If you’re chronically stressed, your dog could be too
Canines absorb our emotions, according to a new study of stress hormones in dog owners and their pets.
A glance at your dog’s expectant face and wagging tail can brighten even the worst day. And when they’re sick, we hurt, too.
Now, a new study shows that this relationship runs both ways: Owners that experience long-term stress and anxiety can pass it on to their pooches.
“Dogs are quite good at understanding humans,” says senior author Lina Roth, a zoologist at Sweden’s Linkoping University. “They’re definitely better at understanding us than we are at understanding them.”
Indeed, a burgeoning body of literature is revealing dogs’ ability to interpret non-verbal cues in people. (See 19 ways dogs tell us what they want.)
This skill has been honed over tens of thousands of years of living with humans. When
