Can Your Anxiety Affect Your Dog?

Let's get one thing out of the way — anxiety isn’t contagious. It's not as though your dog can "catch” a case of the jitters from you. But like any other intuitive creature, your dog will pick up on the energy you put out into the world. And like any soul that cares for someone else, they’re also likely to mirror that energy themselves.

Studies show that, as humans, stress triggers our bodies to release cortisol, a hormone that effectively kicks our metabolism and immune response into high gear. The same goes for our dogs.

A 2019 study from the academic journal Scientific Reports found that a human with high cortisol levels (and is therefore highly stressed) is likely to also have a dog who mirrors similarly high levels of cortisol.

This isn't because your cortisol is contagious. More so, when internal stressors are left to fester, they manifest into visibly external cues like nail biting, sweating, irritability, and pacing. Your dog then observes and mentally decodes these ticks, begins feeling stressed themselves, and takes on your stress as their own. It’s one of those unfortunate but endearing ways they show you they care.

If this sounds like you, don’t panic. Other takeaways from the study indicate that the solution is mutually assured:

• If you’re a naturally anxious or neurotic person, don’t feel discouraged. There’s an abundance of research that shows that owning a dog helps humans alleviate anxiety, stress, depression, and social isolation on a fundamental level. In a survey of pet owners, 74% of pet owners reported mental health improvements from pet ownership. 75% of pet owners reported a friend’s or family member’s mental health has improved from pet ownership. When you’re better, they tend to stay better too.

• The study shows that this behavioral mirroring isn’t isolated or static. Just like any old married couple, your interpersonal instincts will grow as you grow. Over time, you’ll learn to anticipate situations that consistently trigger your dog — summer storms, trips to the vet, the likes, incompatible breeds, the likes. Likewise, your dog will take your behaviors to heart. Proving you’re a reliable presence, mitigating reactions to “no big deals,” and building healthy nonverbal language will help you rehabilitate your stress and your dog’s in one swoop.

Ultimately, the best takeaway is understanding just how psychologically and mentally compatible dog-to-human partnership is.

• How you each respond and react to the world around you shapes the other’s personality and behavior forever. Neither of you are fixed — rather, you work together as a team to bring out the best in each other. There’s something really beautiful about that.