Elizabeth's Blog

Studies show that dogs can catch human emotions as if they were contagious and tend to mirror them.

An article from National Geographic explains that there is a range of emotional connections between a dog and its owner. Our canine companions can sense and understand our emotions, but they can also share them.

Larry Young, a professor of psychiatry at Emory University explains that when bonding with a dog through actions such as eye contact and physical touch it releases oxytocin. Young says “In order to have emotional contagion, dogs need to be able to recognize the emotions of their owner—that requires attention, which oxytocin facilitates. It causes the brain to focus on social cues.”

Dogs have affective empathy which is defined as the ability to understand someone else’s feelings. Specifically, those who are important to them.

Clive Wynne, a professor of psychology at Arizona State University explains that dogs are very social beings and they are easily affected by human joy. However, the latter is also true which means that if the owner is stressed and anxious, the dog will mimic these feelings.

Sensory factors such as facial expressions and body odor can also influence the emotional contagion between humans and dogs. The Journal Learning & Behavior found that dogs respond to human faces that express six basic emotions— anger, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise, and disgust. Dogs are also very sensitive to body odor. This is how they can detect diabetes in humans. This idea works the same in emotional responses. 

The length of a relationship can also influence a dog’s ability to catch on to its owner’s emotions.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/yes-dogs-can-catch-their-owners-emotions