Can Your Puppy Sense What You Feel? (10 Facts & Emotions)
Given the capacity for miscommunication between partners, families, and friends, is it possible that your puppy, from a different species from you, can pick up on your emotions?
How Do We Communicate Emotions?
The bulk of your emotional leakage to the world around you is nonverbal (around 80%).
You display your emotions through the tone of voice, the way you use your body, and the expressions on your face.
Plus, your puppy has a super sensitive nose, which means it can smell your emotions and observe the physical signs.
Your puppy is more in tune with how you feel than your partner, your parents, and your best friends.
1. Does Your Puppy Feel Your Stress?
If you experience stress, you display it by:
- Sweating – feeling clammy and hot hands.
- Stomach cramps and nausea.
- Rapid, shallow breathing.
- Heart beating faster.
When you exhibit signs of stress, you move differently, your body is stiffer as if it is in pain, you talk differently, your heart beats faster, and you smell differently.
Your puppy may not identify that these things mean you are stressed, but your puppy does notice that you are not relaxed.
Your puppy can help you deal with stress by motivating you to get outside and move, plus you can rely on your puppy to love you unconditionally and not demand explanations for your grumpy mood and short temper.
Plenty of studies show that interacting with a puppy reduces stress’s physical and emotional impact on your body.
2. Can Your Puppy See Your Anxiety?
Anxiety is a fear response that varies from mild feelings of being uncomfortable to more extreme feelings and potential anxiety-related disorders like acrophobia.
Everyone suffers from anxiety because it is a natural response to potentially threatening or awkward situations.
When you get anxious, waiting for that critical phone call or before a visit to the dentist, your body language changes – perhaps you pace up and down, chatter aimlessly, or start tidying up as a distraction from your worries.
Your puppy is constantly aware of you, your actions, and your body odor. Your puppy knows you are feeling something that makes you feel unhappy.
On a positive note, cuddling with your puppy is an excellent way to relieve that anxiety.
3. Does Your Puppy Know You Are Sad?
Sadness is one of the seven universal human emotions as a response to loss and can vary from a mild feeling of disappointment that the cake is all gone to anguish at the loss of a partner.
Sadness can last a long time, and when you are sad:
- Your face changes with droopy eyes and lips.
- Your voice changes – either lower or higher, depending on the nature of your sadness.
- You hunch up and are unwilling to move.
Your puppy is hardwired to recognize human sadness and to offer comfort instinctively. Most owners report that their puppy wants more cuddles when the owner is feeling sad.
Interestingly, offering comfort and support is one of the best ways to deal with sadness for yourself and others.
4. Does Your Puppy Recognize Tears?
On the one hand, tears are a way to keep your eyes clean and functioning – many animals produce tears for that purpose.
Humans (as far as we currently know) are the only animals that cry for emotional reasons – sadness, anger, and happiness. A beautiful painting can move you to tears while your puppy sees nothing interesting.
Your tears are not pure water; tears contain hormones, proteins, and other compounds.
Your puppy can smell your tears and will often attempt to lick your face.
Your tears convey that you feel some strong emotion. Tears act as a safety valve to release an emotional overload, and your puppy probably sensed your changing mood long before the tears started.
Studies show that puppies are likely to head towards a crying person, unlike cats who walk in the opposite direction.
Your puppy has millennia of instincts tied to the close relationships between dogs and humans, and crying triggers a response and a need to offer comfort.
5. Does Your Puppy Know When You Are Angry?
Anger is one of the more violent human emotions, accompanied by aggressive body language and loud voices.
Your puppy recognizes anger, and the response may be fear or an aggressive display to protect itself from harm.
It is best to recognize that your anger needs to dissipate before dealing with your family or puppy.
Anger has a purpose in arousing the body for flight or fight, but modern living can spark angry feelings for relatively trivial causes.
6. How Do You Know Your Puppy Recognizes Your Emotions?
Your puppy communicates with you by vocalizations (yelps, barks, whines) and body language.
If you are angry, your puppy may run away and hide, show submissive behaviors (belly down on the floor or rolling over), or display aggression by standing its ground and barking.
The precise response to your anger depends on your puppy’s personality and breed.
When you feel stressed, anxious, or sad, your puppy is more likely to approach you to offer the physical comfort of body contact. Your puppy may whine quietly to attract your attention.
Your puppy recognizes your emotions through:
- Changes in facial expressions.
- The tone of your voice.
- Changes in scent.
- Changes in heart rate.
- Body language and attitude.
Your puppy can recognize human emotions in person and via a screen.
Your puppy is most sensitive to your feelings because you spend plenty of time together, and your puppy monitors your mood.
7. Do Your Emotions Impact Your Puppy?
Imagine the experience of living with a stressed and unhappy person – do you think your mood might dip in response?
Your puppy may mirror your emotional state; if you are unhappy as well as offering comfort, your puppy may also act out – excess chewing, forgetting its potty training, and generally behaving negatively.
Small bouts of bad weather or negative emotions are relatively harmless; you feel them, your puppy notices, and then you put on your coat and go out to play.
But what about days of stress and anxiety when you are going through a hard time?
Shifting your focus to ensure you meet your puppy’s needs and keep with the routine of walks, feeding, cuddles, and playtime will help you elevate your mood, provided you focus on your puppy’s needs and not your worries.
You can walk around the park stuck in your own head worrying about that missed deadline – that walk with your attention elsewhere is no good for your puppy.
Alternatively, you can put your worries aside for the ten to twenty minutes your puppy needs for an enjoyable walk, smell the air, and appreciate the changing seasons.
The change in focus will help you as well as the puppy.
Your puppy is a source of comfort and support when you go through hard emotional times, but provided you spend quality time with your puppy; you will benefit from decreased stress and higher levels of contentment.
8. Your Mental Health and Your Puppy
Many studies show that people with severe mental health issues (depression, post-traumatic stress, anxiety disorders) benefit from sharing their lives with a puppy.
But all puppy owners benefit from improved mental health and better resilience from the occasional or frequent stressful day.
Sharing your life with your puppy improves your response to negative emotions because:
- Puppies promote more Zen – when you play with a puppy, you are entirely in the moment.
- Walking and playtime give you more physical exercise.
- People and puppies work better with routines.
- You spend more time outdoors in nature.
- You get the comfort of regular physical touch with puppy cuddles and grooming.
- You catch joy from your puppy – who can’t smile when greeted with a whole-body tail wag?
- You meet more people and gain a community.
Typically, people who live with puppies are happier and more relaxed than those who go it alone without canine companionship.
9. Can Your Puppy’s Mood Affect You?
The other side of the coin is that if your puppy is unhappy, acting out, or ill, you will probably feel anxious and worried.
A puppy with severe separation anxiety can strain your mood as you dread coming home to find your best shoes chewed or a mess on the kitchen floor.
Owning a puppy isn’t always a relaxing experience because each puppy is an individual, and your puppy may have issues. It is essential to recognize if you face normal puppy behavior or need help from a professional behaviorist and a vet.
On a positive note, you can modify all your puppy’s quirks with training and a calm approach, except for some illnesses.
When your puppy is less fearful and stressed, your emotional mood will improve.
10. What If Your Puppy Doesn’t Respond to Your Emotions?
Your puppy is an individual, and not every puppy is sensitive to human emotions.
In studies showing puppies recognizing emotions, you don’t get 100% of all puppies reacting the same way. Instead of rushing toward a crying human, your puppy may be one of those that prefer to stand back and assess the situation.
Plus, it takes time for your puppy to tune into the changing weather of your emotions.
If your puppy has only been with you for a few weeks, it may not have a comparison for the difference in your mood.
As your bond develops, you will probably find that your puppy is more responsive to how you feel when you come in from work or if you feel a little blue today.
Conclusion
After 15,000 years of canine-human relations, it is unsurprising that your puppy picks up on your emotions and responds to them.
A close, loving bond with your puppy means you provide support for each other through stormy times and enjoy a daily happiness break on a walk, play session, or snuggling together to watch a film with tissues on hand to mop up the tears.