New study reveals how your stress levels are affecting your dog
Recent research reveals your pooch can detect when your stress levels are heightened, and that they subsequently mirror your emotions during this time.
The study, conducted by researchers from Queen’s University Belfast, shows that changes in an owner’s heart rate (HR) can predict changes in their dog’s HR.
The team, from the School of Biological Sciences, set out to investigate whether changes in owner stress levels influenced canine stress in a novel environment, for example in a veterinary setting.
28 dog owners were fitted with HR monitors and exposed to either a stress-inducing digital test or stress-relieving guided meditation.
The HR’s of the pets were also safely monitored throughout this period, to identify any potential correlation in changing HR’s.
As expected, the owners reported an increase in stress levels following the completion of the digital stress test compared to the participants’ stress levels before the intervention.
In addition, in line with the study design, there was a trend for a decrease in reported stress levels following the completion of the guided meditation.
A particularly interesting finding was that changes in owner HR predicted subsequent changes in their dogs HR. This result indicates dogs are responding to the stress levels of their owners.
Dr Gareth Arnott, Reader in Animal Behaviour and Welfare from the School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s said:
“The results of this research indicate that dogs may have the ability to display emotional contagion, which is the mirroring of emotion, and social referencing, e.g. looking for cues to inform their reaction to a situation, towards their owners in novel settings.
“This has significant implications for managing canine stress in veterinary settings, as it provides evidence to suggest that owners' stress may influence the stress of their dogs.
“This research also demonstrated that dogs’ heart rates decrease as they adjust to new environments. Therefore, highlighting the importance of providing canines with time to acclimatise to novel settings, such as veterinary clinics, and how this may improve the accuracy of physical examinations conducted during a veterinary visit.”
Aoife Byrne, a qualified veterinarian, who carried out this research as part of her postgraduate studies within the School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s added:
“This research also underlines the importance of incorporating methods to mitigate owner stress in veterinary settings, as this has the potential to also reduce the stress experienced by their dogs. The impact of veterinary professionals implementing the results of this research in their practices may improve the welfare of both dog owners, and their dogs.”
This research was funded by the School of Biological Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast, as part of the MSc Animal Behaviour and Welfare programme.
You can read the published paper here.
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For media enquiries please contact Grace White at Queen’s Communications Office via email: g.white@qub.ac.uk