Man's stressed friend
Tense dog owners pass their anxiety on to their beloved canine companions
When dog owners go through a stressful period, they're not alone in feeling the pressure — their dogs feel it too.
Dog owners experiencing long bouts of stress can transfer it to their dogs through their emotional bond, which appears to be strengthened by canine training.
Researchers measured the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the hair of both dogs and their owners, and found that they changed shifted up and down in tandem.
Researchers from Linköping University in Sweden focused on 58 women who owned either border collies or Shetland sheepdogs. They examined hair from the dog owners and their canine pals, looking at the concentrations of cortisol, a chemical released into the bloodstream and absorbed by hair follicles in response to stress.
Depression, excessive physical exercise and unemployment are just a few examples of stress that can influence the amount of cortisol found in your hair, said lead author Lina Roth. The research team found that the patterns of cortisol levels in the hair of dog owners closely matched that found in their dogs in both winter and summer months, indicating their stress levels were in sync.
Dr Roth thinks the owners are influencing the dogs rather than the other way around, because several human personality traits appear to affect canine cortisol levels, whereas the dog's personality had no major effect on their longterm stress.
The researchers are unsure what causes the synchronisation in cortisol levels between humans and their pups — yet a hint might lie in the fact that the link is stronger with competitive dogs than in pet pooches. The bond formed between owner and competitive dogs during training may increase the canines' emotional reliance on their owners. That, in turn, could increase the degree of synchronisation.
But why do people influence their dogs, rather than vice versa?
Perhaps people are 'a more central part of the dog's life, whereas we humans also have other social networks,' Dr Roth said in an email.
The study results are no surprise, said Alicia Buttner, director of animal behaviour with the Nebraska Humane Society in Omaha. 'New evidence is continually emerging showing that people and their dogs have incredibly close bonds that resemble the ones that parents share with their children,' she said.
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Scientific Reports.