Dogs can recognize when humans are crying and show emotional responses to our distress. Scientific research reveals dogs have genuine empathetic abilities, not just learned behaviors, and understanding this helps us better care for their mental health.
If you have a furry best friend by your side, you may have seen them feel the pain you're suffering and try to comfort you. The truth is that dogs are social animals that understand and empathize with those around them. In this video from Animal Expert, we explain whether it's true that dogs feel people's pain. From a scientific point of view, do they know how to differentiate our emotions? A study by Goldsmiths University showed that dogs are able to distinguish crying from other moods. Furthermore, they try to comfort the person regardless of whether it's their human best friend or someone else. The study was conducted by a group of psychologists led by Deborah Custins and Jennifer Meir. The research consisted of subjecting 18 dogs of different breeds to three different emotions carried out by different people. The three emotions were talking, humming and crying. When faced with the first emotion talking, the dogs showed indifference. When the people started humming, they showed curiosity, nervousness and excitement. Finally, when people cried, dogs felt great empathy. That translated into sadness. They approached them in a submissive attitude and sought physical contact to try to alleviate the sadness they observed in the person. The experiment revealed that yes, dogs feel people's pain. We feel their pain just as we feel emotion. When we think that our dog understands us, we must be able to understand them too. To do this, it will be useful to observe them at all times to know if they eat, play, sleep and react normally. If we understand our dog, we will be able to detect any symptoms of discomfort or sadness in time. Don't forget that dogs can also suffer from depression or mental health problems. For this reason, if you notice sadness in your furry friend, it would be ideal to try to improve their day to day life with games and activities that improve your complicity. A good way to improve the relationship between dog and human is by teaching them new tricks. As long as they are rewarded for this, we use the positive reinforcement technique. Up here, we'll leave you a video in which we explain everything you need to know about dog language so that you can understand your furry friend perfectly. Tell us when you've noticed that your dog sensed your emotions. Until next time, experts.
