Study Finds Your Job Stresses Your Dog Out Almost As Much As It Does You
Our canine friends are there for us through thick and thin and can truly understand and feel our emotions.
Charlie Green | Unsplash Anyone who works knows that it is basically impossible to avoid at least some level of job stress, but a new study has found that work isn't just affecting you — it's stressing your dog out, too.
While employees may do their best to stuff these feelings down and ignore them, they’re still bound to affect those workers. It would make sense, then, that these feelings of stress would bleed into their personal lives. It’s easy to pick up on emotions from those around you, especially those you’re close to. One group of researchers wondered if this extended to an often underappreciated but still ever-present member of the family: dogs.
It turns out that dogs can feel their humans' work stress.
A team of scientists from Virginia Tech set out to conduct an ambitious experiment that, to their knowledge, had not been previously studied. They wanted to see if dogs could pick up on and feel the stress their humans felt because of their jobs. Their findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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The researchers noted that more than 97% of Americans who own a pet think of that pet as a member of their family. Because of that, they hypothesized that those pets would be affected by their owners’ work-related stress just like any other family member would be. They were particularly interested in examining the effect on dogs, as they “are highly sensitive animals who experience emotional contagion and ‘catch’ the feelings of other individuals, including humans.”
The effect of one’s emotions, like stress, making the rounds and affecting others, is known as crossover. This crossover seems to impact dogs more than other animals because of their close connection to human emotions.
To conduct the study, researchers gathered a group of 85 dog owners who had jobs. Researchers measured the dogs’ stress levels through a visual analog scale, which allowed owners to judge how stressed their dogs were. They also asked owners to record how often their dogs participated in specific behaviors that indicated they were stressed out.
Scientists believed that dogs would be sensitive to their humans’ emotions regarding work, and they were right.
They found that “work-related rumination,” or the act of thinking about and stressing over work during off hours, had a huge crossover effect for dogs, just like it could for another human. This, of course, is not great news for dogs, but researchers were hopeful that it could raise awareness in their owners.
“Protecting one’s pet dog may serve as a powerful motivator to improve one’s level of work stress and resist engaging in ruminative thoughts about work,” they said. They pointed out that one of the reasons a human’s work stress may affect their dog is because they are less likely to take care of them as well when they are in the middle of a stressful season.
This makes sense, as it is difficult to even care for yourself when in a state of extreme stress. While caring for your furry friends is always a priority, being consistent when you’re under pressure and stopping yourself from snapping, as one might with a child, can be hard.
A similar Italian study revealed just how clearly dogs can sense a human’s emotions.
The American Kennel Club reported on a study performed at the University of Bari Aldo Moro’s Department of Veterinary Medicine. Researchers discovered that dogs can actually distinguish between happy sounds, like laughter, and sad sounds, like crying, that their owners make. Sadder sounds caused dogs to respond more strongly than happy ones did, showing just how much they care.
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While dogs may not be able to communicate with us as clearly as we would like them to, one thing is clear: they understand us and our emotions. Because they know how we feel, they can be there for us during our darkest moments, making the bond between humans and pets even stronger.
Since these furry friends are so faithful, it's all the more reason for us to leave our stress at work instead of bringing it home with us. We'll be happier and so will our pups.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
