You’re not crazy – Study shows your dog understands what you’re feeling

Have you ever been sad and your dog comes up and rests his head on your knee? Ever been sick and they’ll come over and put their paw on your leg?

Or when you’re scared maybe mirror your emotion the way a child might not panic at their injury until you do?

Photo by Jeff Deminski

Science just confirmed what you’ve known all along. Your dog can read your emotions.

According to a Washington Post story,  scientists in Europe studied how dogs react to the facial expressions of humans. And they did it in the most fascinating way.

First dogs were trained to stay awake. Then those dogs were put inside an MRI machine and shown pictures of human faces displaying various emotions.

Activity in different parts of these dogs’ brains was studied as they processed images of human faces showing happiness, fear, sadness, anger, etc..

Photo by Jeff Deminski

It’s no surprise dogs showed strong reactions to happiness.

We’ve already pretty much known that. But what was wild was that the dogs noticed the more subtle differences between the looks of sadness, fear, anxiety, etc.. Different parts of the brain would fire for these emotions.

As someone who’s had five dogs in his lifetime I’ve certainly seen this anecdotally. Once I was seriously ill and bedridden, and I swear my dog looked worried.

He came and stayed beside my bed and rigidly sat at attention for hours. I swear he was trying to protect me. He never did it any other time.

So science has figured out what most of us have always known. You’re not crazy, your dog knows what you’re feeling.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

Report a correction 👈