Do you ever wonder if your dog can tell how you are feeling?
Do you ever wonder if your dog can tell how you are feeling? It turns out they can. Dogs observe different signals to notice how their favorite humans are feeling. They can recognize chemical changes using their sense of smell and pick up on facial expression changes and behaviors.
Do Dogs Experience Emotions?
Researchers think dogs can experience basic emotions such as fear, love, joy, anger, and sadness. It is also thought that dogs can sense these same basic emotions in their favorite humans. It’s unclear whether your dog can tell how you are feeling.
How Can My Dog Know What I’m Feeling?
So, how can your dog tell how you are feeling? While dogs have limited ability to understand human emotions, they are masters of recognizing behavioral cues and advanced senses of smell. These two personality traits are the primary ways that pups view moods.
Dogs Use Their Advanced Sense of Smell
Did you know that one-third of a dog’s brain is dedicated to scent cells? Dogs have two senses of smell, one for food and the other for pheromones. Animals create and release pheromones. Human changes also provoke chemical changes that dogs can sense. Over time, dogs can link certain scents to specific emotions. For example, some dogs are trained to detect severe health conditions such as diabetes, cancer, or malaria.
Dogs Are Observant of Behavior Changes
Lastly, dogs are great observers of their owners and environment. Human facial expressions change to how we’re feeling. Your dog can tell how you feel by how you say words. Regardless of the words you say, your dog will wag its tail when you use a sweet tone of voice.
We Would Love the Opportunity to Care for Your Furry Friends!
Alexander Animal Hospital is a full-service animal hospital located in Severna Park, Maryland, serving the Severna Park, Pasadena, and Arnold Areas. Our goal is educating clients on the needs of their pets and understanding the importance of individualized veterinary care in order to strengthen the human-animal bond between owners and their pets.
We understand you have a choice when deciding on the care for your pets, and we strive to provide you with unparalleled services including wellness exams, vaccines, lost pet microchip ID, dental care, surgical services, digital radiography, and in-hospital laboratory services and diagnostics. Other highlights of Alexander Animal Hospital are the separate cat and dog waiting and exam rooms, as well as after-hours on-call emergency services.
Please take a look around our website and then give us a call at 410-777-8678 to set up an appointment.
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