After centuries of domestication and breeding, dogs understand more about us and are more connected to our emotions than we realize. Our dogs “read us like a book” and they mirror our stress levels. They have learned to act/react based upon our verbal communication but more importantly on our nonverbal cues.
Approximately 90% of human communication is nonverbal. When you are happy, your dog wags and jumps and barks with excitement. When you are sad or stressed your dog will quietly sit at your side and offer a head on your lap. If you are angry your dog may retreat or hide until things blow over. Canines look to their humans for cues on how to react to situations.
A Swedish research team recruited 58 dog-owner pairs and measured the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their hair and fur. There was a direct correlation between owners with a high amount of cortisol in their hair and their dog’s cortisol level. The results suggest that dogs may be quite sensitive to human stress and are likely to mirror that stress.”
In addition to our verbal and non-verbal cues, a dog’s sense of smell is incredibly acute, up to 10,000 times more sensitive than ours . . . and when we are stressed, we give off pheromones that are undetectable by humans but very detectable by our dogs due to an organ in the nasal cavity they possess but we do not.
At Top Dog, I witness that much of the separation anxiety in dogs when they come to vacation is created, unknowingly of course, by their people. I see pet parents check their dogs in for their vacations and they fuss over the dog and get very emotional. While I know they will miss their 4-legged child . . . as I do when I am away . . . they don’t realize that the dog is looking to them for cues, senses their mood, and mirrors it. In the dog’s mind, their owner is anxious so there must be something wrong and they become stressed. It is amazing to watch, as soon as the anxious parent leaves the lobby, the dog relaxes immediately and is happy to start their vacation.
When I leave my dogs, I stay calm, confident, and happy. I give them a hug, say “see you soon”, and I keep things upbeat. My actions let them know that everything is OK and they settle in quickly, and more importantly, they relax and have a great time!
Jean Stelten
“Lead Dog”
Top Dog Country Club
