Stressed Out? It Might Be Affecting Your Dog, Study Says
We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about how your dog might be mirroring you more than you realise.
And now, researchers from Queen’s University, Belfast (QUB) have found that your furry friend might pick up on your mood too.
The paper, which was published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science this October, found that your stress ― ongoing stress in particular ― might beget more stress in your dog.
How?
Scientists looked at the heart rate of dogs whose owners had varying levels of stress.
They found that high stress levels from owners predicted an increased heart rate in their dogs.
That suggests dogs may be responding to their owner’s worries with a similarly stressed-out state.
Dr Gareth Arnott, Reader in Animal Behaviour and Welfare and a co-author of the study, told QUB: “The results of this research indicate that dogs may have the ability to display emotional contagion, which is the mirroring of emotion, and social referencing, e.g. looking for cues to inform their reaction to a situation, towards their owners in novel settings.”
He said this might be especially helpful to keep in mind in veterinary situations ― especially considering dogs’ heart rates went down the more they got used to a certain environment.
Vet and the study’s other co-author, Aoife Byrne, added: “This research also underlines the importance of incorporating methods to mitigate owner stress in veterinary settings, as this has the potential to also reduce the stress experienced by their dogs.”
The exchange might go both ways
Pet owners will know that animals can be really soothing ― and it seems science has some reasons as to why.
Animals may be able to lower the heart rates and even blood pressure of humans who could “mirror” them, some experts say.
Another recent study found that dog and human brains seem to produce the same “brainwaves” when they make eye contact.
So if you’ve ever felt extremely connected to your pet, it’s not all in your head ― it may be in your heart too.