The three best ways to calm down together
You love your dog and want them to feel safe and happy… even when you’re feeling stressed out yourself. But your best friend absorbs and mirrors that stress too. Even if you try to mask it, acting upbeat and friendly when you’re around your pet, they can sense what’s really going on.
Just like your stress can take a toll on your health, the same can happen with your dog. That’s why it’s so important to find ways to lower the volume so you can both calm all the way down.
Dogs Smell Stress
It’s a scientific fact: Dogs can smell human stress[1], and that scent can affect their choices. People and dogs have lived together and evolved together over thousands of years, and getting an instant read of human emotional states was necessary for dogs’ survival.
A new study found smelling stress leads dogs to make different, more pessimistic decisions.[2] The study included 18 dogs and humans they didn’t know. The people performed both relaxing and stressful activities, and the researchers took odor samples collected during both. When the dogs smelled neutral or relaxed odors, they were more likely to approach an unfamiliar treat bowl that might or might not contain treats. But when the dogs smelled stress odors, they didn’t bother going to the bowl. The researchers concluded that the human stress smell led the dogs to not expect a positive outcome (treats).
If a dog can be that affected by a stranger’s stress smell, imagine the impact when it’s someone they love!
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Your Dog Can Catch Your Stress
Not only does your stress smell different to your dog, it’s also contagious (like a yawn, not like a virus).
Situational stress (also called acute stress) is extremely contagious between people and their dogs. And new research shows that long-term chronic stress works the same way.[3] So if you’re dealing with constant stress, so is your dog. And if your pup happens to be a herding breed, like a border collie or an Australian shepherd, they’re even more likely to sync up with your stress.
How Stress Harms You Both
Stress is a regular part of life, but when it becomes overwhelming to your body it can start to affect your health. And the same is true for your dog. Some of your stress signs will be different. For example, anxious dogs may pant a lot (even when they’re not hot), lick their lips, or keep their ears pinned back.
But many stress signs look the same in both you and your dog:
- Trouble focusing
- Being more reactive to sounds
- Social withdrawal
- Pacing
- Lost appetite
- Stomach upset
- Gas
- Diarrhea
When people or dogs feel stressed it can go straight to their digestive system.[4] That’s not surprising because there’s a close connection between gut health and your body’s ability to manage stress. What’s more, these two issues can spiral together: Stress causes imbalances in the gut microbiome (the trillions of bacteria in your gut). Those imbalances ramp up the stress response and cause more stress… which causes more digestive upset… which leads to more stress… it can spiral out of control.
And when you and yo