alert dogs recognize when a person is about to have a seizure.

The belief that dogs can “smell fear” is probably true because when we are anxious, we start to perspire lightly.  It may not be visible or felt, and you can’t smell it, but a dog can.

Me and my brother, Arco von Portenfels, in my Grandma’s backyard.

I remember as a little girl riding my tricycle on the sidewalk in front of my Grandma’s house and my beloved Arco, a black poodle who came from Germany with my Dad after WWII, was there with me.  A man was walking toward me on the sidewalk but was still a good distance away. As he got a little closer, Arco growled and took off running.  He grabbed the man’s pants leg and started pulling it and shaking it in his teeth.  Of course, the man pulled loose and very quickly ran back the way he came. Arco was a sweet, loving dog who got along with everyone, but he sensed something that day.  Whether it was fear in me or something of harmful intent in that man, he acted on it and protected me.

Humans and dogs have lived and evolved together for at least 15,000 years and probably much longer. Given this, and the close bond that many people have with their dogs, it may not come as any surprise that dogs appear to have developed this skill in recognizing human emotions.  It sometimes seems as though they know us better than we know ourselves!